Warm floors are a symbol of coziness and comfort in any home. To arrange water heating of the floor, you need to acquire heat-insulating polystyrene plates coated with aluminum, heat-distributing panels, water pipes, a separating lining, a collector and a damper tape with 10 mm thickness. If all these materials are available, and you calculate everything correctly, you will be able to mount the floor heating system yourself. Water heating of floors ensures uniform distribution of heat, thanks to the presence of heat-distributing plates, in addition, there will be no dust in the house, since with such a system there will be no convection air currents.No other modern home heating appliances can guarantee this. Plates for heat distribution and a thin screed on top of them allow you to heat the room to the required temperature quickly. At the same time, there will be no significant temperature differences at different ends of the room, and cases of overheating in certain areas of the floor are excluded, which is especially important for the condition of the furniture. The entire surface of the floor is heated within half an hour. In finished form, the water heating system has a height of about 25 cm.
Flexible and durable pipes made of polymeric materials, which make up the pipeline of the heating system, are securely fixed in heat-distributing panels, in channels specially designed for this purpose. During installation, the heat-distributing panels are cut to perfectly fit their size in different non-standard areas of the floor. The floor with water heating can be made with any base, the main thing is that it be even, the screed can also be any. This possibility is ensured by good thermal insulation and panels for heat distribution. As a floor covering with water heating, you can use ceramic tiles, parquet, laminate and even linoleum, which is less and less used in construction, but is ideal for warm water floors. Ceramic tiles with good thermal conductivity are an excellent material for underfloor heating. It is resistant to mechanical stress, temperature fluctuations and durable.
If we compare wood and ceramic tiles, then the latter has a much higher thermal conductivity. In the cold season, a tile floor feels warmer than a wooden one, although the temperature is the same, but in summer the tile floor is very cold and needs to be heated. Wood is hygroscopic, so wood floors are very dependent on the humidity in the room and change their size depending on it. Maintaining constant humidity levels in a residential building all year round is not realistic.
In winter, as a result of dry air (less than 30% humidity), gaps appear in the floors, and in summer, when it is humid (more than 60%) and the boards are laid tightly, “swelling” is observed. These phenomena occur regardless of whether there is water floor heating or not. If there is water heating under the wooden floor, then the relative humidity above the floor surface will decrease slightly. Together with warm water floors, all types of wood can be used, with the exception of beech and Canadian maple, but after special treatment they can also be used. Manufacturers of parquet in the certificate make a special mark on its suitability for use when installing a warm floor. The temperature of the coolant with wooden flooring is limited to such a limit that can provide a temperature not higher than 26 degrees on the floor surface.