Master Bath - Part 8

Nate finished tiling the interior of the shower on Friday.  So I got the weekend to install the hydronic in-floor heat.

I didn't quite make it.

I'd previously forgotten to install the thermostat for this zone.  That meant drilling some more holes and fishing the control wire down to the basement.

Then I could start on the underlayment for the screed.  It's the Bekotec system from a company called Schluter.  These 2x4 interlocking foam panels are cut to fit and laid out on the floor.

Once they were all in place, I installed the hydronic tubing.  The "studs" on the panels hold the tubing in place for the most part.  The only place it didn't really work perfectly is where I made 180-degree turns.  The tubing has a tendency to lift the edge of the foam panel a little or not lay perfectly flat.

The tubing manufacturer (Nibco) has a design service that I took advantage of to get a material list.  They recommended routing the tubing on 8-inch centers.  The studs on the foam panels ended up pushing it out to 9-inch, which is close enough.

The black wire is the floor sensor for the thermostat.  It shuts the system down if the floor gets too hot.

You can also see that I've run two loops of tubing to ensure that the heat is even across the whole room.

Also, I didn't run tubing close to the right-hand wall in the second photo because the cabinetry will be directly above; there's no sense in heating the floor under the cabinets.

I was only able to get the first loop done over the weekend; the second loop I finished tonight.

Now I'm ready for Nate to comeback and do the screed.  That will probably be later in the week after he finishes another job.