How to arrange a warm water floor in a wooden house

Modern heating systems are built in such a way as to achieve maximum efficiency from work, create harmony and comfort in the house. This can be achieved by using underfloor heating based on water pipes, which today can be installed even in wooden houses made of logs and timber, as well as glued materials. There is no significant difference in the arrangement of floors, since the technology compliance standards are the same for all types of structures.

Foundation preparation

Do-it-yourself installation of a water-heated floor in a wooden house begins with preparation. At this stage, you need to level the base. Usually they fill up the ground that was obtained when digging the strip foundation and leave room for a sand cushion. The pillow, on average, occupies 5 cm of the base, and is a shock-absorbing layer, and also excludes direct contact of concrete with the ground, which is detrimental to the screed. Ideally, a value of 22 cm should remain on top of the sand pillow.

After the pillow is rammed, waterproofing is placed on top of it using roofing felt or film. The waterproofing is overlapped by 10 cm on top of each other and glued with special adhesive tape.

Rough screed of the future underfloor heating

The base for laying the pipe must be solid. If something happens, the earth sags under the floor, the pipe will burst under the weight of the finishing screed and let it leak. Such repairs are difficult to fix. Therefore, experts recommend equipping a full-fledged «pie» of the future floor, consisting of a black and finishing screed, respectively.

Attention! The rough screed should be filled to the maximum level. To do this, beat off the total horizon of the floor, based on the fact that the minimum level of the screed should be 7 cm.

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It is recommended to use a reinforcing mesh for the floor, which is laid on top of the waterproofing, tied together with knitting wire. It is enough if the grid has a cell measuring 10 by 10 cm. A plaster beacon is set according to the level (as the cheapest option), placing cement mortar and other substrates under it to maintain the distance. Leave the floor until the morning, until the beacons dry, after which they begin to pour.

The next day the screed will be ready. According to the technology, concrete hardens for 28 design days. All this time it must be watered to achieve greater strength.

Floor insulation

As a rule, no one waits 28 days, since there is no time for this during the construction phase. Start laying the insulation with your own hands. As a proven material for floor insulation in a wooden house, extruded foam is used. It is a light, but very dense and warm material, which is often placed under the floorboards in a wooden house. Calculations show that the thickness of the foam for the Central Federal District should be at least 3 cm (usually put 5 cm).

The insulation is spread over the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe house, after which a heat-reflecting film is laid. Actually, the film is a foil base that will reflect heat from the pipe and direct it upwards.

There are two types of film — ordinary and more expensive. The more expensive option is a metallized foil, the cheaper one is a regular one. Metallized foil can be placed on top of the insulation and not protected additionally. Conventional foil requires polyethylene protection, as concrete can corrode it under the influence of an aggressive environment. Since the foil has a thickness of 5 mm, it is possible to obtain the effect of subsidence of the screed by this amount. As a result — falling off tiles, cracks in the grout and other nuances.

After the reflective foil is laid, covered with a film, they proceed to laying the damper tape. The floor screed will deform when heated. Thus, it will put pressure on the walls or foundation, which can lead to cracks, deformation. The damper tape is laid along the perimeter of all walls in a private house, protruding slightly beyond the limits of the future finishing screed. The excess is cut off at the end of the work.

Underfloor heating pipes

Next — the device of a modern warm water floor in a wooden house. An important condition for laying the pipe is that the kennel must be intact. There should be no cuts or kinks, since excess pressure in the circuit will squeeze out this place and there will be water leakage. Therefore, during the laying of the floor, you will have to roll the bay, which they begin to lead from the furnace and return there.

Attention! Experts recommend laying a floor heating pipe so that the length of the circuit does not exceed 80 m. The maximum is allowed to lay a circuit 100 m long, but it is better not to do this. The way out is to divide the room into two or more circuits.

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The choice of a scheme for laying a pipe is an important point in the work. Most often, the «snail» scheme is used, since it has the highest efficiency. Twice as much material will go to it, but, in the long run, it will be more comfortable, since the floor warms up evenly. The principle of laying with such a scheme is that the pipe, conditionally, twists in a spiral, where you set aside the distance between the pipes in advance for a 180-degree turn.

