Warm water floor in a wooden house

A wooden house, despite the archaism of the very idea of ​​using wood as a building material, can become quite convenient and comfortable housing in the current conditions. This type of building is very convenient for summer cottages, and the emergence of new technologies, the construction of modular wooden houses, have made wooden houses a successful and practical solution to the housing problem. Another question is what means of communication can equip a wooden residential building. If this housing is long-term and designed for long-term and permanent residence, then the heating of a residential facility comes out on top.

First of all, the strength of the structure itself confuses. Are wooden structures, including ceilings, able to cope with the installation of additional heating equipment. Judging by successful practical experience, the use of water heating systems in wooden houses is real and no less effective. Installation of the boiler and heating radiators is already a completed stage. Consider the following, is a warm water floor suitable for installation in a wooden house as a complete heating system.

The value of underfloor heating for wooden residential buildings

Wooden houses being built today are not much inferior to capital stone buildings. However, if a stone house, having a concrete foundation and reinforced concrete floors, can be equipped with any equipment and communications, the situation with wooden buildings is not so rosy. The whole problem is that from a technological point of view, a warm water floor carries a significant structural load. Not every room has a sufficient margin of safety, thanks to which complex communications can be successfully installed.

Water heating systems work due to the circulation of the coolant through a system of pipelines laid in the floor. The mass of the entire working structure of warm water floors reaches large values ​​in working condition.

For reference: the mass of concrete underfloor heating for one room is 5-6 tons. (sq. m. screeds 200-300 kg).

Is the wooden floor of a country house able to withstand such a weight. Will the logs of the base of a wooden house withstand such a weight, will such floors be reliable and durable? So many questions are before you, but there are options that can quickly and effectively solve the problem. Floor systems of warm water floors are techniques that have shown themselves well in practice. Underfloor heating, due to its advantages, makes wooden houses from ordinary temporary huts, full-fledged residential facilities.

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For a wooden building, underfloor heating plays a very important role. The heating system «water heated floor» in a wooden house is revealed in all its glory. The advantages of this heating option are more than obvious and are as follows:

• heating floors most optimally warm up the interior of the living space;
• in the absence of conversion, with such heating, the circulation of dust inside the room is excluded;
• a wooden house, sufficiently well insulated and equipped with warm water floors, is reliably protected from such a phenomenon as damp corners;
• underfloor heating keeps the optimal humidity regime inside the wooden house;
• with this method of heating, the likelihood of burns is completely eliminated, in contrast to the radiator heating system;
• economic indicators. Warm water floors in comparison with radiator heating by 30% reduce fuel costs associated with the preparation of the coolant;
• significant savings in internal space;
• reliability, safety and durability of heating systems based on water floors.

Be sure to read: the heating system in a wooden house.

Speaking of wooden houses, the only drawback of such a heating system is the bulkiness of the structure itself, the duration and painstaking work. However, subject to the necessary technologies, instructions and rules, the installation of a warm floor in a wooden house will not be associated with much trouble. The result of the work itself will be the efficient operation of heating equipment and significantly improved living conditions.

For reference: the underfloor heating water circuit, made of polyethylene pipes, can be used to work with an antifreeze-based coolant. This heating option is ideal for country and country houses, designed for rare visits during the cold season. A pipeline filled with antifreeze is not subject to defrosting.

Note: to learn how to make a water-heated floor on wooden logs, read the link.

Ways of laying a water floor in a wooden house

The following should be said right away. A wooden house, no matter how strong it is, a priori lacks stone load-bearing walls and ceilings. The only stone element of a wooden building can be a foundation or basement. However, modern technologies of small housing construction involve the minimum use of concrete work in the process of building a residential facility.

On a note: block houses are assembled within 2-3 days. All structural elements, including internal partitions and ceilings, are designed for a certain load. It is allowed only over time to equip the stone foundation, thereby giving the wooden building the necessary strength, reliability and solidity.

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That’s why! The floor in a private house is usually made inlaid, according to a flooring scheme. For one-story buildings, logs, solid and massive wooden structural elements act as the base of the floor. In such a situation, a water-heated floor in a frame house can be laid under wooden flooring or resorted to new, very successful and effective methods. To date, there is a lot of practical experience in laying water floors on a wooden base. There are two types of laying heating floors on a wooden base:

• according to the modular scheme;
• on a rack base.

Accordingly, both options can be applied during the construction of panel and block houses. Water pipes are laid in the space between the lags or on the rough floor surface resting on the logs. Modular and rack laying schemes have their own design and technological differences.

In the first case, ready-made wooden modules are used to lay the water circuit loop. In the second option, the heating pipes are mounted in the space between the boards and slats. The main feature when installing the first and second options is that you create a draft floor in which heating pipes are installed. On top of the prefabricated structure, metal heat exchange plates are laid, on which the finishing floor covering is already placed.

