My wife & I are in the process of building our own house & we plan to install RFH. Two of my friends (who also built their own houses) have it – one installed his between the floor joists & the other one top embedded in gypcrete.
I’ve been in both of their houses & both feel extremely comfortable, but the gypcrete installation definetly has a better feel to it (not to mention that you end up with a perfectly smooth underlayment for installing your flooring).
The only thing that makes me hesitant about embedding the tubing is the possibility for future leaks. We will be using 1/2″ PEX which is considered to be extremely reliable, but nothing is perfect.
If a leak ever DID occur, is it possible to repair it? Would you just break out the section of gypcrete surrounding the leak, cut the tubing & connect it with a coupling & fill it back in? Or would my only solution at that point be to terminate the RFH system & install baseboard?
Replies
"If a leak ever DID occur, is it possible to repair it? Would you just break out the section of gypcrete surrounding the leak, cut the tubing & connect it with a coupling & fill it back in?"
Yes, it can be repaired the way you say. The likelyhood of a post-install leak is very low though. It would most likely be the result of some physical damage, like a nail puncture, though if you use floating or glue down floor materials, this probably would not happen. It is comon practice to pressurize the system with air during flooring install so that a puncture will be evident.
Thanks. That's what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure.
Consider another alternative, one in which a board product with aluminum-lined tube tracks is fastened atop the subfloor. Quick Track is the name, but look for other spellings, like perhaps Quik Trak. The boards come with straight run sections and turnaround loops.
Edit: I just looked it up, and it is from Wirsbo. Go here to see information. http://www.pexsupply.com/index.cfm/action/catalog.browse/category_header/1/id_category/87008c88-6a5b-4bcb-82a9-b4587121333f
Looks to me like it has a material cost of about $4/sf, not of course including any fasteners, installation labor, or PEX tubing.
The beauty of it is that it goes on top, rather than under, your floor sheathing, and the tubing runs are totally visible when fastening down your flooring finish atop, whether tile backer or wood strip.
My heating subcontractor tuned me into this stuff. More expensive than a staple-up, maybe even a little more than a gypcrete-with-sleepers method, but highly efficient, and quicker warm-ups, too.
Edited 4/20/2005 2:46 pm ET by Gene Davis
Edited 4/20/2005 2:50 pm ET by Gene Davis