It is impossible not to recognize the wide spread in recent times of this type of space heating, like underfloor heating. They can be used almost everywhere - in the kitchen, bathroom, hallway or living room. They can be the main type of heating, but most often serve as an additional source of heat. And sometimes the owners of even old, long-built apartments wonder how to make warm floors, because they are unable to provide the desired level of comfort in other ways.
What to choose from?
For a resident of an urban high-rise building, there is practically no choice - only electric floors. But here's how to make underfloor heating with electricity - there is a choice here. There are usually several widely used technologies based on different types of heating elements. Most often they are:
- heating cable;
- heating mat;
- infrared film.
The most time-consuming to manufacture will be floors using a heated cable or, as they are called, cable floors. Their disadvantage is the need to make a cement screed so that the cable is located in its volume.
How to make a warm floor without additional screed? To do this, use a thermomat as a heating element. This is the name of a thin cable located on a synthetic mesh. To lay it, it is enough to spread a similar grid on the floor and lay the floor covering on top.
There is another option, how to make warm floors. In this case, a special film is used, inside which special conductive paths are located. When an electric current flows through them, infrared radiation occurs, which heats the room.
How to do it?
If you are wondering how to make an electric floor, then you must first choose one of the options above. The choice must be justified and take into account the installation features of each type of floor. For a better understanding of the features of the technology of laying floors of each type, a brief summary of each of them will be given below.
How to make a cable heated floor
The technology of manufacturing heated floors described below can be considered classical and, with a sufficiently high labor intensity, provides a good result. The floor on which the heating system will be installed must be prepared. It should be smooth, it should not have pits and potholes. To bring the floor to the desired state, you may have to perform a cement screed.
Before you make an electric underfloor heating, you need to plan how and where the cable will be laid.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that the cable should be laid only on areas of the floor free from furniture and household appliances. If the cable is single-core, then its second end must be brought to the place where laying begins, if it is two-core, then a special coupling must be installed at the second end. After the cable laying is planned, it is necessary to determine the place for the thermostat and punch a strobe from it along the wall, into which the wires to the temperature sensor and the power circuit to the cable will be laid in the future.
They begin work by laying thermal insulation on the floor, which can be used as expanded polystyrene and other similar materials. It is necessary to bring thermal insulation from the floor to the walls, to a height of fifteen to twenty centimeters. After laying the thermal insulation, a cement screed with a thickness of at least three centimeters is performed.
After it hardens, foil is laid on top of it. On top of the foil, special mounting tapes designed for attaching the cable should be fixed. They are arranged perpendicularly to the direction of cable laying, in increments of fifty centimeters, fastening to the floor is done with self-tapping screws or other similar methods.
After that, start laying the cable. It starts from the location of the thermostat and is carried out in accordance with a previously drawn up plan. When passing through the mounting tape, the cable is attached to the clamps on it, which provides it with the necessary immobility. After laying the cable, it remains to place the temperature sensor in its place and connect everything to the thermostat.
The laid cable is poured with a cement screed. When it hardens, you can make a finishing floor covering, most often tile is used for this.
How to make underfloor heating with heating mats
It has already been noted above - for a cable floor, the disadvantage is an additional cement screed. Such a floor heating technology is often unacceptable, and in this case the question becomes relevant - how to make a warm floor at home without an additional screed that reduces the height of the apartment. One option is the floor using heating mats.
Their installation is simpler and less laborious than the installation of cable heating. A feature of thermomats is that their power depends on the heating area. Those. to select the desired size, you first need to determine the area that needs to be heated, and then the required size of the heated floor from the thermomat is selected from this area.
Work begins on the creation of a warm floor with its planning, during which it is determined where and how the heaters will be laid, as well as the installation location of the thermostat. A strobe is made from the floor to this place in the wall, where the wires from the temperature sensor and the power wires for thermomats will then be laid.
Thermomats are laid on a clean, prepared surface. This is done simply - roll out the roll in the right place, if necessary, change the direction, cut the mesh without damaging the cable, and change the direction of the layout. The thermomat is attached to the floor with adhesive tape. When laying, it is impossible to cut the cable, as well as to allow it to overlap and damage the insulation. It is necessary to connect the sensor and the thermomats themselves to the temperature controller, and the warm floor is ready. A floor covering is laid on top of it, which can be parquet, laminate, tile, porcelain stoneware, etc.
