How to make a warm floor without a screed in a wooden house

Keeping your home cozy and comfortable during the colder months is a top priority for any homeowner, especially in regions where temperatures plummet. One effective way to achieve warmth throughout your house is by installing a radiant floor heating system. Traditionally, this involved pouring a concrete screed over the heating elements, which can be costly and time-consuming. However, if you"re considering adding warmth to your wooden house without the hassle of a screed, there are alternative methods worth exploring.

Although wooden homes have a special warmth and charm, installing some contemporary amenities, like radiant floor heating, can be difficult in them. To ensure that heat is distributed evenly throughout the floor, a screed is typically poured over the heating elements. However, this might not be practical or desirable in a wooden house because of worries about weight, structural integrity, or just maintaining the wooden flooring’s aesthetic appeal. Luckily, there exist substitute options that let you take advantage of heated floors without requiring a screed.

A common way to install radiant floor heating without the need for a screed in a wooden house is to use flexible, thin heating mats or cables that are placed directly under the flooring. Because of their low profile design, these systems are perfect for wooden floors where it would be impractical to add a lot of height using a traditional screed. Without giving up useful space or changing the structural integrity of your wooden floors, you can effectively and economically heat your home by installing these heating elements directly on the subfloor or in between floor joists.

Electric radiant heating systems made especially for retrofitting old floors are another way to provide a warm floor without the need for a screed in a wooden house. These systems can be installed directly under finished flooring, such as tile, laminate, or hardwood, and are made up of thin heating cables or mats. Their low buildup requirements make them ideal for wooden homes where maintaining the original flooring’s integrity is of utmost importance. You can experience the luxury of a warm floor with these systems without having to undertake major remodeling or structural changes.

In this article, we"ll explore a practical solution for warming up your wooden house without the need for a traditional concrete screed: the warm floor system. By utilizing this method, homeowners can enjoy the cozy comfort of heated floors without the hassle and weight of a concrete base. We"ll delve into the benefits of warm floor systems, discuss the different types available for wooden houses, and provide a step-by-step guide on how to install one efficiently. From choosing the right materials to ensuring proper insulation, we"ll cover everything you need to know to make your wooden house snug and warm throughout the year, offering a blend of practical advice and technical know-how for homeowners seeking to enhance their living space"s comfort and energy efficiency.

Why "dry" warm floor?

What makes the conventional design, in which the screed walls enclose the floor heating pipes, so beautiful? List in brief:

• low temperature of the coolant (maximum – 55 ° C), which allows saving energy;
• uniform heating of the surface of the concrete floor from the slept pipes;
• Comfort from heat coming from the lower zone over the entire area of the room.

The drawback is that, although they don’t have a thick, cement-sandy screed, water heating floors in wooden homes still have all the benefits mentioned. Determine for yourself how many purposes the ceiling’s wooden beams serve:

1. Perceive static loads from furniture and interior partitions.
2. Compensate a lot of finish coating, black floors and insulation without a defeat.
3. Withstand constant dynamic effects from the movement of residents.
4. They carry their own weight and serve as elements of the transverse stability of the building.

Consider what would happen if each room contained a massive concrete monolith that weighed one to three tons. The cross section of the wooden beam system will need to be increased by 1.5–2 times in order for it to support the mass of such a design, which will raise the building cost. Making the so-called nasty waterproof system, which is low weight (about 20 kg per 1 m² of room area) and arranged in a dry method without screed, is the solution to the issue.

Under the following circumstances, heated water contours in wooden buildings may be frozen in concrete:

• when the coating of the first floor of a private dwelling is based on the soil or strip (slab) foundation;
• in dwellings from SIP panels 200 mm thick, based on a strip or pile-screw foundation;
• If powerful beams designed for the mass of the screed are laid down on the base of the overlap of the chopped or frame house.

Constructing light staircase

The essential component of warm water floors installed "dry" in wooden homes is a metal plate with a groove that resembles the Greek letter ω reversed (when viewed from the end). The side "wings" of the plates expand the area of heat dispersion rather than screed, and the walls of the recess securely enclose the pipe’s body with coolant.

Reference: Aluminum and galvanized steel make up the plates that distribute heat evenly. Depending on the pipe laying step (standard: 150 and 200 mm apart), their width varies and is chosen. Transverse notches allow for equal parts of the product to be broken with your hands.

