Worth it to put in radiant heat?

[Don]

I am having to pull up the wood floor in my kitchen/dinning room due to water damage. I willhave it replaced but wondered if it would be worth it to put in electric radiant heat in the floor before the new wood is put down. This area of the house stays a little colder than the rest of the house. Do they have a type that can go under solid hardwood floors? I am having trouble find it at Lowes. They say there's can only be used under a "floating" wood floor.

Also, what is the life of these things as If it ever goes out I am assuming the entire floor has to be scraped. I have read of some you can put between the floor joist but I cant see how this would work effectively as the heat would have to go through the subfloor before it even gets to the wood.

By the way I have a crawl space with a wood subfloor. Thanks for any advice!

[Joseph Meehan]

While there may be many reasons, most of the time when a part of the home stays too cool in winter it is because of a poorly designed heating distribution system. If the coolness is your only issue, I would suggest finding a good HVAC contractor and find out what it will take to fix the real problem.

Don't expect Lowes or any big box store to have what you will need. A real heating supplier is the place to go.

There are lots of choices and I believe you would be a good idea to talk to a professional contractor about what choice might be best for your home. Many different ones may work, but your particular situation (room size, current heat sources, fuel, etc.) all are important considerations.

While the below the subfloor may not be my first choice, I understand it works fine, at least in your type of situation where it would be part of the full time heat system. It would be less useful in a situation, like maybe a bath, where you may only want occasional heat. Of course the other systems you are considering are not stellar solutions for those situations either.

Is that part of the floor over the craw space well insulated?

[m Ransley]

Electric heat will likely cost you double per BTU than your gas furnace. Didnt you ever wonder why Electric furnaces are rarely used. My utility co used to give them away free instaled, because they new your bill would double. Get a heating pro out to fix what you have.