How to make a warm floor in a bath so that it is warm in winter?

The warm floor not only ensures a pleasant stay for visitors in the bath, but also makes it possible to quickly dry the room after spending time. In the steam room itself, it makes no sense to lay a heating system, but it is well suited to insulate the rest room, washing room or locker room. It is not safe to use warm electric floors in rooms with high humidity. A wonderful choice for a bath will be a water heating system. How to make a warm floor in a bathhouse so that it is warm in winter, we will consider in detail in this article.

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General principle

Water floors can be made in several ways, which we will describe in detail below. All of them are based on the same principle, the difference is only in the materials used:

• Under the floor covering is placed a flexible pipe wrapping around the entire area of ​​the room, through which hot water passes.
• The length of each of these pipes should not be more than 100 m, and the distance between the turns of the spiral into which it fits should not exceed 40 cm. This condition allows you to cover one floor with a floor area of ​​not more than 15 square meters. m
• If the area of ​​the room is larger, then several pipes are used. Floor area of ​​30 square meters. m needs laying two zones of underfloor heating, each of 15 square meters. m
• Thus, two pipes come out already. Their ends are led into a manifold cabinet, where they are combined into one pipe. Having supplied the heat carrier heated from the boiler or stove, the temperature of the entire floor will begin to increase.

Important! The collector cabinet should be in a place where it will be most convenient to output the ends of the pipes from all areas of the warm floor.

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Wooden floor heating

The wooden floor is quite simple. A flexible pipe is laid in the grooves between the wooden planks, which are the basis for flooring.

Important! It is necessary that the grooves are not narrower than 2 cm, otherwise the pipe will not fit in them.

Planks are made of chipboard, but you can use other material, for example, a wooden board, however, it will turn out more expensive.

Laying wood floor heating

In order to make a warm floor in the bath with your own hands, so that it is warm in the winter, follow the instructions:

1. Prepare the base. The floor must be even and clean.
2. Fasten the grate from the timber. Each cell needs to be a square with a side of 60 cm.
3. Fill sheets of plywood or fiberboard onto the grate.
4. Such a raised floor is necessary in order to lay a vapor barrier on it.
5. Lay mineral wool on top.
6. Lay the boards between which the pipe will bend. It is necessary that the height of the boards is at least 2 cm.
7. Place the foil in the grooves so that it does not let heat down. Lay the pipe on the foil.
8. Route the pipe ends to the manifold cabinet.
9. Lay the flooring.

Important! Fasten the foil into the grooves using a stapler or small studs. If you used fiberboard as a raised floor, then foil can be glued to its native and smooth surface using double-sided tape.

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Polystyrene hot water floor

The basis for making a warm water floor with your own hands in a bath is assembled from polystyrene plates with ready-made grooves for laying pipes with a coolant on them.Between the pipe and the plates, special plates are inserted that distribute heat.

Important! The design is low and light, not taking up a lot of height from a room with a low ceiling.

Installation of a polystyrene system:

1. First, a layer of thermal insulation is laid. You can use mineral wool.
2. Plates are stacked from the far corner. It is important to ensure that the grooves that result between them coincide.
3. Plates are inserted into the grooves that distribute heat.
4. A flexible pipe is inserted into the plate.
5. At the end, the system is checked and the floor covering is laid.

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Concrete water floor heating

This option is considered the most common in order to make a warm water floor with your own hands in the bath. In short, it is such a sequence of layers:

1. Concrete screed.
2. Polyethylene film.
3. Insulation layer.
4. Flexible pipe in a concrete layer.
5. Flooring.

Important! As thermal insulation, it is better to use mineral wool or penoplex.

It is necessary to add special additives to concrete, for example, those that are used for laying pools, otherwise the screed will crack due to sudden temperature changes.

Working process

First you need to prepare the basis on which the flexible pipe will be laid. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Make a concrete screed with a slope towards the drain of water. The angle of inclination should be no more than 10 degrees.
2. To protect against moisture, cover the screed with plastic wrap.
3. Place mineral wool or penoplex on the film for insulation.
4. Make holes in the insulation and install beacons in them for future screed.
5. On top of the heater, lay a metal mesh with square cells, 10 by 10 cm in size.

Important! On the perimeter of the walls below you need to lay a tape of polyurethane foam. It will be able to compensate for the expansion of concrete during heating, and it does not crack. This will be a soft membrane between the screed and the walls.

As a rule, pipes are sold in baboons. They need not be removed in turns, but unwound gradually and immediately fixed with clamps, placing them on each meter. The clamps should not be tightened, otherwise - the pipes will have nowhere to expand.

Now you need to lay the pipe in a spiral. In doing so, consider the following:

1. A distance of about 40 cm should remain between the pipes. At least 25 cm between the walls and pipes.
2. The pipe should be laid taking into account the minimum radius of its bend. It is equal to the diameter of the pipe times 5.
3. Now connect the pipes in the manifold cabinet.
4. Test the whole system.
5. You can start filling the finishing floor. It should be produced at positive temperature. Concrete must be sealed with a vibrator.

Important! It is necessary that the screed thickness be such that over flexible pipes there is more than 2 cm of concrete. A thickness of 7 cm is considered optimal. If a tile is laid over the screed, then 5 cm is enough. To make it thicker makes no sense, because heat will be lost in concrete.

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Coolant

Features of use of a bath exclude constant heating of the room. Therefore, in winter, water in the pipes of the warm floor can freeze, and in some cases - damage their integrity.

To prevent this, it is necessary to use antifreeze as a coolant. This substance is a glycol diluted in water - often it is propylene glycol or ethylene glycol.

Important! Add anticorrosive substances to the antifreeze. Modern additives are able to effectively protect metal from corrosion for 10 years.

Coolant heating

If the floor level is slightly higher than the level of the furnace, then there is no need for a pump: the liquid will circulate naturally.

The circulating fluid inside the underfloor heating can be heated in two ways:

• From the boiler.
• From the stove where the water circuit is stopped.

Heating the floor from the stove involves the installation of a heat exchanger, which can be made of a metal tank or welded from a pipe grate.The grill will heat up more efficiently and faster. Liquid circulates between the heat exchanger and the floor, guided by a special pump.

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Which flooring is better to use?

The most common are two types of flooring in order to make a warm floor in the bathhouse with your own hands:

• Ceramic tile.
• Wooden floor.

Important! It is better to choose a tile with the lowest moisture absorption, since the bath has an increased level of humidity.

The classic option for covering the floor of the bath is considered to be a tree, since it:

• Aesthetic.
• Eco-friendly.
• Easy to install.

Important! Ceramic tiles must be laid using special glue, which includes mineral additives. As a rule, the proportion of such additives is at least 40% by weight of the substance. The mixture should be a uniform white color, without lumps.

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Possible errors when laying a warm floor

As you probably managed to notice, making a warm floor in a bathhouse so that it was warm in winter is not so difficult. However, having no experience in this matter, some annoying mistakes can be made due to which the system will not be able to fully function. Here are some of the most common mistakes:

• Before you start laying the flooring, you sometimes forget to test the system, and block up elementary flaws.
• They forget to lay mineral wool or some other thermal insulation.
• More than 100 m of pipes are laid on one zone of the warm floor.
• They forget to fix the damper tape around the perimeter of the room.

Important! The warm floor can be laid no earlier than two weeks after the rough screed was laid, otherwise it will not have time to completely dry out, it may crack.

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Stock footage

Making a warm floor in a bathhouse with your own hands is not much more difficult than in a house. The best option is a water heater. Follow our tips, and the floor in your bath will work for a long time and without failures.