Radiant Ready Basements

dorothy

Does anyone have experience with radiant ready basements in
new construction? Please advise,refer to articles or discuss
personal experience.

Mark Eatherton1

Radiant Ready Response...

As a Wirsbo HCT person, I am very familiar with the atributes of Radiant Ready. It is not unlike any other radiant, and it is even more important that this type of system be done by an extremely professional hydronic heating contractor. EVERYTHING has to be documented, and at some point, some thermostat wires installed. It's kinda nice knowing where everything goes.

I've been stuck in basements for WEEKS trying to figure out tube layout patterns, and it NEVER matches the end users choice.

You need some kind of an idea about what you intend to do with the final product in order to properly rough it in. In other words, rooms, walls, doors windows etc.

I've offered Radiant Ready to a major player in Denver Metro housing, and they shirked. Said they didn't need any other "problems" to deal with. I'm still working on them:-)

As with any major investment, do your home work. Follow through with referrals, and go look at thier finished product. Make sure they can not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk.

Find A Professinal on this web site is an excellent resource, but I'd still recommend you do full due dilligence even on a referral from them. Dan has no control over who signs up. They are NOT prescreened.

Heck, I recommend my customer do due dilligence on ME!!

And those that do don't always hire me. That's life...

Good luck in your ventures and let us know how it goes:-)

ME

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Weezbo

hello.

Today in North Pole Alaska as we near the summer solistice we experience about closest thing to direct sunlight that can be found on planet earth...or it is like 90 in the shade if you could find any:)))....now this is the crux of the idea.....unlike making a new home radiant ready i have considered the eco opposite,putting in underground loops that "Shed" heat from a home...........The ground water here is about a fairly constant 34 degrees all year round,the ground temps 4 feet under the earth suffer very minor fluxuations and are only slightly warmer,in other words we are Lousy with cold in alaska..we got Plenty cold...For Free:) so, i consider this idea every summer,although i have yet to take advantage of it as mostly i do work on "Spec Homes"........to me it seems a perfectly sane idea however,to simply place the pipe in the ground on a wish and a prayer dosent particularily grab me as a "Great Idea".............................. Now ,...experience tells me that when someone else has placed the tubing in the slab and i inherit it,my ability to see where the stuff goes and how long it may be per loop requires a lot of Guess work. now were one to have a lay out of the radiant in the slab ,and the exact loop lenghts ones ability to correctly accertain the applicabilities woulld be greatly enhanced!:) or to put it another way,"Were I Psychic like EVERYBODY Else around Here i wouldnt Have these problems":) ....really i have been extremely lucky in makinging educated guesses in the past,everything from air craft hangers to garage slabs....however it is Pure Luck. Personally I think the idea is one that will end up a loss rather than a gain.
Having said that if you mean to get YOUR slab Radiant Ready well here is the advise for you,do it, do it right .
....get a heat loss analysis done First. then find a live body who actually Know the ins and out and how to do it correctly. He or She will work right along side with you and you will have it placed correctly. take into consideration zoning on large slabs or variant useage areas .insulate insulate insulate.Take Pictures . take the time to record loop length ,...keep crossing back and forth under partition walls down to a dull roar especially when the contractor building your home "OWNS" a Hilti:) bring the Tails into a 2X6 wall (wet wall) delineiate supply sides from returns,especially if you do any zoning. be prepared to pull some of it up and rearrange it a couplea times as you are best served by keeping the loop lengths the identical same lengths,so you just make sure not to be too Quick to cut.... put the lengths In the slab:) . I had a Lady ask me to come install a boiler yet she didnt know what lengths or where they went when i asked,...then she InFormed me that it "Was done By experts at a local plumbing company and was exactly what it should be! " ok snippier and snippier she became so ,..."Then why dont you call Them to install it ?" apparently my having the only license of its kind in 500 square miles is insufficent for her ....so i had to defer....:))) Another Lady and i placed three story home and garage together and her sweat equity saved her some dollars:) I like to work With individuals who do thier homework and arent lazy and who like to do Good work............i hope somewhwere in there was an answer you can use for whatever idea you are contemplating. Good Luck.

Constantin

Excellent Points!

However, I wouldn't stop at just documenting the heck out of radiant systems, such documentation should be mandatory for all major utilities. I still do not understand why an "as-built" drawing is not required for all construction jobs.

I still remember hearing about a installer who 'discovered' a 600V main while cutting a slab in a new factory. According to the design plan, he was in the right place. However, whoever had installed the main had shifted it's position by 5' without telling anyone. The kid paid for that oversight with his life.

Granted, hydronics are not nearly as exciting as 600V mains. However, the loops should follow the floorplan, if possible. For example, in our house, I designed the system so we have pretty much 1 loop per room, so that should simplify the control strategy somewhat.

As a homeowner, I would consider a 'radiant-ready' floor to be a bigger risk than a hooked-up 'radiant-floor'. Who knows what happens to contractors, etc. between the time the slab is poured and the time you decide to hook up the radiant system? It's not a risk I would take as a homeowner.

Lastly, it seems inefficient to have a 'ready' floor and not to use it. Are you going to freeze down there? Install radiators? Presumably, there is a reason you'd install radiant heating in the first place. If the heating is not needed, omit it. If it is needed, use it!

Don Walsh

Radiant ready floors

Dorothy, I do about 50 radiant ready basement floors a year, and the number is growing as more general contractors see the value added feature of it. I installed the first system in a house that the contractor was going to live in, at no charge. Once he moved in and could appreciate the comfort of the system, he signed on to do RR in every house he builds. (and he paid me for his system too!) If you have specific questions, please ask them, perhaps we can provide an answer for you.

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jim lockard

As Builts they do not even require electrical/mechinical drawing here in Virginia. Heat loss cal, duct design not here not yet. Lucky if the house gets sited correctly. J.Lockard

Weezbo

Jim

I am not really into Picking on someone who isnt around to speak for thier self buh....some big time contractors wheelin out 1000's a homes a year have managed on more than one occassion to build the wrong house the wrong way on the wrong lot:) not Pickin:)