Do-it-yourself floor heating under the laminate on the concrete floor

With the onset of cold weather and the heating season, every owner wants maximum warmth and comfort in his home. When carrying out repairs in your home or apartment, I want to thoroughly think over the future heating system so that all households feel comfortable, despite the frosty weather outside the window. Housing with an individual heating system is becoming increasingly popular, because it is economical and convenient, it is possible to independently set the climatic conditions in your own home. Well-established heating system based on underfloor heating. Moreover, with the development of technology, a warm floor can be put under almost any floor covering. Due attention should be paid to the warm floor under the laminate. Especially considering the fact that you can easily lay underfloor heating under the laminate on the concrete floor with your own hands, without involving a narrow specialist.

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What is good about warm floors?

Since heating systems based on heating batteries are not so perfect, many began to prefer heating based on underfloor heating. They not only uniformly heat the air in the room, but also create additional comfort, because there is nothing more pleasant than stepping on the warm floor during the cold season.

However, the benefits of a warm floor do not end there. The main advantages of a warm floor include:

• High heating rate. With floor heating, the room warms up much faster than in the case of heating radiators. This allows you to use heating more economically, turn it off when leaving for work, on business and turn it on when you return. The temperature in the room pretty quickly reaches comfortable levels.
• This heating system can be fully used as an independent, and if desired, as an additional one.
• Floor heating warms the air evenly without creating drafts.
• The warm floor is able to warm the air to a comfortable temperature to a height of 2.5 meters.
• Provides comfort to the legs, which reduces the risk of colds.
• It provides a safe play on the floor for children; you no longer have to prohibit them from playing on the cold floor, as it always has a comfortable temperature.
• This heating system is quite economical, as it uses modern technologies for energy saving.
• The rooms with underfloor heating seem more spacious, since they do not have wall-mounted heating radiators, which, among other things, do not always fit into the modern interior.
• The system is more environmentally friendly than the heating system that we have been used to for many years, because due to uniform heating and the ability to adjust the temperature, the air in the room is not overdried.
• The warm floor is universal, because it fits almost every floor covering.
• Thanks to the use of temperature regulators, you can very accurately and finely adjust the temperature regime, and programmers allow you to adjust the desired temperature according to the time and day of the week. This significantly saves heat consumption.
• Relative ease of installation and operation.

As you can see, warm floors are very practical to use, they have a huge number of advantages. You definitely won’t regret choosing this type of heating.

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Types of underfloor heating

Today, many types of underfloor heating are available. Depending on the existing heating system, personal preferences and finances, you can easily choose the suitable option for yourself. To do this, it is enough to know about all the existing species. Having information, you can easily determine what kind of underfloor heating you need to choose.

The following types of underfloor heating exist.

Water floor heating

Water heated floors are heated by circulating hot water through pipes held under the rough floor. Water is heated by the boiler and moves through the pipes thanks to the circulation pump. This system can be used wherever the heating system operates under pressure. In this case, pipes made of metal plastic or corrugated stainless steel pipes are used.

Important! Water underfloor heating has proven itself when necessary to heat large areas and rooms, as it is more economical than electric underfloor heating. Ideal for arranging private homes and commercial premises.

Electric underfloor heating

In the case of electric underfloor heating, the heating elements reach the desired temperature by heating from the passage of electricity through them. Depending on the type of heating elements, there are some subspecies of electric underfloor heating:

• Heating cable. The design of this floor is incredibly simple. It consists of a cable with a high resistance, through which electricity passes. This cable is laid in a certain way over the rough tie. When electricity passes through it, the cable heats up, thereby heating the finish thin layer of screed over it, and then the laminate itself.

Important! The cable is laid exclusively on areas free of furniture, that is, on the useful heating area.

• Heating mat. It differs from the underfloor heating cable in that in this embodiment the cable is already laid in a certain way on a special grid. It is enough to just put the mat on the desired area and then finish the floor and lay the flooring.
• Infrared film. It is a film consisting of two layers of polymer material, between them is a nanostructure. A current passes through it, as a result - infrared radiation arises. This type of heating is absolutely harmless to humans. It is necessary to lay the flooring immediately on top of the film - this adds an extra height to the floor and simplifies installation.

Important! It makes sense to use electric floors in small areas, otherwise they are uneconomical and require a large consumption of electricity. As a rule, such floors are installed in bathrooms, on balconies, corridors, as additional heating in the play areas of the children's room.

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The choice of laminate flooring

Today, there are many variations of warm floors, and for them it is not necessary to use tiles as a floor covering. Now it can be used under everyone's favorite laminate. If you decide to install a warm water or electric floor under the laminate, with your own hands you want to install it, then, first of all, you need to choose the right laminate for these purposes.

