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A local engineer on the Architectural Review Board who is reviewing our house plans has said he is aware of some failures with radiant tubing when the wrong type of cement is used… We haven’t heard of anything like this before, and our GC sold us on this type of heat because he said tubing is supposed to be mighty strong and failsafe. Does anyone know what kind of problem this could be? Our system is layed over mud and covered with porcelain ceramic tile.
Thanks.
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Carole and Doug,
Post the type of tube you've got. Jeff will see it and probably respond. I wouldn't panic yet. If the engineer, how can I say this, wasn't too familiar with the new radiant hose, maybe remembers copper's reaction to some concrete. The later hoses are specifically for conc. install. So, post the type and you'll get a pretty good answer.
How'd the tile and wood floor thing in the kitchen turn out. And can anyone hear you going to the bathroom?
*Carole & Doug,Last November you were posting about an existing hydronic heating system. Is this a new house? What was your experience from the previous system?
*I don't know what the material is called, but some of it is still visible in the unfinished ceiling downstairs on its way to the basement... It is marked with the company name "Radiant Technology", has lots of code letters and numbers on it, and the words "oxygen barrior"...
*This is an ongoing renovation/restoration we started about 3 years ago. Some of the heat work was done in the first phase. Now we are doing radiant heat in the kitchen and wanted to use the same method we used in the bathrooms, which seems to be very comfortable. The only problem we have had with it so far is air in the lines causing locks which required some bleeding when we had other plumbing done. It was stubborn, but finally remedied. We just want to be certain that we are not going to experience problems (failures) with the stuff down the road, since we are using a lot of it in the house...
*Don't know what it's called, but the plastic tubing is made by Radiant Technology and is about 3 years old in two of the bathrooms, and 6 months old in another. Now we want to use it in the kitchen of this old house we are slowly renovating/restoring. It will be set into a section of tile which will be in the center of a floor made of river-reclaimed old-growth pine. The GC and his engineer have drawn plans for the installation, which if approved by our village review board, will hopefully be completed this summer(the room must first be demolished and rebuilt on a proper foundation with deep crawlspace). We are keeping the heat away from the outside walls where cabinets will go, and so hopefully also will not encourage termites...
*In re to your "bathroom" question- not me, I know better than to use that john! Seriously though, we still have not addressed that issue. I think besides fluffy towels, our only recourse will be to apply embossed wallcovering in there- something like Anaglypta. The problem seems to be made worse by the fact that there is an airconditioning duct (return) outside of that bathroom wall which is probably acting as an echo chamber! It was supposed to have been insulated around the outside of the metal before the wall was closed up. It's possible that was not done...
*Your tubing is Heat-Pex, made or at least distributed by Radiant Tachnology. We have installed many hundreds if not thousands of feet of Radiant Tech. tubing in the last five or so years. The only problem we have ever had is when somebody accidently drills it or puts a nail through it. I am not the resident expert, but I have never heard of PEX tubing failing due to placement in concrete. PEX is some of the most inert stuff around. Your engineer may have heard of copper tubing corroding inside slabs, but I find it hard to believe that PEX does.If you have more questions go to http://www.wirsbo.com or http://www.radiant-tech.com. Wirsbo and Radiant Technoilogy are both owned by the same parent company and if their tubing isn't exactly the same, it's damn close. You can find all the info you need on code approval for PEX on their websites or by e-mailing them.
*Thanks all. Nick, we will surely check those web sites and they should give us the info we'll show the review board. It certainly does sound as though they were thinking of the old copper tubing when they made their comments to us... I'm beginning to wonder just what kinds of credentials they have that allow them to sit on a review board in the first place! Thanks again.
*Probably the review board guy was thinking of the alkali in concrete or cement eating copper, or the fact that if you don't use an oxygen barrier tubing air will get into the water and corrode your boiler.The tubing we use here is PEX-AL-PEX - with a PEX outer covering, an aluminum liner (barrier) and PEX inner tubing.Jeff Clarke