Water heated floor on wooden logs with a dry prefabricated screed. How to make a warm water floor on a wooden floor Water heated floor for a wooden house

Low-temperature heating, made in the floor screed, now you will not surprise anyone. Due to many positive qualities, such systems have become often used in modern buildings. Until recently, one question remained unresolved: how to make a water-heated floor in a wooden house, because the floor beams are not designed for a screed weight of at least 200 kg per 1 m².

It is noteworthy that the best way to install underfloor heating for dwellings made of wood has appeared quite recently. Let's look into this technology and find out how to properly arrange light warm floors without a screed, including with your own hands.

Why "dry" floor heating?

What is the beauty of the traditional scheme, where underfloor heating pipes are walled up in a screed? Let's briefly list:

low temperature of the coolant (maximum - 55 ° C), which allows saving energy;
uniform heating of the concrete floor surface from embedded pipes;
comfort from the heat coming from the lower zone over the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe room.

The catch is that water-heated floors in a wooden house retain all of the above advantages, but without a heavy cement-sand screed. Judge for yourself how many functions wooden floor beams perform:

Perceive static loads from furniture and interior partitions.
Compensate without deflection for the mass of the finish coating, subfloors and insulation.
Withstand constant dynamic effects from the movement of residents.
They carry their own weight and serve as elements of the transverse stability of the building.

Imagine if we add to these loads a heavy concrete monolith weighing 1-3 tons in each room. In order for the wooden system of beams to withstand the mass of such a structure, their cross section will have to be increased by 1.5-2 times, which will increase the cost of construction. The solution to the problem is to make the so-called floor heating water floor system, which is dry-installed without screed and has a low weight (about 20 kg per 1 m² of room area).

On the left is a thermal imaging of the heating circuit in the screed, on the right - the flooring system. Pipe laying method - snail.

Heating water circuits of wooden buildings can be embedded in concrete under the following conditions:

when the covering of the first floor of a private dwelling rests on the ground or a strip (slab) foundation;
in dwellings made of SIP-panels 200 mm thick, based on a strip or pile-screw foundation;
if powerful beams designed for the mass of the screed are laid at the base of the ceiling of a chopped or frame house.

Lightweight deck system design

The key element of warm water floors laid in wooden houses in a “dry” way is a metal plate with a groove in the form of an inverted Greek letter Ω (when viewed from the end). The walls of the recess tightly cover the body of the pipe with the coolant, and the side "wings" of the plate increase the heat dissipation area instead of the screed.

Reference. Plates for uniform distribution of heat flow are made of galvanized steel and aluminum. Their width is different and is selected depending on the pipe laying step (standard - for a distance of 150 and 200 mm). The product can be broken with your own hands into equal parts due to transverse notches (perforation).

Left - galvanized plate, right - aluminum

Using metal diffusers, a water-heated floor can be installed in several ways:

according to the technology of the famous Uponor brand, laying the pipes of the heating circuits in the gaps between the floorboards;
using special polystyrene plates for underfloor heating, equipped with protruding bosses or ready-made grooves;
with burning out recesses in ordinary foam plastic with a special apparatus;
using sets of wooden products, where grooves are made for heating water circuits.

Each technique has its pros and cons, but they are united by 3 important properties: low weight, efficiency and the absence of "wet" processes, which greatly speeds up installation. Whichever method you choose, the "pie" of the floor remains unchanged and consists of the following layers (in the direction from bottom to top):

Base for insulation.
Thermal insulation material.
Heat distribution plates.
Pipelines with circulating heated water;
Clean flooring.

Lightweight Floor System Diagram

Note. When installing water-heated floors on a wooden base, a vapor barrier film and a diffusion membrane (waterproofing) can be used in the heating "pie".

Now let's take a closer look at the best way to insulate the floor and how to properly make a warm floor in a wooden house using any of these methods. But first, a few words about the selection of components.

Material selection

Before laying heating water circuits in a wooden house, it is necessary to insulate the floors. Therefore, you will have to choose 3 groups of components:

type of insulation;
pipe material;
plate material.

Among the common and affordable heaters for thermal insulation of wooden structures, mineral (basalt) wool is best suited. It is permeable to water vapor, thanks to which it blends well with wood, allows it to "breathe" and does not cause decay. Another thing is that when laying mineral wool, it is necessary to ensure the release and removal of these vapors, otherwise it will get wet through and cease to serve as a heat insulator.

Mineral wool and figured polystyrene foam plates

Advice. To insulate the coating of the first floor, it is better to use basalt fiber with a density of 40-80 kg / m³ and a thickness of at least 150 mm, and in the northern regions - 200 mm or more. Mineral wool 50-100 mm thick will go to the interfloor overlap. Its task is not to let the heat intended for the upper rooms into the premises of the first floor and to serve as sound insulation.

Polymer insulation - polystyrene, and extruded polystyrene foam practically do not let moisture through. Therefore, they must be used wisely, otherwise the wood at the points of contact with the polymer will turn black and rot. The minimum thickness of materials for thermal insulation of the floors of the first floor is 100 mm, it is enough to lay 20-30 mm into the ceiling.

On warm floors without screed, arranged on wooden logs, the following types of pipes with a diameter of 16 and 20 mm go:

made of cross-linked polyethylene with an anti-diffusion layer that does not allow oxygen to pass through;
metal-plastic;
copper.

