Mono slab w/radiant–insulation?
davidmeiland
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I have a new project on a slab with radiant tubing. The site is ideal for a mono slab pour, and the building has a fair number of exterior corners, so I’d like to avoid separately forming and pouring footing/wall and then slab. The usual detail around here–when there are two pours–is to insulate under the slab with 2″ XPS and then insulate the inside faces of the walls with the same, ripped with a 45 degree bevel at the top so that the slab is isolated from the walls except at the very top.
With a mono pour I don’t see how you’d accomplish this thermal isolation, and assume that it would require XPS around the outside of the entire pour, up to grade. Anyone have experience with this?
Replies
Yup, you've pretty well described the problem! And it's worse if the building you are thinking about is a garage with a big area exposed to the outside in front of the doors.
I've built a lot of them with radiant heat in the floor and you insulate them on the sides as best you can, but it's certainly not the most energy efficient setup.
For sure you will need antifreeze in the tubing.