Installation of a water heated floor with their own hands: video, diagrams, technology

Contents

1. Advantages and disadvantages of water heated floors
2. Preparatory work
3. Required materials
4. Types of technologies for installing underfloor heating
5. Concrete screed for underfloor heating
6. Polystyrene underfloor heating technology
7. Warm construction for you
8. In conclusion,

Today, the arrangement of underfloor heating is a great way to make your home warmer. Often the warm floor becomes not an additional element in the heating system, but quite independent. Among all types of water-heated floor is very popular, which is the most economical and efficient. To get a quality system of warm floors at home, it is better to turn to proven and reputable companies, for example, the company Atmosphere of Comfort. But you can independently try to cope with this task.



Advantages and disadvantages of water heated floors

Water-heated flooring is different for with a number of advantages of , among which are:

• low material costs for installation and operation;
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• floor over the entire area is heated uniformly;
• can warm a house of a very decent area, but at the same time save a lot on heating fees;
• lack of visible heating radiators - plus the attractiveness of the interior;
• the ability to adjust the temperature yourself.

It is fair to say that such a system of heated floors has not been without some drawbacks, but most of them can be minimized with proper installation of the entire system:

• some difficulties in arranging the entire system of water heated floors;
• need to use a water pump;
• there is a risk of leakage, and it can be very difficult to find;
• pressure in the riser slightly, but decreases.

The possibility of leakage can be reduced by not using metal pipes that quickly corrode. Excellent alternative - metal, plastic, polybutylene. All this materials that can faithfully serve you for 50 years.

Preparatory work

Before you begin the installation of a warm water floor, it is necessary to carry out all the necessary measurements and calculations to find out the optimal power. This indicator depends on many factors: the area of ​​the room, the floor, the quality of the insulation of the walls, the area of ​​the glazing, etc.

If the apartment is located on the first or last floor, there is a balcony, a window to the floor or a bay window, the walls are poorly insulated, or you plan to use thick ceramic plates as a floor covering, then it is better to have a more powerful type of warm floors.

After this, the base is prepared for laying the floor heating system itself. The old coating must be removed, and if there is a floor drop of more than 10 mm, an additional screed is necessary( self-leveling mixtures can be used), otherwise the heating system may not work correctly and the heating will be uneven.

Required materials

For the arrangement of the warm water floor system the necessary materials and tools such as are:

• pipes for a warm water floor - the first thing to take care of. They can be made of polyethylene or polypropylene. Polyethylene pipes expand less when exposed to heat, so they are preferable, but if polypropylene pipes are covered with fiberglass, they will expand less. The optimum diameter of the pipes is 16-20 mm, they must withstand temperatures up to 95 degrees and pressures up to 10 bar;
• collector and shield for it. The collector should be in the same room where the floor heating system is installed, so it is important to choose an aesthetic shield for it;
• reinforcement mesh;
• plastic clamps for attaching the tubes to the valve;
• screed materials;
• boiler for heating the coolant - water. Almost any boiler will do; it’s only important that he know how to heat water at 30-400С, because it is not always necessary that the floors be hot, because it is impossible to walk on them. That is why the main factor when choosing a boiler for a system of warm water floors is the range of its working temperatures, so gas, electric, dual-circuit, wood and other options can be considered;
• injection pump, if it is not included in the boiler;
• clamps for fastening pipes to the reinforcing mesh and fittings for connecting pipes to the manifold.

Types of installation technology of a water heated floor

Water floor can be mounted in two different ways :

1. Concrete technology is associated with some difficulties and considerable time costs. But despite this, it remains quite popular due to its other attractive qualities. This method requires the arrangement of a concrete screed, into which the heating elements are mounted. The final floor covering can be laid only after the concrete has completely hardened, and the duration of its hardening depends on the thickness and can reach 28 days.
2. The flooring technology avoids the dirty and “wet” processes associated with laying concrete and waiting for it to solidify. Here, ready-made materials are used, which allows to save time and simplify the whole process. The reverse side of the medal - a large waste on the purchase of several layers of laid material. Depending on what material is chosen for laying, this technology can be polystyrene, modular wooden or slatted wooden.

Concrete screed for underfloor heating

At present, this method of arranging a floor heating system is the most common .

