If you want your house to be warm and comfortable in winter, then the best solution for you is a warm water floor device, which is a grid of hot water pipelines built into a concrete screed and heating it. A warm pipeline is able to evenly warm the floor and the lower layer of air in your room. Thanks to this, in the cold, your feet will not freeze, and you will be happy to walk barefoot, as it is not only very pleasant, but also very useful.
Let's look at what a warm water floor device is. The underfloor heating, which was self-assembled, resembles a layered structure. Professional installers refer to this structure as a "floor pie". So, the device of a warm water floor consists of:
- The base layer can be a concrete slab, or a rough wooden floor;
- Waterproofing, supplemented around the perimeter with a damper tape;
- Thermal insulation, which is a protection that prevents the penetration of heat in a wrong direction;
- Warm water floor, a device that directly heats the entire room;
- Concrete mortar;
- Finish flooring.
The thickness of the entire structure, first of all, depends on the thickness of the insulation layer used and the power of the screed, as well as on the diameter of the pipelines used to create a warm water floor.
At the same time, the thickness of the entire “pie” as a whole should fit within 7-15 cm. Therefore, the whole construction scheme of this type of floor and its installation are elementary. And if you responsibly approach the execution of the installation of each layer, then the device will delight you with its work for many years.
Read more about how the underfloor heating device looks like
The technology of installing a water-heated floor initially involves the dismantling of the old floor covering to the very foundation. It is allowed to assemble a warm water floor only on a clean and dry base. At the same time, for any part of it, a maximum height difference of not more than 0.5 cm is allowed. Otherwise, when the base of the floor has significant vertical differences, it is necessary to initially level it. To do this, you can apply both a layer of low-quality concrete, and lay a new concrete screed on top of it, which will be a much better solution.
We cover the prepared base with waterproofing material. To create high-quality vapor and waterproofing, it is advised to use a polyethylene film thicker than 250 microns. It is hardly possible to find a film equal to the area that your room has. Therefore, the panels of such a film must be overlapped. It is worth noting that such an overlap should be about 12 cm, connecting the seam with adhesive tape. At the same time, it is necessary to make a film on the walls, thereby creating a kind of “trough”. At the end of all preparatory work, the excess waterproofing film is cut off with a knife.
Laying a polyethylene film on a rough concrete screed In order to avoid, in places where the warm water floor is adjacent to the walls of the room, the formation of a "cold bridge", it is necessary to paste over the perimeter of the walls with a special damper tape.
Such a tape has a compensating effect against the thermal expansion of the screed, protecting it from all kinds of damage in close contact with vertical structures.
The arrangement of warm water floors on the first floors of multi-storey buildings implies a fairly thick layer of thermal insulation, which should be at least 50 mm. If you live on any floor other than the first floor, then 20mm will be sufficient. thermal insulation.
The most practical and high-quality material for ensuring reliable thermal insulation of the base under the device of a heated water floor is today recognized as penofol. The technology of its production combined the heat-insulating properties of expanded polystyrene with the excellent heat-reflecting characteristics of aluminum. In addition to the most important qualities, Penofol insulation is a flame-retardant, environmentally friendly material that does not absorb moisture.
But, if you want to make it easier for yourself to install a heated floor, you can turn your attention to profiled heat-insulating plates, which are made of polymeric materials that are quite dense and can withstand significant loads without deformation. The surface of such plates has a specific profile shape, which makes it possible to fix the pipelines of the structure without the use of unnecessary fasteners. Such plates are assembled as a laminate "in the castle".
Pipeline laying process
The underfloor heating device has two types of piping use:
- Metal-plastic pipeline;
- High density polyethylene pipeline.
The most important advantage of a polyethylene pipeline is its high strength. It, unlike the metal-plastic pipeline, practically does not bend, which reduces the risk of cracking and further deformation to zero.
A metal-plastic pipeline has different heat transfer parameters, heating the floor more efficiently than a polyethylene pipeline.
It is necessary to pay special attention to some rules that need to be considered when installing a pipeline grid:
- The pipelines of the grid of a warm water floor in the coolest part of the room are usually laid more densely. Near windows and external walls, it is better to make the run-up between the stacked branches of pipelines smaller, and pipelines can be laid at large intervals in the center of the room and near internal walls;
- When laying the pipeline near the walls, it is necessary to make an indent of about 15 cm;
The minimum run-up between pipelines is limited by technology to 10 cm, and the maximum should not be higher than 30 cm;
- The maximum length of the circuit should not be more than 100m, otherwise, the arrangement of a warm water floor will not be effective;
- During the laying of the pipeline in those places where the joints of the floor slabs are located, the pipeline must be protected with a special metal sleeve. The length of such a metal sleeve must be more than 30 cm;
For the correct installation of the laying of the pipeline grid for such a floor, a scheme for installing a water-heated floor is used. The most popular are "snake", "zigzag", "spiral". Each of these schemes has its own advantages, but the choice of one or another scheme is entirely up to you.
It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that if the installation of water-heated floors provides for the creation of several circuits, then it is necessary to provide a place in the room for installing a distribution cabinet where all circuits will be connected.
Underfloor heating system test
After installation and connection to a heat supply source, it is necessary to start the so-called “pressure testing” of the pipeline, in other words, a hydraulic test of a warm water floor. For such purposes, hot water is alternately supplied through the collector system to each circuit.
Inside the pipeline, along with the air, there may be a lot of construction dust, which will definitely damage the automatic air vents.
To avoid such damage, release the air contained inside the pipeline using special water drain valves.
The technology for installing warm water floors involves testing the working pressure within one day. It is possible to start installation of the final concrete screed if no signs of leaks were detected during these days.
Finishing screed
Now you know how a water heated floor works and it's time to deal with the installation of the finishing screed, which plays an important role in the overall process of arranging floor water floors. Installation of a surface finishing concrete screed, after installing a network of pipelines heated by a floor, is carried out as follows.
