New system design help

Radiant Flooring

Radiant flooring is the most comfortable heating system around. Forced air is aweful, baseboard is better, in-floor is best. As for installing in sections, the main work to be done is the mechanical system.

Baseboard requires a higher supply temperature than staple-up in floor heating(tubing stapled under the floor in joist bays, sometimes with aluminum radiator panels to disburse heat), which also requires a higher supply temperature than slab in-floor (tube stapled to floor and light weight gypcrete poured over it to create a radiant mass.) Whatever combination of these types of heat you would prefer, will determine what installation work must be done initially to the mech. system piping. The staple up manifold would be seperate from a slab manifold, which would be different from a regular baseboard supply and return off the boiler.

If you choose in-floor (gypcrete is preferred in most cases) plan for the extra zones by having the installer add additional taps to the in floor manifold and valve them off, so that at a later date you can add the zone valve, thermostat, infloor tubing, and have heat with minimal fuss. The simplest, and therefore most cost-effective systems have one type of heat, though I must admit to filling garage walls with two injection manifolds(1 staple up, 1 slab), and regular baseboard piping, and indirect water heater piping on occasion. Hope this helps.