Radiant Heating DIY

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Everyone likes warm feet, and that’s the attraction of radiant infloor heating systems. Various designs use hot water or electricity to warm buildings from the bottom up, and this feature is being incorporated into more and more new structures these days.

What most homeowners don’t realize is how easy radiant infloor heating systems are to install yourself. Advances in technology mean that it’s now quite reasonable to incorporate radiant heat into renovations, additions, perennially cold rooms and even underneath paving bricks.

If you can do basic plumbing, you can install the piping needed for a hot water radiant infloor system. This approach is called a ‘hydronic’ system in the trade, and what scares most people away is the apparent complexity of the job. All those pipes snaking around does conjure a daunting image, though the reality of the installation is something quite different.

Hydronics hardware is terrific these days, easy to work with and functions perfectly in both poured concrete floors and on wood-framed situations. The technology is now mature, and the key to successful installation of a radiantly heated floor is understanding the essentials and applying diligence when it comes to putting the hardware in. Although there’s not enough room to go into all the details here, leading hardware manufacturers offer all the technical information you’ll need.

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