Do-it-yourself water floor heating: calculation and installation

Recommendation points

• Water heated floor. Overview
• Types of water heated floors
• Preparatory work: tools, consumables
• Boiler, collector
• Surface preparation
• We calculate and distribute pipes
• Installation work
• Underfloor heating concrete system
• Installation of a lightweight TVP system

The coziness of the house is great, and the warm floor is great. Any skilled owner can cope with the creation of a water-heated floor! But which tool and material should you choose? How to make the calculations correctly? What is the whole process of work? You will learn about this from our article..

Water heated floor. Overview

Water underfloor heating (hydraulic) is a heating of a room with the participation of liquid inside a flexible pipe mounted in the floor. Further ECP.

Pros:

• energy saving line (20-50%);
• system performance from half a century;
• does not dry the air;
• hidden installation;
• distributes heat flows correctly;
• no convection effect is created;
• the air heats up evenly over the entire area of ​​the room.

The disadvantage is the complexity and cost of installation.

Types of water heated floors

There are two types of warm floors and each is applicable in its own case..

Electrically conductive underfloor heating is applicable for heating even in apartments. It is bought ready-made and connected to the network through a thermostat. It is more correct to call such a warm floor not water, but liquid. It is a sealed tube with a heating cable inside. The tube cavity is filled with a coolant (antifreeze).

Classic water heat-insulated floor – applicable in private houses. Its use is prohibited in apartment buildings. Heat carrier – water heated in the general heating system or by a separate boiler.

Installation of a water heated floor is possible in three systems: concrete, lightweight and thin.

The concrete system is applicable in structures with strong load-bearing reinforced concrete floors.

Thin floor system is not so heavy and high due to the low screed.

The lightweight ECP system is used for wooden floors.

Preparatory work: tools, consumables

You will need: pliers, a building level, tape measure, adjustable wrenches and wrenches, a screwdriver, a chisel, scissors for a metal-plastic pipe, hot welding for plastic pipes, a hammer drill, a screwdriver, a tacker.

The list of materials will vary. Let’s consider each case in detail.

Concrete warm water floor. In addition to the tools, you will need:

1. Concrete mixer / mixer.
2. Grinder.
3. For the base – a mixture of cement-sand with additives and additives:
   • plasticizer – 0.6-1 l / m² – makes the mixture elastic, the base is strong (withstands over 50 ° C) and makes it possible to make it (base) 30 mm high;
   • fiber (3 dm³ by 20 m²) will facilitate the distribution of the screed for a room area of ​​40 m² and its fastening (reinforcing mesh is not needed).
4. Reinforcement mesh (150/150 mm mesh and 5 mm – rod section).
5. Thermal insulation material with a thickness of 50 mm for a cool ceiling (if the bottom is a basement or ground) and from 20 mm for an interfloor one, with a density of 25 kg / m³. Applicable: polystyrene, thermal insulation boards (density from 40 kg / m²) made of expanded polystyrene with locking joints on the sides and with self-fixing bosses on the surface, which will allow mounting pipes Ø 16-19 mm.

6. Polyethylene film.
7. Damper tape to compensate for thermal expansion of the screed.
8. Pipes (5-7 m / m²).

Attention! The length of the pipe should not exceed 90 m with the largest pipe diameter, in order to maintain the pressure in the system and the floor heating is uniform. Rule! Smaller pipe diameter – shorter pipe length.

We fix the pipes with brackets or mounting rails.

For light TVP you will need:

• under the base: MDF or plywood (moisture resistant), chipboard, OSB;
• iron plates-thermal distributors;
• screws;
• 16–20 mm pipes;
• 10 mm GVLV sheets when laying tiles or linoleum over a warm floor;
• plastic clamps, elbows and adapters, according to the automation (collector, boiler).

Boiler, collector

The boiler is the heating mechanism of the heating system. Anyone will do, the main principle of choice is temperature control from 30 ° C.

The collector distributes heat to all circuits in the system. We choose the following:

• equipped with flow regulators, thermostatic valves;
• there are drain valves at the inlet / outlet of the pipeline;
• there is a thermostat;
• with mixing units with a control valve. The best such node is the one with a two-way / three-way zone valve..

Surface preparation

The criterion is its ideal evenness for any TVP. Differences ± 5 mm of the entire surface and depressions / protrusions of 10 mm are permissible. In case of high humidity in the room: on top of the dried screed – a polyethylene film.

Further – thermal insulation: around the entire perimeter of the room, a damper tape with a width of 5 mm or more is glued. It can be found on walls (pillars, door frames, etc.) 20 mm or more in height.

For now, you can stop at this and make some necessary calculations..

We calculate and distribute pipes

1. Choose a place for the collector. In this case, it is important to place it so that the supply pipes are closer to the outer walls. Install it.

2. We calculate the length and diameter of pipes based on:

• the desired room temperature (increases the heating derivative pipe with a large diameter);
• type TVP;
• useful area (you should not plan a warm floor under the cabinet);
• step width – 100–300 mm;
• type of pipe laying.

Attention! Location “single snake”: the floor will be warmed up in places. It is better to lay with a “snake steam room”: we alternate streams of hot and cooled liquid in them. Or a “shell” with alternating.

Types of pipe laying: 1 – single snake; 2 – double snake; 3 – shell

3. By the area of ​​the entire room, we calculate the amount of insulation, film, chipboard and a similar basis (with a light TVP system).

Installation work

Underfloor heating concrete system

A heat insulator is placed on the prepared base.

Cover the thermal insulation on the floor with plastic wrap over the entire area. Installing the reinforcement mesh.

Further, a marking is made for laying pipes: in increments of 100-300 mm, 1 circuit length up to 90 m. It should be borne in mind that two circuits of 45 meters each are better than one circuit of 90 meters.

If we use thermal insulation plates, then we lay them according to the scheme:

Then we place the pipes themselves. When using ready-made thermal insulation boards, this is very easy to do..

With foam insulation, we fix the pipes every 30-50 cm using anchor brackets or fixing tires.

Further:

• we connect the circuits to the collector, fill them one by one with water, displacing the air (the automatic air vent is closed at the same time);
• we press the system under 1/2 of the working pressure, but not less than 0.3 MPa (the automatic air vent is closed);
• filled, pressed pipes are covered with a screed;
• we lay the floor material on top.

Installation of a lightweight TVP system

Stacking strips of chipboard or plywood with a thickness of 18-22 mm, with a gap for laying the thermal distribution plates.

Thermal distribution plates are mounted.

Underfloor heating pipe is laid.

When finishing a warm floor with tiles or linoleum, sheets of GVLV are laid on top of a light warm floor, on which the flooring is laid. When used as a laminate or parquet flooring, GVLV installation is not required.