Everyone loves radiant floor heat. However, many people are afraid that it’s just too expensive. Very afraid.
In fact, people are often surprised at how little cost radiant floor heat can add to a project. Best tiling practices often require the use of an ‘uncoupling membrane’ for optimal results. In a nutshell, this step makes your tiles a lot less likely to crack, and your grout from crumbling and falling apart. If you have those things, you likely should have used one.
In a small bathroom remodel where an uncoupling membrane is being used in re-tiling in any event, in-floor heating can add as little as about $600-700 to the project cost. Larger areas are more expensive of course, but only incrementally. In these cases (which are most cases), radiant floor heat is now more affordable than ever thanks to one of my favourite new products, Ditra heat.
Ditra Heat:
The picture at the top of this page shows an in-progress tiling project incorporating Ditra Heat. The Ditra Heat uncoupling membrane is the orange stuff, which has a heating cable wound between its dimples. The tile is laid over that, using a laser line to ensure dead-straight tile lines for a beautiful installation.
Ditra heat helps to streamline the incorporation of in-floor heating installation, eliminating time consuming (and therefore costly) steps while also providing the important benefits of an uncoupling membrane. It can also help to limit the additional floor height change necessitated by some other radiant floor heat installation methods.
Efficient Heating In Your Home:
In addition to the glorious feeling of warm tiles underfoot, radiant floor heat is an efficient heating method that will likely help to keep your heating costs down a bit as well. It’s considered more efficient than baseboard heat, and usually more efficient than forced air. Good news all around! So if you don’t want to say that you’re installing it for gloriously warm toes, you can say you’re doing it for the planet.
If you’d like to discuss a remodelling project incorporating radiant floor heat, please feel free to contact me.