It is believed that a pipe 20 mm in diameter heats 15-20 cm around it. In order to avoid cold zones, it is recommended to place the supply pipes at a distance of no more than 30 cm from each other, and between them, when the pipe is turned, a return pipe will pass. Here there will be a cooled liquid base, which, under the action of a circulation pump, will be supplied to the boiler for heating.

Attention! The “snail” scheme is convenient in that the water supplied to the boiler is slightly cooled, which means that less resources will be spent on heating water than on heating it from scratch. Hence, lower utility costs, despite the high cost of materials at the beginning of work.

How to fix pipes

Everyone who reads this material and comprehends the moment of laying is wondering about fixing pipes. Actually, the easiest option would be to use clips that go around the pipe and clog into the insulation.

For the accuracy of the work, the laying contour is first drawn, then one pulls and rolls the pipe, and the other nails it with light hammer blows to the foam. This method turns out to be quite reliable, since it easily withstands the constant movement of workers through the pipes.

Another option is a little more expensive, but allows you to additionally reinforce the finishing screed. Here a mesh with a small cell of 10 cm is placed, to which the pipe is fastened to ties or knitting wire. If the house has an intermediate room through which pipes pass in transit to other rooms, then lay the circuit in such a way as to save material. True, by turning off some circuits, for example, a hall or a kitchen, areas of cold will form in the intermediate room, which will be uncomfortable. If you want to avoid this, then lay the transit pipes next to each other and use thermal insulation.

In the boiler room, the pipe is cut off with a margin of about half a meter, for ease of installation of the collector. As soon as the last pipe is wound up and fixed to the floor, it is necessary to fix the pipe in the furnace to the wall. After that, it is advisable to check the system, but quite often a finishing screed is poured. A semi-dry screed is often used as a finishing floor screed. It is the most successful in its class, which allows you to get a safe, durable, dry and economical water-heated floor in a wooden house.

When laying metal-plastic pipes for underfloor heating, you have to turn not only 90 degrees, but also 360. To avoid creases in the system, use a special corrugated tool. A pipe is passed through it and pulled throughout the entire circuit. If you need to turn the corrugated pipe helps to balance your efforts and not to do too much.

What does a boiler room look like in a wooden house with underfloor heating

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So, the pipes were brought in, it’s time to mount the collector. What kind of collector it will be — decide for yourself. The main thing is that the number of its conclusions should correspond to the contours of the water-heated floor of your wooden house. The collector is mounted on a wall in a special box or without it. Then, using a flare for underfloor heating pipes, a connection is made to the supply and return circuits.

The collector necessarily includes air vents, a bypass in case it is necessary to loop the system, a circulation pump and a mixture. The latter will allow you to adjust the temperature of only the underfloor heating circuits, and leave the temperature of the radiators, if any, in the house unchanged. Mandatory taps before each branch. It is clear that they require additional investments, transitions from plastic to metal, cause difficulties and take time for installation. Ultimately, they allow you to block the problem area in case of repair.

Attention! It is recommended to seal all transitions from plastic to metal with a special tape or linen thread using a sealing paste. This will prevent system leaks.

Conclusion

This technology of laying underfloor heating pipes is suitable not only for wooden houses, but also for any modern options. On top of the already finished screed, you can put tiles or porcelain tiles, which have better heat dissipation. At the same time, the screed is also made under the laminate, which, despite the substrate, will let heat through and heat the room.

The efficiency of a warm floor is much higher than that of radiators, since the heating goes from bottom to top, creating a comfortable temperature distribution. Underfloor heating can be used alone or in addition to heating radiators. Modern systems allow you to install an automation unit that controls the temperature of each circuit and creates individual comfort zones in the house.

It is advisable to fill the screed, since the plank floor, due to its high density, will pass heat worse. Concrete, on the contrary, is inert, and, warming up in 12-14 hours with a screed size of 9 cm, retains heat for a long time.