Installation of Warm Tiles heating system?

[Adam]

Do I need to put any sort of layer over the wires? Thinking through it, I would figure that using a notched trowel over the wires would be a pain. Is it? Or is there a protective sheet or something you put between the wires and the thinset? Any other feedback on installing this system?

[zafdor]

Yes, the wires make it a little more difficult, but as long as you're careful you should be OK. You put nothing over them, but the thinset will have to be pretty thick (3/8"). The wires are then imbedded in the thinset. I have heard of people running a second temp sensor into the floor in case the first one fails, but I did not do this.

The tiles will be cool within 1" of the edge of the wires, so make sure you think about this before cheating by not putting wires where they should be (think about where your feet are when you go #1 for example).

[mike60510]

[The Real Tom]

Little off topic of what you were asking, but have you come up with a particular manufacture and make of what you are in stalling?

we are thinking about puting these in too, and just researching.

thx,

tom

[mike60510]

Warm Tiles was available at Menards and was on sale when I purchased it. Its also one of the lower cost systems I looked at. Doing it again, I'm not sure I'd use the Warm Tiles system. Yes it was one of the least costly systems, but it was kind of a pain to get the wires to stay in the hold downs. Other systems come in pre manufactured mats that are placed on the floor. I went to one site that had a nice program where you inputed your room size, location of fixtures and within a day or so, they give you a design and a cost estimate.

It was also a little difficult with the Warm Tiles system to estimating the loop locations and spacing. You get a spool of cable and you "loop" the cable into the floor hold downs. I wanted to make sure that all the heating cable was in the floor and I had good coverage, so I had to redo the last of the two loops several times to get all of the cable in the floor.

[Paul]

I used SunTouch in my bathroom, been working great for the past couple years. The wires are weaved into a plastic mat that can be rolled onto the floor.

Re the OPs original question, the wires (or mat) sits right in the thinset. It is a bit of a pain to keep the trowel from getting caught on the mat wires and plastic grid. I laid down 4" octagonal tiles over the mat with

1" accent pieces and I kept having to play with the accent tiles because they wanted to sink into the overly-thick thinset. If you were dealing with larger tiles and a simple tile pattern the job would be a lot easier.

-- Paul

[mike60510]

The thermostat with the warm tiles system has internal ground fault protection.

[The Real Tom]

I have a very small area to do, master bath. It is the furthest from the furnace, and is located over an unheated garage. They orignally installed a couple of feet of ebh but I don't like that. The idea of having the tile heat up for your feet to touch leaving the shower sounds soooooo nice.

So, not doing a big area, I might have to go with a more expensive just lay down option. I'm guessing after I remove the existing tile, I'll be in no mood to spend time figuring things out.

BTW, just a side note, makesure your tile heaters are gfci protected. This could be at the thermistat or on the breaker, but that I remember something mentioned in the nec about it. If you want, I can check for the specific reference.

later,

tom @