Owner-builder here on home stretch of 2+ year project in Western WA.  Considerable time spent lurking at Breaktime- many thanks in partcular to the experienced tradespeople willing to share expertise w/ the likes of me. Foundation, frame, timber trusses, wiring, plumbing, Viessman boiler install, roofing, siding all done pretty much on my own.  

First floor of home is engineered (L720 deflection) to carry 1.5″ cc slab on the wood subfloor.  Have searched for cc site/forum like BT and not finding much help on questions such as: specing cc mix, control joint strategies, subfloor treatment, other tricks and techniques to make this very visible part of the project turn out nice.  Floor will have 1/2″pex tubing (water temp 105F max) stapled down and imbedded in the floor 8-18″oc.  Finish will be acid stain process- lots of info and technique help available.  Worst case will be cover all w/ slate or floating hardwood but really like the idea of exposed concrete.  

Visible control joints on a roughly 3×5′ grid would be acceptable.  Or Joints below the surface fine but I don’t believe they will do the job (zip strip?). Afraid of sawing-could only cut 1/4″ deep safely (not enough?)and not much margin for error if tubing were to “float” during pour.  Thought about strips of brass or cc-compatible metal if could be had at reasonable $$. Wood strips? Tooling generally makes too wide a groove- either have to grout (too much contrast) or live w/ debris build-up.  

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.