How To Make A Cake For A Water Heated Floor With A Concrete Screed

2023 Author: Philip Bishop | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 07:54

• System selection
• Concrete screed device types
• Materials and tools
• Preparatory stage
• Pie devices
• Choosing a piping scheme
• Tests
• Filling the screed

Almost any residential building can be equipped with a warm water floor. But the features of the buildings will affect the features of the device of this type of heating. The most important thing is to adhere to the technology, have a complete list of materials for installation in stock, and also choose the most optimal version of the system that will be used to obtain the desired result.

System selection

Depending on the specific conditions, you should choose the technology for installing a warm floor. This will be influenced by the beam floor, its condition and type, the requirements for the base of the floor, the load generated during operation and much more. There are basic systems that allow you to get a warm water floor in the room:

1. Screed device for underfloor heating.
2. Laying system.

3. Wooden system.

   

Particular attention should be paid to the concrete screed, as it finds greater use in reality. If we take the quality of heating, then here, too, it has the best application and efficiency in work. It can even be said that a high-quality arranged pouring can cool down within three days after the base has completely warmed up. Even if the electricity or heat carrier supply is cut off. Heat will still be transferred to humans for several days.

In those rooms that cannot afford to arrange a concrete screed, the other two are used, which have their own certain positive points and disadvantages when used.

Concrete screed device types

When the choice fell on the installation of a warm water floor with a concrete screed, it should be remembered that there are three main types at once, which are determined depending on how the heating loops are placed in the general "pie" of the floor. In some cases, in addition to the complete filling of the base with a concrete solution, dry backfill (most often expanded clay) can be used to reduce the total load on the floor.

Type "A". This type is the simplest in terms of underfloor heating and less demanding in terms of work. An insulating layer is arranged on the floor slab, and a polyethylene film is laid. In the future, the heating pipe of the warm water floor system is laid directly into the concrete screed. It remains only to wait until the surface is completely dry in order to finish in the form of flooring.

Type "B". The peculiarity here lies in the fact that the heating pipe is laid into the insulation layer, into the corresponding grooves. After that, an aluminum plate is laid with a layer of waterproofing, a concrete solution is poured over the resulting "cake".

Type "C". The solution is poured into two layers. In the first, closer to the base, a heating pipe is placed, after which a separating layer is performed. On top of the latter, the next pouring of the solution is made to obtain a reliable structure.

The specific version of the device for a warm floor with a concrete screed will depend on certain conditions, the use of materials and requirements.

Materials and tools

The underfloor heating system itself, together with a concrete screed, requires the purchase of a certain set of materials for work. With a screed, everything is clear that here you can prepare a solution on your own or purchase ready-made mixtures that will remain to be diluted with a certain amount of water. The most important thing is to adhere to the technology and precisely observe the proportions of obtaining a high-quality fill. Most of the material is needed precisely for a warm water floor, which include:

1. Boiler for heating the coolant.
2. Fittings that serve as an effective means of routing the direction from the boiler along the entire length of the underfloor heating. In addition, they are necessary to connect all components to each other, as well as to the manifold.
3. Ball valves, pressure pump. They can be purchased separately, but most often they are included in the basic package of the purchased boiler.
4. Collector group with a box.

5. Directly pipes from the selected material, which will fit into the future concrete screed.

   

As for pipes, it is from cross-linked polyethylene that they have the greatest efficiency. All other options are either inferior in quality or significantly higher in cost, which is not always interesting for novice builders. Their choice, diameter, length and other parameters are selected individually, based on the purpose of such a warm floor or can be calculated online with a water heated floor calculator.

Preparatory stage

At the initial stages of the work on the installation of a warm floor on a concrete base, a number of actions should be carried out, which will be very important for the subsequent stages. For a specific room, the entire system is calculated, the number of elements and components.

The power of the boiler is of great importance. It should not work at maximum wear and tear, but have an insignificant margin. Only in this case will he be able to serve for a long period.

A certain temperature must be maintained in the system, to which one should strive and create conditions when installing a warm water floor. Based on the parameters of the room, the areas with the greatest heat loss will be determined. They can be arranged in the best way, new windows and doors can be installed, other measures can be taken. But all the same, the outer walls in the room will lose more heat than all the others. In this case, the main thing is to choose the correct pipeline distribution scheme, as well as to correctly expand the pipes with the set pitch.

