Hi everyone. I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in a 23-year old 2 story, approx 2300 sq feet. We just bought the house last summer, and have been doing a lot of updating since then.

I’m in the planning stages of a bathroom reno, which will include adding an ensuite bath, adjacent to the existing bath, connected by a passage door – about 180 sq feet total. I’m planning on replacing the existing vinyl flooring with ceramic (on plywood), and would very much like to heat the tile electrically, for those cold winter mornings (and nites).

Our house has electric baseboards, but our primary heat comes from 2 woodstoves, so any under-tile heat would be for comfort purposes. I’ve done a little checking – Home Depot, local tile retailer, websites – and the cost of these systems may be a bit more than our tight budget will allow.

My question is, has anyone put one of these systems together themselves, rather than buying an off-the-shelf one? It seems like it shouldn’t be that complicated – just some wire, maybe a transformer and a timer switch. I’m not sure why I would need a $200 thermostat (that’s what the tile retailer quoted me for the thermostat for their “Warm Tiles” system), when all I want would be to have the heat come on, for a few hours in the morning, and then again in the evening. A simple programable timer should be able to accomplish that.

Any comments would be appreciated.