Floor Heating for under Shower Floors & Shower Bench Seats

Hello. Today we're going to talk about putting electric radiant heat in the floor of your shower, as well as in the bench. We have a couple of different mats here that we're going to be installing into this shower. In the United States, there is no specific wet location listing per the National Electric Code, but in Canada, there is. The cables included in both of these mats have been tested to meet the Canadian standard for wet location listing, which means they are suitable for use in wet areas. If you're in Canada, you're all set to go ahead and install these mats. However, if you're in the United States, it's important to check with your authority having jurisdiction or your local code official to ensure that installing electric heat in the shower is permissible.

When it comes to installing the floor heating in your shower, we offer different sizes of mats designed for standard-sized shower floors. If, for some reason, the mat does not fit your shower floor, you can utilize our existing roll product, which comes on a spool. This allows you to spool the heating cable back and forth or use cut-and-turn rolls, as all the wire is the same. It's worth noting that if your shower has an edge drain or a trough drain, you may not be able to use the prefabricated mats, as they feature a five-inch hole in the center that allows for easy placement over a center drain.

For the bench, we have a roll specifically designed for that purpose, available in various widths to accommodate different bench sizes. If you're considering heating your shower bench, it's certainly a luxury to have a warm surface to sit on. The installation process involves laying out the mat, securing it, and wiring it back to the thermostat, which we will demonstrate shortly.

Now that we have concrete down on the shower floor, we are ready to place the mats. Before installation, we will test them with a digital ohm meter to ensure they are functioning properly. For smaller mats, you may need to set your digital ohm meter to a range above 200, often 2000, as smaller mats can have ohm readings above 200 and may show up as zero if set to the 200 range. Typically, we would lay the mats out on the floor to check their condition. If we were installing a floor heating system throughout the entire bathroom, we would use a circuit check to ensure the wires are intact while walking on them. However, since we are just laying them down and covering them, we will test them after installation to confirm everything is working correctly.

Now we are ready to test the wire. I will hold the black lead on one black wire while placing the yellow lead on the other. We should get a reading of about 370 ohms, which is within the expected range. Additionally, I will check from the black wire to ground to ensure there are no readings, and then from yellow to ground, which should also show no readings. Remember, the yellow and black wires indicate that you have a 120-volt mat.

As we prepare to install the mat on the bench, it's important to ensure that the cable faces downward. We also need to create a pathway for the cold lead to run down the wall and connect to the thermostat. Once we have the mat positioned correctly, we will use hot glue to secure it to the bench. After gluing the mat down, we will route the cold lead back to the thermostat, taking care not to bend it more than 90 degrees.

While placing the mat, we encountered a minor issue: the hole cut in the center of the mat is slightly off-center compared to the drain. This can happen if the drain is not perfectly centered in the shower. Fortunately, the hole is five inches wide, allowing us to trim the green mesh back a bit and adjust the wires as needed. It's essential to ensure that the wire does not get too close to the drain, as the drain flange may extend outward, potentially trapping the wire or interfering with screws.

With the mat now in place, we have trimmed the mesh around the drain to ensure a proper fit. It's crucial to keep an eye on the wire placement to avoid any issues with the drain flange. We also ran the cold lead down along the base of the bench. Next, we will install the sensor into the mat. It's important to avoid placing the sensor wire in the same conduit as the high-voltage wires and to keep the sensor wire, which is low voltage, away from high-voltage wires over long distances. Crossing the two wires is acceptable, but running them parallel for extended lengths can lead to inaccurate readings.

We have positioned the sensor wire about six inches away from the heating wires, ensuring it runs into an open loop. The sensor head should not rest against the electric heating wire, as this can affect the system's performance. We will weave the sensor wire through the mesh to help hold it in place, possibly adding a bit of hot glue for extra security.

Now that the wire is down on the concrete base, we have covered it with one layer of thinset, followed by another layer to achieve the correct pitch, ensuring that water drains toward the drain. The drain has been installed, and we are now ready to proceed with the tile installation. The shower is coming along nicely, but we still need to address the shower bench. We will capture some footage of that and show you the finished product shortly.

The tradesmen have completed their work, and we now have the base cap installed along the bottom of the shower. It has been set in silicone and tilted to direct water toward the drain. The shower bench has also been installed with silicone and sealed around the edges, ensuring it is pitched correctly for drainage. With these two components in place, we are almost finished.

Wow, does this bench feel nice and warm! A lot of effort has gone into the shower enclosure, and now we enjoy the luxury of a heated floor and a warm bench inside this shower. If you have any more questions about how to install heating in your shower, feel free to give us a call at 800-875-5285 or visit us at www.warmlyyours.com. Thank you for watching.