Staple-up radiant plate installation
I’m in the process of installing pex into aluminum plates under the subfloor. What is the best way to fasten the plates to the subfloor to do this? Staples or nails ? What type of staples or nails? I’ve read that there maybe noise as the aluminum heats-up/cools down. Is this true? If so would cutting slots or oversized holes and using very short roofing nails work, like installing vinyl siding ?
THANKS
Replies
Actually, I think more noise comes from the pex shiftng in the plates. My neighbor does radient systems and I helped him install the pex under his own existing wood floors. The system he was using involved stapling up the pex first, then covereing that with the winged "troughs", which were also stapled. He was dusting each trough with gypsum powder to decrease the friction from the "pex flex" .
Later he did a job for a friend of mine, and I guess the powder treatment wasn't in the budget. Long story short, the unpowdered plates make noise when the system is firing up , and the powdered ones don't. There may be other factors at play, but I thought this was interesting.
Of course, there's a new type of system which makes installation much easier because the aluminum plates go up first, then the pex is snapped in place (no worries about stapling through the pex).
In answer to your question, though, I wouldn't try to get fancy with the fasteners. Not only would it be a huge waste of time, but a floating nail system would insure noisy operation when the pex heated up.
Use an air stapler, and make sure it's a good one because this job is a BEE-YOTCH. Also, make sure you've got the right length staples - you don't want to break for lunch and find out you nailed the rug to the floor upstairs