Hydronic Retrofit in a Basement Slab: Insulate!
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Retrofitting in-floor heat is a great way to warm up a chilly basement bathroom. But unless you have insulation under the heating system, your customers are going to spend fat stacks of Benjies heating the earth every month.
Step by step:
To keep the heat where you want it, cut out the slab before installing the heating system.
Dig deep enough to allow for gravel, insulation, and a slab on top.
Cover the earth with compacted gravel to support the slab and keep water from wicking in.
Reinforced plastic over the gravel stops water vapor.
Rigid insulation comes next surrounding the new slab on all five sides.
You’ll need some sort of steel reinforcement, either wire mesh or rebar and then install the hydronic tubing.
Pour the slab over the tubing, let it cure, and cover the whole assembly with flooring—and be confident that your customers Benjies will stay in the bank.
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2012: IECC:
SECTION R402 BUILDING THERMAL ENVELOPE
SECTION R403 SYSTEMS
2015 IECC:
Section 402: Building Thermal Envelope
R502.1.1.1: Building Thermal Envelope (existing building)
R 502.1.1.2 Heating and Cooling Systems (existing building)
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—From the fat-stack detail-pack of Otogawa-Anschel Design+Build, in Minneapolis, Minn.
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