There are various ways to use a waterproof device with metal diffusers:

• According to the technology of the famous Uponor brand, laying the pipes of heating contours in the gaps between the floor boards;
• using special polystyrene plates for flooring warm floor, equipped with protruding bosses or finished grooves;
• with burning the recesses in a regular foam with a special device;
• using sets of wooden products where grooves are made for heating water contours.

While each technique has advantages and disadvantages of its own, three key characteristics unify them: low weight, high efficiency, and the absence of "wet" processes, which greatly speeds up installation. Regardless of the method you select, the floor’s "pie" is made up of the following layers, which are arranged from bottom to top:

1. The base for laying insulation.
2. Thermal insulation material.
3. Heat distribution plates.
4. Pipelines with circulating heated water;
5. Finishing flooring.

Note: A vapor barrier film and a diffusion membrane (waterproofing) can be used in a heating "pie" when installing water warm floors on a wooden base.

We’ll now go over how to properly insulate the ceiling and create a warm floor in a wooden house using any of these techniques. But first, a brief word regarding the component selection.

The choice of materials

It is imperative to insulate the floors of a wooden house prior to installing heating water contours. As a result, you must select three component groups:

• type of insulation;
• pipe material;
• The material of the plates.

The most suitable type of common and reasonably priced insulation for wood structure thermal insulation is mineral (basalt) cotton wool. Because it is permeable to water vapor, it complements wood well, allowing it to "breathe" and preventing decay. In addition, mineral wool will become wet through and cease to function as a heat insulator if these vapors are not allowed to escape and be removed while it is being laid.

Suggestions. It is preferable to use basalt fiber with a density of 40–80 kg/m³ and a thickness of at least 150 mm, or 200 mm or more in the northern regions, to insulate the first floor coating. A 50–100 mm thick minvat will be installed on the interstory ceiling. Its job is to act as sound insulation and ensure that the heat meant for the upper rooms is not lost into the first floor’s spaces.

Foam, foamed polyethylene, and extruded polystyrene foam are examples of polymer insulation that essentially does not miss moisture. They must therefore be used carefully to avoid rotting and blackening the wood where the polymer comes into contact with it. It is sufficient to lay 20–30 mm of overlapped material to achieve the minimum thickness of 100 mm required for thermal insulation of the first floor.

The following kinds of pipes, placed in wooden lags, have a diameter of 16 and 20 mm and are intended for warm floors without screed:

• made of stitched polyethylene with an antidiffusion layer that does not pass oxygen;
• metal -plastic;
• copper.

Premium polyethylene pipes (like those sold under the Rehau brand, for example) are not less expensive than metal-plastic pipes, nor are they less functionally sound. Thus, the conclusion is that these polymer pipeline types are equivalent for warm floors and do not differ fundamentally from one another.

Copper pipes are more costly than plastic ones, and they require more work to install because of their length. However, when it comes to heat transfer, copper is unmatched, which is why it is a successful material to use for floor heating in any type of building. Important note: since aluminum heat distribution plates and copper heating contours are "not friends" at all, do not combine them.

With the exception of copper pipe wiring, aluminum has a higher thermal conductivity than steel, making its plates more desirable. However, bear in mind that premium aluminum distributors cost 1.5–4 times as much as galvanized ones.

Note: Due to the fact that different manufacturers use different thicknesses of metal to make their plates, the costs of aluminum and galvanized plates vary greatly and cannot be compared. Therefore, the recommendation is to try to buy thick-walled products, as they have a greater capacity to store and transfer thermal energy.

One material that has recently gained attention is flexible corrugated stainless steel pipes. They can be used in light-duty systems, are robust, mounted without the need for welding or soldering, and transmit data effectively.

A different publication presents the surface temperature, styling step, and pipe length calculations for each circuit. Examine the method to ascertain the quantity of materials with precision.

Uponor technology installation

The method is now widely used because it is the easiest and least expensive in terms of cash outlay. This mineral wool serves as the insulation material; you are free to take pipes and plates based on your needs and financial situation. The method’s main step is to install wooden boards 20 mm thick on the lags with 2 cm gaps between them for an additional water warming device, as the diagram illustrates:

Note: Any residential building with wooden floors on the lags, including those with concrete bases, can employ a similar plan.