First you need to lay thermal insulation layer on the prepared surface, and you need to do this as well as possible so that the heat from the tubes with heat carrier does not go down, but only goes to the floor heating in the apartment. For these purposes, foam, penoplex, or penostole are most often used, and its thickness should be from 30 to 150 mm, depending on what thermal loads are planned. You can use special mats, in which there are mechanisms of fixation, so working with them is easier, but they are more expensive.

Experts advise choosing insulation depending on the features of the room and what role the heated floors will play in the general heating system. So, if a warm floor is only an additional element of the heating system at home, then foamed polyethylene will come off, but always with a reflective foil coating. If there is a heated room under the apartment, then you can use sheets of expanded polystyrene 2-5 cm thick. If the apartment is located on the ground floor, if there is a basement under it, then it is better to use a more serious insulation - expanded clay or expanded polystyrene 5-10 cm thick. Insulators for underfloor heating: they are a bit more expensive, but they already have grooves for laying heating pipes.

. As an waterproofing layer, uses a polyethylene film that is laid over the foam. Next, turn for the damper belt, which is necessary in order to compensate for possible thermal expansion of the screed. It is laid around the perimeter of the room to the entire height of the screed for underfloor heating.

Then you need to reinforce the prepared foundation for a warm floor. For this you can use a grid with cells 15-20 cm and with a cross-section of 5 mm rods. If there is a desire and need to get a warm floor "for ages" and maximally strengthen the entire structure, then reinforcement can be carried out after the installation of heating pipes.

The installation of heating pipes can be done in several ways: :

• with an coil. This option is perfect for more spacious rooms, it allows you to evenly distribute the heat across the floor, but also requires a more careful approach. With such a pattern of laying pipes with hot and cold water alternate, which affects the uniformity of temperature distribution: here the cold zones are located next to warm ones. The spiral method of laying pipes is also more profitable from the point of view that there are fewer corners and turns, which means that water will be much easier to flow. With this method, laying per square meter of floor space approximately takes up 5 linear meters of pipes, if the distance between the pipes is 20 cm. For external walls, the distance between the pipes should be reduced to reduce heat loss and provide the room with maximum comfort. Spiral pipe mounting is a more laborious process that requires adhering to exact distances. There are software resources that allow you to accurately calculate the location of each turn of the spiral, depending on the area and configuration of the room;
• snake. The pipe first runs along the perimeter of the walls, and then wavyly goes back. Installation of this option is simpler, does not require special calculations, is less time consuming, but it will be much more difficult to obtain a uniform distribution of heat;
• combined pipe-laying combines zones with pipe-laying in a spiral and snake.

If the room is large, you will have to provide several separate heating loops. The pitch between the pipes depends on what effect you need to get: if the heated floor is the only source of heat in the apartment, this distance should not exceed 20 cm, if this is just an element of the heating system, then pipes can be laid in 30 incrementscm, but no more.

In order for the to independently determine the best location of the pipes, it is better to pre-plan. It is convenient to do this on a regular piece of paper in a box, where, on a scale that takes into account all the nuances of room planning, a system of future warm floors is drawn. It is necessary to take into account not only all the projections and depressions in the room, but also how the furniture will be located, or at least part of it, because it will be inappropriate to heat these parts. Examples of creating pipe layouts in a spiral manner are shown in the figures, but people with certain experience will be able to create such correctly. Therefore, the development of the entire system of warm floors with the definition of power, length and step is better to entrust the specialists, and everything else can be done with your own hands.

The pipes are fixed to the fittings with the help of special clamps: this is a very simple process, and the distance between the different fastenings should be about 1 m. Do not try to tighten the clamps too much: when heated, the pipes may slightly expand. Places with expansion joints are additionally put on corrugated pipes so that the heating pipes are protected as much as possible from possible damage. Begin to lay pipes from the walls, moving to the center or to the opposite wall.

The final point in the pipe-laying process is their testing, or pressure testing. Conduct it after the floor heating system is connected to the collector, as read below. It is necessary in order to detect possible places with damages, leaks, and replace them in time before mounting the coupler. Such testing is carried out for at least 24 hours at a pressure of 3-4 bar.

When it is precisely verified that the floor heating system is airtight, you can proceed to mounting the concrete screed. Fill it to a height of 3-7 cm, in order to finally get the most even surface. To do this, it is better to use beacons, and to level the concrete solution by them.

