Heated floor in the bath: types and technology

In many baths a cold floor becomes a problem. Let the walls be warm, and the air even hot, let the water be thoroughly heated - anyway, the base can remain icy. There is a natural desire to warm it, thereby correcting the situation. But warm floors in the baths have a number of nuances that must be taken into account.

Special features

The device of the Russian bath has been honed for a long time, and it is very perfect. But to make the room more favorable, to improve its microclimate, you need to use heating elements inside the floor. In addition, such designs will contribute to accelerated drying of the base; All these advantages will be fully realized only with careful preparation and real knowledge of such a matter.

Speaking about the advantages and disadvantages of the heated floor in the bath, it should also be emphasized that its use helps to reduce the likelihood of fungal (including mold) infection.

Floor heating is needed to increase the life of interior furniture, walls, ceilings, finishing materials. Even in an environmentally friendly building, you can build the warmest floor, especially since it is much more pleasant to use it than a cold one.

Necessary tools and accessories

When building a water version of the floor, the main heating element is carefully selected pipes. They are evaluated by:

  • material;
  • cross section;
  • length;
  • configurations;
  • connecting dimensions.

Copper pipes corrode a little and serve for a long time, guaranteed to work for at least 50 years. The flip side of these advantages is the increased cost. Metal-plastic is also relatively expensive, while installing such pipes is significantly heavier than components made of copper. But they are flexible and give a minimum amount of waste in the process.

Polyethylene is much less flexible, the fee for it is relatively small, as well as for auxiliary parts.When working you will need to use a special soldering iron.

In order to increase the efficiency of a heated floor, an insulating substrate will be required; the only difference when choosing a water variant is the equipment with devices to simplify installation.

Penofol, polystyrene foam plates are widely used as such a substrate. There is no special need to use collectors, because the total floor area in the bath is hardly large enough; but if the natural circulation is not enough, they must be used.

On the other hand, flow meters, thermal heads (placed on return pipes), air venting systems, water drain valves, locking valves and heat meters are absolutely necessary. To supply hot water to the system, special heating equipment is required, for example, an electric boiler.

It is important to understand that electrical heating can be performed on a variety of structural schemes:

  • with the help of heating elements;
  • on inductive coils;
  • on the electrodes.

A typical boiler is equipped with a pump, an air vent system, an expansion tank. Fire safety, small size and high efficiency are largely suppressed by the high value of the electric current. Therefore, the attention of consumers and installers often attract gas heaters. They must include heat exchangers, fans, thermometers and pressure gauges, valves of various types, automatic systems. When installing a gas boiler, it is necessary to take measures to prevent fire and explosion, to register the installation scheme and the equipment itself.

It will be impossible to do without auxiliary tools - building tape measures, pliers (pliers), building level, adjustable wrenches, wrenches and cap wrenches, screwdrivers, grinders, and so on.

How to do it yourself?

To make a water-heated floor in the bath means to create a closed loop, the pipes of which serve to circulate the coolant. Be sure to use the built-in pump.

To supply heat you can use:

  • water;
  • ethylene glycol;
  • antifreeze of different composition;
  • its solution in water.

The second option is electric, mostly provided by heat due to electric spirals or infrared film mats.Both systems have positive and negative sides. So, installing a water structure will be more expensive, because you will need to buy a boiler and a pump, hydraulic fittings, pipes made of copper or plastic. But reducing operating costs will compensate for the costs in just 5-6 years. Installation of electrical equipment will cost less, but it should be noted that electricity tariffs are steadily increasing.

It is better to refuse water heating to those who do not know how to carry out installation of such systems on their own and are not willing to pay professional performers.

To do everything properly, you need to prepare good calculations and design the heating complex carefully. All those who have experienced interruptions in the operation of water heating systems and violations of their integrity, note that repair was long, tedious and expensive in the long run. You will need to destroy the entire screed and then re-insert it.

After reviewing the step-by-step installation guide for an electric floor heating, it is easy to see that installation is relatively simple. But the suitability to repair it is not higher than the option on the water.The most economical and practical way to heat a bath floor with electricity is to use infrared mats. Even if one of the elements fails, all the others will work without fail.

Electric

Installing underfloor heating is mostly recommended for washrooms. Regardless of the specific type of system, it is imperative to ensure reliable thermal insulation of the base. On top of it, a screed is formed from a mixture of cement and sand or from a ready-made dry mixture. It is advisable to lay ceramic tile or wood flooring above the tie. Some professionals believe that waterproofing should be done under a screed. In the bath with additional rooms - a rest room (waiting room), toilet, separate steam room and washing room - it is desirable to use heating in all of them at once.

