if you recall we installed a product called
warm board,
here, as our subfloor as well as an in floor heating system. this 1" subfloor with a thin, 1/8" thick sheet of aluminum plate will be keeping our feet toasty warm once the house is complete.
the system was designed in several zones. the first floor of the "north house" is one zone, the kitchen and great room two separate zones and the second floor of the "north house" a fourth zone. the layout was such that we could build all of the interior structural walls before installing the tubing for the hot water to run through. however, in order to be very efficient and heat each zone correctly a few of the non-structural walls had to wait until we could install the pex-aluminum-pex tubing.
we finally received the tubing yesterday and we were eager to install it. first we had to really clean all of the areas where we were going do the installation. all of the grooves in the sub-floor had to be free of debris to ensure that the tubing will not be punctured or damaged.
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| the tubing coming up from the floor to the manifold location |
the loops of tubing can only be so long in order for the hot water to not cool down as it is running through the system, so that for example the second floor is one zone but is made up of three separate loops of tubing which go through the floor and then back up to the manifold location in a panel in the bathroom. matt and björn drilled holes in the floor for the tubing, and used a grinder to make sure the aluminum and wood around the holes was smooth in order to not puncture the tubing.
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| björn and matt installing the tubing |
the manifold, which we haven't ordered yet, regulates the water and tells the water heater to send hot water to a location. we originally had designed the system so that all of the tubing met the manifold in the crawl space however not having the manifold above the level of the tubing can cause issues with air bubbles so we changed the location today as we were planning the final layout.
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tubing installed in the warm board subfloor system, utilizing nailing plates
to hold it in place |
the tubing is simply pressed into the grooves using a rubber mallet and in areas where it is having trouble staying put björn added a nailing plate to keep it in place. today we finished all of the second floor tubing and we are planning on tackling the lower floor tomorrow.
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| this is a supply tube through going through the second floor |
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the pex-aluminum-pex tubing must divert around the toilet, so that it
does not melt the wax ring |
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each tube is clearly labeled for return and supply for each loop, the manifold
will eventually be located here in this wall |
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| supply and return tubing |
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| we also made a dr. seuss hat out of some extra tubing |
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| deep in thought |
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