Here are the basic requirements for a laminate floor that will be used for underfloor heating:

• it is necessary to choose a laminate, on which it is indicated that it can be used on heated surfaces;
• use exclusively high-quality flooring, get it from trusted manufacturers, because a cheap laminate can produce harmful volatile resins when heated, deform and lose its properties when temperature changes;
• the total thermal resistance of the laminate and the substrate should be within 0.15 square meters. meters per kW, in this case - the lower this value, the better;
• often in the passport to the laminate it is indicated what type of heating system it is suitable for - if it is not universal, then use it exclusively with the heating system that is prescribed in the passport;
• it is preferable to use a laminate with a castle type of connection;
• keep in mind that when using floor heating, it is necessary to give preference to laminate boards of small thickness - thus, you will increase thermal conductivity;
• it is better to opt for a high-class laminate - such panels are much denser and the heating efficiency will be higher, and even more so when it comes to the water system;
• When buying a laminate, pay special attention to choosing a substrate for it - it should be designed for use on heating surfaces, have adequate thermal conductivity, be porous and not retain heat.

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Installation of water floor heating

Laying water underfloor heating requires certain skills, if you have the skills and knowledge in plumbing, this can be your strength. However, even if you decide to turn to professionals, it will not be out of place to know the algorithm for installing a warm floor under a laminate. Water floor heating requires special quality control of work performance.

When equipping a heating system based on a water heated floor, the following sequence of actions is followed:

• A distribution manifold with regulators is installed on the heating system, to which all heating elements are connected. Regulators make it possible to set the temperature of water heating in a particular circuit.
• Waterproofing and thermal insulation are laid on a high-quality screed - this is necessary in order to avoid unnecessary heat loss and protect the lower room from possible leaks.
• At this stage, according to the project, the thermal circuit is being installed. Pipes are mounted in a selected manner on a reinforcing mesh. The laying method - a snake or a snail, does not significantly affect the final result. The pipe laying pitch is determined depending on the location. It is preferable to reduce the pitch near the outer walls and increase in the center or closer to the exit.

Important! The length of pipes in one system should not exceed 100 meters, since the pumping device can simply not cope. It is best that one circuit warms up a room with a total area of ​​not more than 40 square meters.

• After installing the pipes, they are connected to the collector and the entire system is checked for quality of work. It is worthwhile already at this stage to eliminate all possible problems and leaks.
• A special damping tape is glued around the entire perimeter of the room.
• Next, a cement screed is poured onto the floor. When pouring, the pipes should be filled with water, but not included in the heating. Do not turn on the heating system until the screed is completely dry. In the drying process, it is best to periodically wet the surface with water - this will prevent the appearance of cracks on the surface. The floor should dry slowly and efficiently, without the use of special dryers.

Important! The total thickness of the floor screed should not be thicker than 5-7 centimeters, otherwise - the heating efficiency is reduced. But the distance from the surface of the floor in the final version to the pipe cannot be more than 3 centimeters.

• After the screed has dried, the substrate and the laminate are laid on the floor. Laying the substrate and laminate is carried out in the usual manner provided by the manufacturer. First, it is worth letting the laminate warm up to room temperature, acquire the humidity of the room.To do this, you need to bring it into the room 2-3 days before the start of work on its installation.

At this stage, the installation process of the warm floor can be considered completed. With proper execution of work, the system should work without failures.

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Installation of electric underfloor heating

If you decide to use an electric heated floor under the laminate in your home, then it is worth noting that, unlike water, it is much easier to install. In addition, this heating system is safer.

The sequence of work on laying a heating cable or mat in the process of arranging an electric floor heating:

• A layout of the heating element is made and the installation location of the heat regulator is determined.

Important! Remember that the heating elements should be located exclusively in areas free of furniture - this will prevent useless heat transfer to objects that do not require heating, and prevent overheating of the heating elements.

• Calculation of underfloor heating by power and usable area. Each package has an example of calculating these indicators, you can also contact a consultant in a hardware store, he will help you make the calculations.

Important! As a rule, the power of an electric heated floor is calculated based on the type of room in which it will be installed. These values ​​range from 110 to 180 watts per square meter. If such a heating system is used as an independent, and not additional, then it is worth stopping at values ​​from 140 to 180 W per square meter. The calculation of the heated area is calculated by subtracting from the total area of ​​the room the area of ​​the unnecessary heating. Further, this value is multiplied by the selected power. As a result, the total power required to heat a given area is obtained, and it is measured in kW.

• Before laying the heating elements on the floor, thermal insulation is laid.
• In the case of using a heating cable, it is fixed to the surface with a mounting tape, according to a diagram constructed taking into account its length and heated surface. If it is a heating mat, it is spread out on the necessary site.
• Next, the operability of the heating elements is checked, for this they need to be connected to the network. The operation of the thermostat is checked.
• According to the manufacturer's recommendations, a cement screed of the required thickness is made.

Important! Do not make the screed thicker than recommended in the instructions. This can cause the floor to warm up too slowly, and heating will be ineffective. Do not include floor heating for the drying period of the screed.

• Then the substrate spreads and the laminate is laid.

Important! If an infrared heating film is used, it is laid on the final screed, directly under the substrate and the laminate. This procedure absolutely does not require additional skills.

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Stock footage

After reading the article, you learned how to install a warm water or electric floor under the laminate with your own hands. As you can see, certain types of underfloor heating do not require the presence and participation of a master, if desired, all work can be done independently. Using innovative technologies such as infrared floor heating, you can get maximum efficiency and economy in space heating.