Has anyone ever successfully use Warmboard radiant subfloor panel on a project? I attended a seminar on the product today in Boston and it looks promising but I still have my doubts. It looks like there would be a big learning curve. Any advice or comments?
David West
Meadowview Construction
Replies
Exactly what is it that you doubt? Why the learning curve? Obviously the guy at the seminar didn't convince you the system works for some reason.
What you have to determine is whether it will emit enough BTU's to heat the structure you are dealing with.
It's a proven system but it may be too costly for some people. You have to compare the advantages & disadvantages.
We used it for one house where the client was a rug collector and needed to push heat through oriental carpets. Worked fine but very expensive for what it was. Somebody needs to give those guys some serious competition. I prefer tile on slab for most of my radiant stuff. I think it's also worthwhile to consider the embodied energy content of all that aluminum.
------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
From what I understand it's pretty great. But it's for rich people. Waaaay to expensive for me. also need to consider that it will be your exposed sublfoor for the entire project so you will need to protect it.
I installed it throughout a second floor guest cottage (above a garage) once...not too hard, kind of fun to figure out what pattern to use. Cost the same as the prefinished cherry floor we put over it. Had a few close calls at flooring installation and where we cheated the spacing tighter the floor is noticably warmer...I wouldn't recommend doing that.
Oh, and don't come back later and screw cabinet bases to the floor with long screws...you will create a guyser....BTDT.
i looked at Warmboard... but went with Quik Trak
http://www.ebuild.com/articles/articleId.424594/hvac/radiant-floor-heating.hwx
Doh, that's what I intalled too. Not warmboard.
Hey, congratulations on being Boston Magazine's best builder. Very nice write up for you in there.
Thanks a bunch.
Dave West
I installed Warmboard in my attic, and everyone is very pleased. We needed to rip out the existing flooring to beef up the 2x6 joists, so I needed a subfloor anyway, but we also have a winder staircase, so had to be careful about finished flooring height.
Warmboard is an 1-1/8" subfloor, and is very sturdy, particularly when glued and screwed. Well, we used ring-shanks and glue. Because the whole surface is thick aluminum, it heats up fast, and distributes the heat across the flooring, so you don't have cold spots. The advantage of aluminum is that there isn't a long lag-time to heat up, so we only turn the heat on for short periods when needed, and for morning and evening extra bathroom rushes.
Installation is fairly easy if you get a layout and think about it a little bit, which unfortunately my framer didn't do quite right, so instead of offsetting the middle row by half a sheet, he left a nice crosswise seam in the middle. Bondo and belt sander minimized the little hump. He also didn't use the little bar to keep the sheets aligned, so there was a slight offset in the tube run.
We did have one problem when the plumber didn't pay attention a bend under the floor plate of an interior wall, and nicked one of the tubes when installing a bracket. I replaced a run of tubing just to be safe.
I like having a continuous sheet of aluminum to control potential water leakage/spillage.
Tubes in the channels are actually fairly stiff. Leaving them exposed when framing help remind people where not to nail/screw (from the top side). I had cardboard and sheet goods (sheetrock and plywood) as protection for about three years without a problem. The paint held up pretty well.
Because the room is not very large, I wanted to use radiant heat to avoid intrusive heating elements. Because I didn't want to redo the stairs if I had subfloor + radiant layer + finished flooring at the top of the stairs, making an uneven tread height, this seemed to be the way to go. Although the sheets are expensive, reduce the cost of subfloor sheeting, and subtract installation costs. Once you get the layout, just install the subfloor as T&G sheets, and the tubes roll out directly into the grooves in the subfloor, there isn't that extra radiant layer to install. Oh, and it's fairly easy to make new grooves with a router; they even supply MDF templates with the right radii.
Warmboard (the company) was responsive, although I'm just in the next state. The results were great: stiff warm floor, silent invisible heat.
---mike...
Madison Renovations
Cambridge, Mass.
do you mind if i ask approx. how much the Warmboard cost per sheet?
>do you mind if i ask approx. how much the Warmboard cost per sheet?I don't mind, but I don't remember. I bought 12 sheets in mid-2004. I think the cost was around $200 per sheet, but I could be very wrong. Call them up and ask; they were helpful and not high-pressure sales.I'm not sure that I could find my invoice in any reasonable time. sorry.---mike...Madison Renovations
Cambridge, Mass.
Thanks and don't worry about finding the old inv.
IIRC, i was quoted about 110$ per sheet (plus shipping 1400 km) last year so I went with the heating-tubes-in-concrete method. It's less expensive and the only drawback may be the response time when you want to change the temp. in the rooms. We'll see how it works out.
I've put it down twice, including one job where we laid about 100 sheets of it.
It's heavy. If you lay it in the summer, you'll be working on a cooktop. You get an inverted sunburn on your calves...
Did I mention it's heavy?
If you buy enough, the seller should give you a plan, showing where your lefts, rights and ends go. You use the little tee bar to line up the grooves (and smush down any sharp edges), otherwise it's like any other T&G subfloor. Not really tricky at all, other than not hitting the tubing when you're nailing off the flooring.
Seemed like a quality product to me, and the heat response is good, from what I hear from the owners.
k
Edited 1/12/2009 12:08 am ET by KFC