INSTALLING YOUR BATHROOM'S ELECTRIC RADIANT FLOOR HEATING SYSTEM

Watch as Robert Robillard, also known as 'A Concord Carpenter' performs a full installation of the TempZone™ radiant heating system. From start to finish, Robillard says this model of infloor heating is one of the most effective ways to warm spaces like bathrooms. The accompanying article about this radiant floor heating system installation can be found at AConcordCarpenter.com.

Hi, I'm Rob Robillard, and you're at aconcordcarpenter.com. Today's product review, we're taking a look at an electric radiant heat product. It's going to go on the floor of this bathroom, and it's from a company called Warmly Yours. It's their TempZone electric radiant-heat mat system.

Basically, this kind of an odd-shaped bathroom. There's going to be a tub, a very small soaking tub here, so it's very broken up. And back here is the toilet, and the shower is over here; you can't see that.

What we've done is I basically made a drawing, a detailed drawing and a template, and sent it to Warmly Yours. Within twenty-four hours, they got back to me with a plan, and within another three or four days, they sent the product right out. It's a very easy company to work with. I dealt with them before, with snow melting - a snow melting product that I did recently, and you can see that on my site.

So what we're going to do here is we're going to install, as soon as all the plumbing is done, we're going to secure the subfloor, we're going to secure an underlaying, probably a hard back or a DUROCK type product. And once that's secured down, we're going to apply some Thinset to the floor, embed our matting. It's basically a mesh mat with the heating element in it. And we're going to set that in Thinset, and then we're going to Thinset over that, and apply tile on top of it. So it's going to be a heated floor.

You can't see here, but over here we had the electrician install a box and a 15-amp power supply to it. That's going to be the power supply to the heat, as well as a thermostat over here. And my guess is there probably will be a floor sensor that will go in with the matting as well, that's part of the components.

I found the company super-easy to work with, they really know what they're doing. They gave me detailed drawings, they're super responsible on the phone and via email, and the installation directions are pretty straightforward. So we're going to give this a go, we're going to finish our work here as far as the framing and structural stuff goes, and we're going to see about installing this mat. So let's get started.

Okay, the last time we were here, the bathroom was not quite in this spot, we had to do some structural framing, we had to do some wall repair and installation. We have since done all that and put in our subfloor. The tub is installed, and most of the tile is installed as well.

Next step is we are going to install the Warmly Yours matting on the floor. A couple of things I want to point out is it comes with a very detailed manual, which is a do-it-yourself manual. Makes it very, very easy. And one thing, that I don't know if the camera can pick this up or not, but it comes with an installation plan. And basically what they did, they show a starting point and an ending point, and they basically show you how to wrap your matting. And basically you have to cut it and flip it or turn it, to get it to fit, especially in an odd space like this.

So what we're going to do today, is we're going to take this heating mat, we're going to unravel it, and start laying it out, and marking up the floor, and see how it works.

Okay, we've prepped the bathroom, and we're ready to install the heat, flooring for the heat. It comes in this roll, and basically what we do, according to a plan that Warmly Yours laid out for us, we basically just follow this lay-out plan. You cut the mesh, and you turn the roll as needed. So we're going to kind of fold the roll and cut it back and forth and kind of weave through this bathroom, in that fashion. We're going to secure the mat, wires down, with either a staple gun, taking care not to staple into the wires, or a hot-glue gun, whichever works best.

If we have to, if we have to run free-form some of this wire, you can actually pull this wire off the mesh, then cut it off the mesh, then run free-form as well, around obstacles and things like that. I'm hoping we don't have to do that in this bathroom.

The mat comes with a circuit checker, it's not an ohm tester or a jumper tester, it's just a circuit tester, and it lets you know that if the wires are broken you will hear a tone. And basically, the tone sounds like this. (tone sound) So once we get that set up, we'll leave that turned on, and we'll start laying it out.

Up here is a thermostat, and we have this wire here, this rope that we're going to use to pull the wire up to the thermostat. So that will be where our power comes from; it's 120 volts.

We're going to get started, we're going to start installing this, and we'll see how it goes.

Okay, the Thinset is dry, and basically what it's done is that it's basically encapsulated the Warmly Yours matting onto the subfloor, onto the floor, and it creates a nice surface to now put our tiles on top. What we'll do next is we'll mix up another batch of Thinset, we'll very gently trowel it on, and apply our floor tiles, just like we would normally. So let's get started.

This is the finished floor, and the matting runs all the way under here. And the feeds come up this wall right here, to a thermostat.

Well the bathroom is finally done. And the best part about it is this. Being able to walk barefoot, comfortably on what normally would be super cold tile, now is super warm and cozy. That's why we do this, right? We do this to make our homes comfortable, and easy to live in. You step out of the shower, you step on a warm, warm floor. Not only is it providing comfort, but it's supplementing theheat in this bathroom. You have a two-foot radiator, not a lot of radiator behind the door here. That's not going to be enough to warm this room comfortably. This would be a very cold bathroom, normally.

The Warmly Yours heating mat that is underneath this tile will supply some of the heat, and probably the majority of the heat in this bathroom. It is going to make this room nice and cozy, beautiful heat, as well as really comfortable to walk bear foot. And aren't we mostly bear foot in bathrooms? In the mornings, anyway, when we're taking our showers or whatever. So let's make it comfortable.

From start to finish, this was a super fun project. I really, really enjoyed working with the Warmly Yours people. From Matt when I ordered it, to speaking to Julia about the product itself, they were super fun and super easy people to get along with and to talk to. I found them easy to deal with, easy to ask follow-up questions with. When the product arrived, it came with great instructions and detailed drawings. As long as you carefully follow those instructions, and you carefully install the system, you've got a great system. You've got years and years of warm floors in your home. Enjoy the comfort and the beauty of a nice remodeled bathroom, as well as the heat.

It's a great system. I highly recommend it. I'm Rob Robillard, you're at aconcordcarpenter.com, and we'll see you at the next product review. Take care.