Gentlemen; I am currently remodeling the kitchen. I will be putting in radiant flooring, pex tubing. In the kitchen/Living room and hall, a little over 500 sq. ft. New cabinets will be going in shortly and I need to put new plywood or possibly Advantech on the floor under the cabinets. The present flooring is 5/8 ply on top of 3/4″ spruce boards. The 5/8 plywood has to come up. Due to floor squeaks and vinyl flooring being glued to it. I want to put new ply under the new cabs now and several months from now fill in the remainder of the floor area with a type of pex “warmboard” material. What I want is the warmboard to match with the material that is under the cabs
The question is ,can I put 5/8 under the cabs now and will the “warmboard” match up to it or is it a different thickness?
Or do you have any other suggestions?
Replies
I know nothing of warmboard, but this is the first sentence on their site
Warmboard¯ is a highly efficient, state of the art, low mass radiant floor system. Warmboard begins with a stiff, strong 1-1/8" thick 4'x8', tongue and groove plywood subfloor panel.
And here's the site: http://www.warmboard.com/
Remember after you figure your "rough" floor heights, to add the finish thickness you plan on putting on top. Raise the cabs that amount at least or your finish floor could play havoc with things like dishwasher install.
__________________________________________
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Warmboard doubles as structural subfloor and is over an inch thick.
Appreciate the help guys! I used the term warmboard as a generic reference to that type of method. Probably should have used a different word. They must make that type of product in 1/2"or 5/8" or so.
I just installed a radiant floor system in a kitchen/dining remodel using
1/2" pex tubing. We used a 3/4" thick foam board with an aluminum reflective panel on the top and the pex channels pre-stamped in the board. I worked slick. The panels are made be Roth and they are not structural. I am no expert but I wonder if you can get panels much thinner than 3/4" and still have room for the diameter of the pex. 3/4" ply matched up perfectly for under the cabinets. As stated before, do not forget to allow for the finished flooring also.
brad
I think Wirsbo has a board meant for 3/8 PEX, but first do the analysis on the heat transfer capacity of 3/8.
Cloud Hidden; Yeah I dont think 3/8 will do it. As cold as it has been here I dont know if 6" PEX would be enough:) A heat loss calc. will be done shortly.
CHanson; I presume it is structural enough that you can put a floating floor over the foam panels, like a Pergo type?
CMBB, Stadler and Wirsbo make a prefab "warmboard" I believe called QuikTrak and they both accept 3/8 PEX. I was told that the diameter of the tubing comes in to play more on the length of runs that you can have with the tubing, not on the heat that it will provide. If designed properly the 3/8 should work. I have radiant ceiling with 3/8 tubing and it heats my entire 1st floor just fine. I have 50's ranch with no insulation in the walls, even with the bitter cold we are having here in Chicago the house is very warm. From what I've learned about radiant heat, it's all in the design. On problem with these prefab systems is that you are limited to the tube spacing and these products are in the tune of $4/sq.ft or more just for the board. another good forum to as questions is http://forums.invision.net/index.cfm?CFApp=2. -Ed
If designed properly, just about anything should work. But there are issues with tube diameter other than run length. An extended discussion of this comes from April. http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=19201.21
yes, you can put a floating floor over it. that is exactly what we did.
by not structural i mean that it needs to have a full, solid subfloor under the foamboard, you would not want to span over any large gaps or holes nor would it add any rigidity to the floor diaphram.
BCHanson; I checked out the Roth web site and could not find any mention of the foam boards. Do you have any suggestions.
I think this would be a better solution than Warmboard for your application.
http://www.stadlerviega.com/html/app_cps_index.html
carpenter in transition
Tim; Thanks for the info. I wonder what size pex goes in the panels? Have you ever used the product?
.
The Stadler system uses its own tubing which is a metric sizing. The plywood panels are 1/2" thick and the tubing is about 1/2" OD, which brings the tubing to the very top of the panel. No, I have not used the product. I have heard very good things about it, especially from hardwood floor people laying over it, because the tubing is visible. Its biggest drawback is its high cost.
carpenter in transition