The screed will harden for a maximum of 28 days, until the concrete attains its brand strength. During this period, include a system of warm floors can not be. It is possible to turn on the heating only after the screed finally froze, and not immediately at maximum power, but gradually increase the temperature over a period of three to four days.

For screed use a special mixture for underfloor heating or peskobeton brand M300.

As flooring over warm floors, it is better to use the materials that best conduct heat, and this is a laminate, ceramic tile or linoleum. If the plans include parquet or laminate flooring, you should pay attention to the options that can be used in the system of underfloor heating: manufacturers indicate this on the packaging.

Polystyrene technology laying

floor heating The advantage of this method is that there are no all the dirty processes that are typical for concrete screed. At the same time, it is possible to significantly save time on laying the heated floor, and the height of the room at the same time practically does not sneak due, again, to the absence of a screed. The polystyrene plates here play the role of a reliable heat-insulating material, and this method is indispensable when the concrete screed does not withstand the load, or the ceilings are already low, and those 10-15 cm that will be used to install the concrete screed can really save the situation.

Polystyrene plates are laid on the prepared and leveled and leveled surface, and aluminum plates are laid on them. They have special grooves for laying pipes, such plates should cover about 80% of the floor: thanks to them, the heat will be distributed evenly. In the recesses of the plates are placed heating pipes. Sheets of gypsum-fiber plates are laid on top of them: one sheet is enough, if laminate or linoleum is used as a topcoat, but if parquet or heavy ceramic tile is used, then it is better to use two sheets.

Polystyrene technology is applicable on a concrete or wooden base. It will not work only if there are no concrete floors in the house.

Wooden laying technology for underfloor heating

This method is indispensable for wooden houses where there is no concrete flooring at all. Depending on some nuances, there are two options: modular and rack.

Modular technology

This technology provides for the installation of a layer of thermal insulation, on top of which is laid on fibreboards. They are pre-cut grooves for mounting aluminum plates and pipes in the future. Then install aluminum plates and fix the pipes in them with special latches. Aluminum plates here as well as in the previous case, contribute to the uniform distribution of heat.

Gypsum-fiber sheets are laid on top of the laid pipe system, and only then the topcoat can be laid.

Rack and Pinion Technology

A thinner layer of thermal insulation is used here than in the previous method, so the mass of the entire floor heating system is even smaller, which makes it possible to use such a system on the second floor of a wooden house.

Mineral wool or polystyrene foam, which is placed between the ceiling beams, is used as a heater. On top of the insulation stack slats are 2.8 cm wide, and the distance between them is 2 cm. Already aluminum plates with corresponding grooves are laid in the prepared rack base, and pipes are laid in them.

At the end - laying gypsum-fiber sheets and finishing.

Installation of the collector group

In general, the collector should be mounted on the wall after the floor is pre-aligned so that the installed pipes can be easily and quickly connected to it and check the entire system. We will consider this stage separately. It is worth noting that the surface of the wall for optimal operation of the equipment must be perfectly horizontal, and to check you need to use a laser level.

Whatever installation technology of warm water floors may be chosen, you still need to install a collector. It is easy to find it in the store, and for independent work it is better to choose a ready assembled collector with a flap: it is only important to know the number of leads, and this depends on the number of circuits. After installation, it is necessary to connect the supply and return pipe to it: the first goes from the boiler and carries hot water into the system, which gives some of its heat to the floor covering and returns to the return pipe through the cooled one, is fed back into the boiler, where it heats up and the cycle repeats. A pump for pumping and pumping water may be needed if it is not built into the boiler.

The collector box is installed in the same room where the floor heating system is installed, and try to place it as close as possible to the center of the room and lower, near the floor. Collector cabinet mounted in a wall or put right next to it, it all depends on what kind of water supply you have: open or closed.

Shut-off valves are fixed to the supply and return pipes, which allow water to be shut off when heating is not needed or when some repairs are being carried out. To connect the heating pipe and the stop valve, use a compressor fitting. Now it is necessary to connect a collector to the valve, and on the one hand to install the air vent, and on the other - the drain valve. For precise control of the water temperature in a warm field, there should be special valves or even mixers in the collector cabinet.

In conclusion,

The final step in the installation of a system of warm water floors becomes the arrangement of the finishing coating and enjoying the work done. Properly equipped heated floors make it possible for a long time to go without repairs, and in winter it is comfortable indoors and even walk barefoot on the floor.