The cable with two conductors is much easier to lay, because the other end does not need to be connected to the thermostat. Electric heating can be performed by devices with a specific heat generation of at least 250 W per 1 square meter. The advantage of a twin cable is the minimum level of the electromagnetic field.When laying a heating element in a sink with a lower overlap of wood, it is necessary to provide maximum protection from fire using fire retardants.

Each joint of the electric cable should be qualitatively insulated, and immediately before placing it - carefully check the entire insulating layer for integrity.

It is advisable to take a kit for an electric floor with a special grid, which helps to install the product without any problems. The calculations should be based on the fact that the cable cannot be brought closer to the walls by more than 5 cm. The distance to other heating systems should be at least 10 cm, and the laying should be strictly uniform, without the slightest bends and tensions. Excessive convergence of cables leads to overheating and short circuits.

The laid and connected cable is immediately started and checked, once again evaluating the quality of the insulation. Without performing such tests, you can not put a reinforcing mesh, pour the tie and put the top floor element. The preparation time of the cement and sand screed is 28 days, only after that it is allowed to lay the front boards.The industrial-quality dry screed helps save time: in addition, it can be reinforced with fiberglass. The layout of the cable on the serpentine or snail-like schemes is quite acceptable, you can not put it where there will be furniture and other heavy objects.

The infrared floor is distinguished at the same time by its tightness of location and an increased level of electrical safety. The device works in a very gentle way, thanks to which it is perfectly compatible with the wooden floor. The total height does not exceed 20 mm, which means that the room does not lose its dimensions.

Important: regardless of the method of heating, you need to make sure that there are no air bubbles and voids in the screed, they adversely affect the properties of the heated floor.

From the stove and boiler

If it is decided to use the water heated floor in the bath, it is logical to feed it with hot water obtained from the main furnace. A heat exchanger is made above the combustion chamber; it is often played by a simple tank or a complex of pipes. A pipeline is created in the direction from it; to ensure the flow of chilled water to the heat exchanger will only help the circulation pump.The use of mixing nodes helps to reduce the temperature of the water entering the floor.

Concrete

Already when laying the foundation of concrete, it is necessary to take care of the side slope with the discharge.

When planning an outdoor sewage system, you need to consider:

  • how intensively the bath will be operated;
  • what are its dimensions;
  • on what ground the building is being built, whether it is deeply frozen;
  • whether it will be possible to connect to a centralized system.

Important: any warm floor is incompatible with the flowing type of domestic sewage, because the contact of the heating elements with water will bring them out of action or quickly block the work.

If you pour in the washing concrete base, it makes sense to use ceramic tiles; Due to the built-in heating, this solution will be very reliable and pleasant to use. It is advisable to put a wooden lattice on the tile in order to minimize the risk of burns.

Finally, it is worth considering the feasibility of the formation of the floor on screw piles. Such designs are perfect if the bath will warm up only occasionally (once a week or even less), but to extremely high temperatures.The final answer, whether to do it or not, can only be given by trained specialists.

Tips and tricks

The opinion that an electric underfloor heating in a bath cannot provide security is not based on anything. More precisely, it is “based” on the experience of a number of amateurs and non-professional builders who did not fit well in the performance of work. Appeal to real statistics shows that the risk of electric shock is no higher than when using conventional lighting fixtures.

Regarding which material to use on top of the heating element, the answer will be unequivocal - this is definitely not natural wood.

With all the advantages of such a material, in this case it is not suitable, the thermal conductivity of the wooden floor is too low. At home, you can still put a laminate or linoleum, but in the bath, this solution is noticeably inferior to tile. An expensive and outwardly attractive stone is far from being suitable for all consumers, for financial reasons.

For thermal insulation of the pipe under the tile it makes sense to do with the help of special plates (based on foam or expanded polystyrene).You need to carefully find out what are the properties of the coating, which is produced by one or another manufacturer, because the features of the technology can quite significantly change them. Mineral wool is good in itself, but it bends and contracts under load, so you should use it only in combination with flat details.

With your own hands you can make a warm floor in the bath of bottles, because the air filling them significantly increases the insulating properties. Work is done relatively quickly and with minimal expenditure of money and labor.

Reviews

Everyone who took advantage of the well-made warm floor in the bath, express exclusively positive assessments. And those who just tried, how this system works, immediately begin to think about how to organize such a device in their own washing room.

How to make a water-heated floor in the bath, see the following video.

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Information provided for reference purposes. For construction issues, always consult a specialist.

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