Using this technology, you can create warm floors by hand with a standard set of carpentry and locksmith tools and specialty scissors for cutting polymer pipes. When installing floor heating on the first floor (above the ground or in an unheated basement), carry out the following tasks in that order:

1. Flush with the lower edge of the beams, shave the skull bars with a cross -section of 25 x 25 mm. Lay black floors from boards with a thickness of 20 mm on top of them, as shown below in the drawing.
2. Cover the black floor along with the beams with a waterproofing film (technical name – diffusion membrane) with a waterproof side downward. Observe the overlap between the canvases of at least 10 cm and carefully glue the joints with double -sided tape.
3. Place mineral wool slabs on top of waterproofing so that they do not crush, otherwise the basalt fiber partially loses thermal insulation properties. The thickness of the insulation should be less than the height of the lag by at least 5 cm, so that between the surface of the cotton wool and the future wooden flooring, provide a ventilation gap to remove moisture.
4. Put a vapor barrier to the lags. Polyethylene should be pulled and attached to the tree with a stapler so that it does not sag in the gaps between the beams.
5. Belly 2 cm with a thickness of 2 cm across the lag, retreating from the wall 30 mm. Depending on the pipe laying step (15 or 20 cm), leave a 20 mm wide gap between the boards for heat distributing plates.
6. Insert metal plates into the cracks and put the pipes of heating contours on them, investing them in ω-shaped grooves. To rotate the pipe, shorten in this place the ends of the boards by 10-15 cm.
7. Draw the ends of the pipes along the walls to the comb warm floor, connect them and check the tightness of the system. Put the finish flooring of the floor.

The following video walks viewers through the process of installing a heated floor over wooden lags:

The interstory flooring is worked on in the same sequence, with the exception that blackboard boards cannot be beaten straight up to the lags from below. By the way, you can hear the first floor ceiling while using OSB slabs in place of a tree in this location.

Crucial! If the diffusion membrane is confused with a vapor barrier film, water will seep into the mineral wool and it will lose its ability to function as a heater. Cotton wool is shielded from the ground by the waterproofing at the "pie’s" bottom, and the upper film keeps water from penetrating. The reverse is true for the ceilings: the membrane is placed on top of the vapor barrier. A wooden house has vents in the walls and a 5 cm ventilation opening to remove moisture from the insulation.

In addition to being easy to use and inexpensive, this water warm floor arrangement method has one drawback: since the pipes can only be laid in a "snake" pattern, a wooden house’s interior must be divided into multiple heating contours in order to achieve consistent heating.

The installation guide of the polystyrene system

Since this method of installing floor heating contours involves the use of two-layer polystyrene foam plates with guides in the shape of protruding bobes, it allows you to work much more quickly and easily. Different densities of polystyrene are used to make plates; the lower layer is softer and the upper layer is more resilient.

This method works well for any ceiling that has a level surface, such as those made of OSB plywood (as in houses from SIP panels). The following technology is used in the construction of warm water floors with an even wooden coating:

1. Cover the lags with OSB sheets and fasten them with galvanized screws. If the work is carried out on a wooden overlap of the first floor, then between the beams it is worth laying mineral wool insulation, as states in the previous section. The thickness of the polystyrene system is not enough for the full thermal insulation of the building from below.
2. Fasten the damping tape on the walls on the walls.
3. Put the polystyrene stoves on the finished surface, fastening them with each other on the locks.
4. Install the scattering plates in accordance with the diagram and step of the gaskets of pipelines, fixing them between the bosses. By unwinding the pipe from the bay, insert it into the recesses of the plates.
5. Cover the heating contours with a plastic wrap, performing overlap and gluing of paintings.
6. Mount the base of the floor of gypsum -fiber sheets (GVL), where subsequently lay the finished coating (popular option – laminate).

The video content from the Rustulopol company, a Russian producer of polystyrene systems, provides details about the work:

Advice: Attach the highways from the circuits to the collector of the distribution and mixing unit before applying the finish coating, and test the tightness (crimping) of the connections at a pressure of 4 bar.

