The feeling of walking barefoot on a heated tile floor in the middle of January with a cup of something hot in your hand is an experience you’ll never forget. Especially for the first time after you’ve transformed your bathroom into a much more comfortable space. If you would like to experience this luxurious feeling of warmth, but have cold feet finding the best radiant heated floor for you, FM Pro Remodeling is here to help.
Why Would I Heat My Floor?
The first heated floors were elevated marble in ancient Rome that had fires fanned beneath them. Thankfully, slaves are no longer needed to heat your floors today. Anyone replacing their flooring, especially in the bathroom, should consider radiant heat. It is energy efficient, and helps your furnace to not have to work as hard, or at all. You’ll never have to scoot across the bathroom floor on a mat or towel to keep from stepping onto cold tile again.
Do I Have to Replace My Flooring to Heat It?
The one downside to radiant floor heating is that you have to replace your flooring to install it. However, there is the option to install heated pads between the joists in your floor, but you must have access to the joists through a crawlspace or basement. These systems are often preferred by homeowners who wish to avoid raising the level of their finished floors with a radiant heat system that is installed on top of the subfloor.
Hot Head and Cold Feet?
A heated floor works more efficiently than your furnace because it conducts the heat through the surface of your floor instead of the air. The focus on heating the air is what causes flooring to stay cold. Hot air rises naturally, then it falls back to the floor as it cools. This is why sweat beads on your face while your feet stay frozen. Radiant floor heating starts at the floor, and radiates heat into the rest of the structure of your home. When we warm ourselves from the floor upward, we warm our entire bodies at a lower temperature by getting rid of our cold feet and hot upper body.
Radiant Heat System Options
There are two types of radiant heated floors:
Electric Underfloor Heating
The most common is electric underfloor heating, also known as electric floor heating or electric radiant floor heating. This system works by warming the floor with insulated electric wires above the subfloor, but beneath the flooring. Electric is more affordable, and easier to install, but costs more to operate. This makes them the preferred choice for radiant heat in smaller spaces.
Hydronic Radiant Floor Heating (Water Underfloor Heating)
There are also hydronic heated floors, also called wet underfloor heating, where the floor is heated by tubes of hot water. Hydronic heated floors cost more up front, and the installation is much more complex. However, hydronic costs less to operate, so it makes better financial sense for heating large rooms or entire homes. The upfront cost is paid off over time. A hydronic heated floor may be connected to a water heater or a boiler to source its heat from.
Which Flooring is Best for Radiant Heat?
When choosing your flooring to install with radiant heat, the best option is tile. Ceramic, porcelain, natural stone, and concrete tiles conduct and hold heat much better than any other type of flooring. In addition for being the best match for radiant heat, tile provides you with countless design options. Tile also holds up to much higher temperatures and remains durable for many years.
Heated Tile
Heated floors are the best solution to the problem of cold tile. If you’re already considering or planning a bathroom remodel or replacing the flooring in your home, heated floors are easy to install. Not only will it keep your toes toasty, it actually supplements the work your furnace is doing, and may even cut down on your energy costs.
The Benefits of Underfloor Heating
Durable and Reliable
First off, underfloor heating systems are durable, reliable, and oftentimes capable of outlasting your furnace because they don’t have any moving parts, and don’t have to work as hard. With proper care and maintenance, a floor heating system can last for decades. Some manufacturers warranty their products for up to 25 years.
Lower Thermostat, Lower Costs
Secondly, radiant floor heating can cut down on utility costs. Heated floors warm a room from the floor up. As a result, most people with radiant floor heating systems set their thermostat to a lower temperature. We all turn the thermometer up higher than we’d like to in an effort to warm our feet.
Radiant Heat, No Noise
In-floor radiant heat doesn’t use fans or blowers, so there’s no ambient noise like there is with a furnace running. That also means it doesn’t push dust, dirt, pollen and other allergens through the vents, so it’s also a lot better for allergy sufferers.
Only Install Where Needed
Electric radiant floor heating systems are modular, which means they can be installed only in the rooms where you want or need it. If you’re not ready to equip your whole house with heated floors, you can choose the rooms where heated flooring will benefit you the most. This is usually bathrooms and bedrooms.
Programmable Warm Toes
Many radiant floor heating systems are programmable, which means you can set them to different temperatures at different times of day. This further contributes to the energy efficiency of the product, as well as its convenience. You can turn the system off while you’re sleeping, then have it turn on automatically right before you wake up.
Smart Home Heated Floors
Is there an app for that? Of course! Many new radiant floor heating systems these days are “smart” systems that you can control with your phone, tablet or digital assistant, like Alexa or Siri. For a deep-dive into all aspects of radiant flooring, check out this article.
Choosing the Right Flooring For Your Radiant Floor Heating System
Radiant floor heating systems work better with some flooring options better than they do with others. Tile is the best option because it can take the highest temperatures, and remain durable for years. However, your bare feet won’t want the floor to be any warmer than about 85 degrees, and that is the National Wood Flooring Association’s recommendation for maximum temperature if you plan to install heated solid hardwood.
Tile
Porcelain and ceramic tile are great at conducting heat, so your home will get the full benefit of your radiant floor heating system. Also, tile flooring won’t expand as it warms or contract as it cools, which means it’s less likely to crack.
Laminate
Laminate flooring has the look of hardwood or even tile but usually costs significantly less. It does a great job when installed over radiant heat. Laminate flooring material is built with layers of wood positioned in opposite directions. This creates a more stable flooring material than solid hardwood. It also won’t expand or contract, which is another reason why it pairs well with radiant floor heating systems.
Engineered Hardwood
Like laminate, engineered hardwood is also manufactured in layers so it has a more stable base that doesn’t react to heating and cooling processes. The top layer of engineered hardwood, also called the wear layer, is made of solid wood and comes in all the same varieties you’ll find with actual solid hardwood flooring.
Natural Solid Hardwood
Natural hardwood also can’t take as much heat as tile. But please keep in mind that you can choose wood-look tile to get the beauty of hardwood, with the radiant heat benefits of tile. It expands and contracts with the heat which can create gaps, but experienced installers like FM Pro Remodeling know how to keep these gaps from being created if you would like to heat your hardwood. Just be sure to keep the temperature below 85 degrees.
Natural Stone Tile
More so than pretty much any other flooring materials, travertine, sandstone, marble, granite and other types of natural stone tile flooring heat very, very nicely. Natural stone tile is usually thought of as cold, but that’s because the density of the material amplifies your perception of its temperature. Once you warm it up with a radiant floor heating system, natural stone tile’s physical properties work in your favor, warming the air above it with great efficiency.
Flooring That Can’t Have Radiant Heat
Cold Carpet
Carpet will prevent much of the heat from transferring through your flooring, and into your home. If you want soft heated floors, area rugs keep your feet comfortable without interfering with the radiant floor heating system.
Cold Vinyl
Vinyl isn’t a good choice either. The heat generated from a radiant floor heating system might actually discolor it or cause the off-gassing of toxic chemicals.
If you’re considering heated floors in your bathroom, bedroom, or your entire home, and have any questions, call FM Pro Remodeling at (812) 944-6383 for a free consultation or to schedule a free estimate.