On a note: when using ceramic tiles or linoleum, the rough surface, together with pipes and metal plates, is additionally covered with an insulating layer of DSP boards. This measure is caused by the need to ensure uniform distribution of the load over the entire floor surface, to create conditions for uniform heat transfer between the water circuits and the finish coating.

Before starting work on the installation of underfloor heating, you will need to complete a number of mandatory steps, including the development of a heating system project and a survey of the structural elements of the building. Such a precaution is associated with the technological features of wooden buildings. For example:

• a wooden building already shrinks within the first year. Approximately up to 5%. This remark must be taken into account when equipping underfloor heating during the construction of a wooden house;
• wood behaves differently in different climates. Excessive dryness or vice versa, high humidity causes cracking of wooden structures, the formation of rot and mold. Therefore, such houses should be built taking into account all the subtleties and nuances that protect wooden structures from negative atmospheric effects.

As for the design of the heating scheme, here one should take into account the heated area, the degree of thermal insulation of residential premises and, accordingly, the climatic conditions of the region. Neglecting these aspects, as a result of painstaking and laborious work, you can get an inefficient heating system, a warm floor, from which there will be little use.

On a note: The thermal efficiency of a residential building is one of the defining elements of a heating system. With competent actions, it is possible to achieve an increase in the efficiency of heating equipment by 15-20%. Insulation of wall panels, window and door openings is a prerequisite for high-quality heating of the house.

The preparatory work prior to the installation of heating floors includes the assessment of the base. Not every building has the necessary technological parameters, thanks to which you can immediately begin to equip the heating system. Wooden base boards, logs should lie correctly, have a “healthy” structure. Rotten areas or damaged whole fragments must be replaced with new products. An optimal distance of 60 cm is allowed between the lags. Large gaps existing between the boards, over 2 mm, are eliminated by laying heat-insulating material.

For reference: if it is visually possible to determine that the wooden flooring or structural elements have exhausted themselves, it is better to dismantle them and create a new structure — the base.

When examining the foundation, pay attention to the following factors:

• does the wind “walk” under the floor;
• whether the logs lie evenly or at a great distance from each other;
• old boards before installation are best treated with a planer, removing a layer of old and corroded wood;
• the entire deck surface must be level. The presence of irregularities, at least up to 2 mm, is allowed.

Instructions for installing underfloor heating in wooden buildings

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After preparing the base, the main task is to create the necessary floor insulation in a wooden house. Properly made insulation retain heat and direct it upwards, thereby heating the floor covering. Otherwise, you will be heating the basement or heating the ground in your garden.

A rough coating or raised floor is made in order to lay a layer of thermal insulation on it. Having nailed sheets of plywood or chipboard to the logs from below, which are covered with steam and heat-insulating film. Further, the entire internal space between the lags is filled with foam or mineral wool. Usually the thickness of the insulation layer does not exceed 100 mm. The figure clearly shows the options for mounting a water floor on a wooden structure.

Mineral wool is best suited as a heater, the density of which is 35-40 kg / m³. You can use foam or polystyrene foam.

Using a modular set-up scheme, you will spend much more time, but your floor will be an order of magnitude harder and stronger. You choose which scheme to use, modular or rack. And in the first and second cases, everything is decided by the level of comfort that you expect when equipping the heating system in a particular room.

The modular type of laying allows you to properly lay the water circuit, observing the required pipe pitch and layout scheme. In addition, the metal plates will be securely fixed, there is no need to lay an additional leveling layer before laying the finish coat. The modules are very convenient when equipping indoor water floors laid with a snake. A similar scheme for laying the heating pipeline is also suitable for rack type.

Important! You should know that the metal plates are laid transversely to the grooves in which the water pipe is laid.

Conclusion

As in all cases, laying underfloor heating in this case is not complete without a layer of hydro and thermal insulation. Underfloor heating can be done using metal-plastic, copper and polyethylene pipes. It is important to know what will go where. For the first floor, you can get by with copper pipes, but their cost is quite high and at a high temperature of the coolant there is a high probability of damage to the integrity of the insulating layer.

Metal-plastic pipes are the most common phenomenon, however, when using a modular type, such consumables are of little use. The reason is that metal-plastic pipes have a large turning radius. For a pipe with a diameter of 16 mm, the bending radius is 80 mm. Polyethylene pipes are best suited, which can be freely bent and laid in accordance with a given pattern. During installation, observe the pipe laying step, it should not be more than 20-30 cm. These parameters correspond to the distance between the grooves in the modules or between the loops of the water circuit in the rack scheme.