The benefits of curly insulation for warm water floors are clear: it can be installed quickly and easily, and pipes can be laid out using both a snail and a "snake." Additionally, there are drawbacks:

• high price;
• the material can bend from large mechanical loads;
• Due to the gaps between the bobes, a small part of the heat is consumed on the useless heating of the air under the flooring.

Other pipe laying methods

Additional goods that can be used as the foundation for warming loops with metal plates inserted include:

• polystyrene foam plates with ready -made grooves;
• factory sets of wooden products with cutouts for laying pipelines;
• Polystyrene sheets with a density of 35 kg/m³, where recesses are cut with their own hands using a special thermal.

The retail network also carries polymer plates with pre-made recesses in addition to bossed polystyrene foam. As seen in the diagram, this option can be installed inside a ceiling that is flush with lags or on a level surface.

Note: The drawbacks of this option include cutting the lags’ grooves to allow the tubes to pass through and attaching the polymer to the corners so that the wood is not fit. As a result, it is preferable to place slabs with recesses on an OSB plywood or aligned board foundation.

One major benefit of using wooden sets for water heating is that they can cover a large load from bulky furniture without deforming. As previously mentioned, products with plate cutouts are installed on beams with insulation (Uponor brand technology). The only disadvantage of Temeted Wooden Warm Paul is the high cost of the materials.

If a homeowner has the time, they can purchase regular high-density foam foam and a thermal for burning grooves, saving money on a polystyrene system. The technology is straightforward: after the heater slabs are positioned on the aligned surface, the pipeline route should be burned through them according to the plan. Heat distributors need to be installed, and pipes need to be inserted.

Is it possible to save on materials

Many master craftsmen discovered ways to get by without screed because the parts needed for floor heating without it are rather expensive:

1. Put the heating branches inside the floor, directly on the insulation. Then ω-shaped products are not used.
2. Make cuts in the boards yourself, and instead of the plates along the length of the grooves, roll out aluminum foil used for baking.
3. Make steel heat distributors yourself on metal -designing equipment.
4. A wooden system for laying pipes in grooves can also be made by yourself, for example, from sheets of chipboard.

Just two of the final two options will effectively organize heating while also saving money. Indeed, you can make plates with any metal on the Leafhiby machine; the only difference is that the groove profile will be rectangular rather than "omegot."

Inside a wooden structure, pipes make poor contact with the finished coating and heat the surrounding air more than the actual space. The coolant temperature needs to be raised to its maximum and the tubes need to be spaced 10 cm apart in order for the effect of heating to occur. The endeavor then becomes meaningless because installing radiators is simpler.

Because thin aluminum foil is only a few hundredths of a millimeter thick, it is not a good heat-flow distributor. Furthermore, foil is useless because it gradually crumbles due to slow oxidation.

Another way to cut costs is to use an infrared film heater to arrange the heating of a wooden house with electric heated floors. However, the flexibility of such a system will be lost; you will be limited to using electricity for heating and will no longer be able to use gas or firewood.

You’re in luck if you want to add coziness to your wooden house without having to deal with the inconvenience of laying screed for a warm floor. There are a number of ways to add coziness and warmth to your room without breaking the bank on major construction projects.

Underfloor heating mats with electricity are one option to think about. Whether your floor is made of wood or another material, you can simply place these thin mats on top of it. Installing electric underfloor heating is comparatively simple, and it can be precisely adjusted in temperature using a thermostat.

Hydronic radiant floor heating is now an additional option. Under the floor, this system installs tubing that circulates hot water or a water-antifreeze mixture to provide steady warmth. Hydronic systems offer effective heating and can be powered by a variety of energy sources, but they may require a little more preparation and installation work than electric mats.

Passive solar heating is a sustainable option that is worth looking into if you are worried about the cost of operation and the impact on the environment. You can use solar radiation to naturally heat your floors and living areas in your house by carefully placing windows, adding thermal mass to your building, and adding insulation.

Whichever approach you decide on, when designing your warm floor system, you must take into account things like the insulation level, climate, and design of your house. A professional’s advice can help you choose the best option for your requirements and optimize energy efficiency.

Video on the topic

Light water floors in a wooden house in Irkutsk

How to make a water warm floor without a screed in a wooden house.

Water warm floor without screed. Laying mats, plates and pipes. Instruction, part two.