The power of the warm floor increases slightly in the following cases:

• The location of the room is on the ground floor as well as the last floor in the house.
• The use of a specific floor covering in the form of marble or granite slabs, which are of considerable thickness. Some flooring materials have increased heat capacity, which also refers to the increased power of the entire system.
• A large number of windows in the room. These include terraces, balconies, bay windows.

• The walls in the room are not very thick.

  

In any case, it is better to immediately get rid of completely the floor covering that was previously available in the room, and, if possible, dismantle the old screed. The base for underfloor heating should be leveled to the maximum. A difference in height is allowed, but not more than 10 mm. If the errors are much larger, it is better to think about arranging an additional screed option before carrying out all other work. Otherwise, you may encounter such defects in the warm floor as airing the entire system.

Pie devices

In order for the concrete screed for a warm water floor to be of high quality, all other layers must be built consistently and without deviations from technology.

After the base surface is ready for further action, an insulating layer is arranged.

Its main purpose is to retain heat and redirect it in the opposite direction, that is, to the flooring and further into the room. The choice of material for thermal insulation is focused on the maximum thickness. Everything will depend on the conditions in the room, its location relative to the initial level of the house, as well as the floor slab. The minimum screed layer should be 3 cm. The density of the material is also important, at least 35 kilograms per square meter. Materials such as polystyrene or penoplex are popular. In the finished mats, specially designed for the installation of a warm water floor, there are already built-in grooves, where you can place all the elements of the pipeline with the selected pitch. Installation in this case is much faster and easier. If the heat load increases,then you should think about increasing the thickness of the thermal insulation layer.

Be sure to read about choosing the right underfloor heating.

A damper tape is attached to the walls along the entire perimeter, designed to compensate for the thermal expansion of the future screed during the operation of the underfloor heating system. After the insulation layer has been laid, the polyethylene film is laid, serving as an additional waterproofing layer.

We must not forget about the reinforcement layer. In addition to its main purpose, it can be used to fasten pipes if there are no special fasteners. The installed expansion joints must be securely protected. Most often, in this case, a corrugated pipe is used. It is important not to forget that for large areas and in the joints between rooms, make expansion joints.

Choosing a piping scheme

Pipes should not be simply laid on the surface before the screed is poured. Most often, special schemes are used, called "snail" or "snake". In addition, there is a combination of these options to achieve maximum heat transfer efficiency from the underfloor heating system.

It is important to calculate the amount of pipe required to complete the installation. Approximately, each square meter requires about 5 meters of pipe, if the laying step is 20 cm. Currently, there are a large number of computer programs that allow you to design any version of the loop for the entire circuit. For a room that is large in area, it is best to provide several circuits so that the air heating from the floor is maximal and uniform over the entire area. In this case, the “snail” scheme is most often used. Here, opposite flows of the system (cold and hot) alternate with each other.

Tests

When everything is arranged before pouring the concrete screed, you should check the performance of the underfloor heating system, as well as the correct connection of all components to each other. These are the so-called hydraulic tests. This stage is very important for novice builders when there is no proper work experience.

The pressure in the system is started up gradually. The tightness of the pipes must be excellent. If everything went well, the maximum pressure is started, which must also be maintained by the entire underfloor heating system. If defects in work are found, they should be eliminated at the same time. It may be necessary to replace individual sections of the pipeline altogether before the next stage. You cannot be lazy, since all these errors will appear during the operation of the system, and you will have to dismantle the floor covering and the screed section for repair.

Filling the screed

The very last stage in the installation of water-heated floors with a screed is pouring the solution and distributing it over the entire surface. It is worth remembering the minimum thickness of such a screed, which should cover the level of the system pipeline by about 3-10 cm. If it is necessary to obtain the most even surface, beacons are installed over the area in the room after laying the pipes.

In the future, it remains only to distribute the solution using the rule.

The drying process of the concrete screed takes about 4 weeks. The operation of the water underfloor heating system must not be carried out. The system can be started after a complete drying period. Heating should be uniform. The maximum readings of the temperature level should occur no earlier than the third day.

As a result, all that remains is to cover the surface with the chosen flooring option. It can be not only ceramic tiles that are popular among most builders, but also laminate, parquet or linoleum.

If you fully follow the technology of installing a warm floor with a concrete screed, then the end result is a really high-quality system that will be able to warm up the air in the room at the required level. At the same time, heating costs will be noticeably reduced, as well as comfortable conditions for being in the room will be created.

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