The most running pipes for underfloor heating are polymer

High-quality polyethylene pipes (for example, from the Rehau brand) are not cheaper than metal-plastic and are not inferior to it in terms of performance. Hence the conclusion: there is no fundamental difference between these types of polymer pipelines, they are equally good for underfloor heating.

Copper pipes are much more expensive than plastic pipes, and it is more difficult and longer to mount them. But, from the point of view of heat transfer, copper has no equal, and therefore it is successfully used for underfloor heating of any buildings. An important point: do not use copper heating circuits in conjunction with aluminum heat-distributing plates, these metals are absolutely “not friends” with each other.

Since the thermal conductivity of aluminum is higher than that of steel, plates made of this material are also more preferable (excluding copper piping). But keep in mind that high-quality aluminum distributors are 1.5-4 times more expensive than galvanized ones.

Note. The prices of aluminum and galvanized plates from different manufacturers fluctuate in a wide range and cannot be compared, because they are made from metals of various thicknesses. Hence the advice: try to purchase thick-walled products, they are able to accumulate and transfer more heat energy.

Corrugated stainless steel is also a great option

Of recent materials of interest are flexible corrugated stainless steel pipes. They are durable, mounted without welding and soldering, while they transfer heat well and can be used in lightweight decking systems.

in each circuit, paving spacing and surface temperature is presented in a separate publication. Familiarize yourself with the methodology in order to accurately determine the amount of materials.

Installation according to Uponor technology

The technique has become widespread as the simplest and most affordable in terms of monetary costs. Mineral wool acts as a heat-insulating material here, you can take pipes and plates at your discretion and financial capabilities. The essence of the method is in laying wooden boards 20 mm thick on logs at intervals of 2 cm for further installation of a water-heated floor, as shown in the diagram:

A ventilation gap is made between the thermal insulation and the base boards (not visible in the diagram)

Note. A similar scheme can be used in any residential buildings where wooden floors are laid on logs, including over concrete foundations.

To make warm floors using this technology with your own hands, you will need the usual set of plumbing and carpentry tools, as well as special scissors for cutting polymer pipes. When installing underfloor heating on the floor of the first floor (above ground or unheated basement), perform the work in this order:

Flush with the lower edge of the beams, nail the cranial bars with a section of 25 x 25 mm. On top of them, lay the draft floors from boards 20 mm thick, as shown in the drawing below.
Lay the subfloor together with the beams with a waterproofing film (technical name - diffusion membrane) with the waterproof side down. Keep an overlap between the canvases of at least 10 cm and carefully glue the joints with double-sided tape.
Lay the mineral wool slabs over the waterproofing in such a way that they do not crumple, otherwise the basalt fiber will partially lose its thermal insulation properties. The thickness of the insulation should be at least 5 cm less than the height of the log, in order to provide a ventilation gap between the surface of the wool and the future wooden flooring to remove moisture.
Lay the vapor barrier film over the lags. Polyethylene must be pulled up and fastened to the tree with a stapler so that it does not sag in the gaps between the beams.
Nail boards 2 cm thick across the lag, stepping back from the wall 30 mm. Depending on the pipe laying step (15 or 20 cm), leave 20 mm gaps between the boards for the heat-distributing plates.
Insert metal plates into the slots and arrange the heating circuit pipes along them, inserting them into the Ω-shaped grooves. To turn the pipe, shorten the ends of the boards by 10-15 cm in this place.
Run the ends of the pipes along the walls to the underfloor heating comb, connect them and check the tightness of the system. Lay the floor finish.

Please note: when installing an insulated floor, the membrane and vapor barrier are reversed - the plastic film is laid from below

The method of laying a water-heated floor on wooden logs is shown in detail in the video:

Work on the interfloor ceiling is carried out in the same order, only the subfloor boards can be nailed directly to the logs from below. By the way, instead of wood, you can use OSB boards here, while hemming the ceiling of the first floor.

Important! Do not confuse the diffusion membrane with a vapor barrier film, otherwise the mineral wool will be saturated with water and will cease to be a heater. Waterproofing at the bottom of the "pie" protects the cotton wool from getting wet from the outside, and the top film does not allow water vapor to penetrate. In ceilings, the opposite is true - the vapor barrier is laid from below, the membrane - from above. To remove moisture from the insulation, a 5 cm ventilation opening and air vents made in the walls of a wooden house are used.

Along with simplicity and cheapness, this method of arranging water-heated floors has one drawback - pipes can only be laid in a “snake”, which is why the premises of a wooden house have to be divided into several heating circuits in order to achieve uniform heating.

Polystyrene System Installation Guide

This method of laying underfloor heating circuits allows you to perform work much faster and easier, since it involves the use of two-layer expanded polystyrene plates with guides in the form of protruding bosses. For the manufacture of plates, polystyrene of different densities is used - the top layer is more durable, the bottom one is soft.

It is quite simple to make pipe wiring for underfloor heating according to this scheme.

The technique is suitable for any floors with a flat surface, for example, OSB plywood (as in SIP-panel houses). Warm water floors on a flat wooden floor are made using the following technology:

Cover the logs with OSB sheets and fasten them with galvanized self-tapping screws. If work is carried out on the wooden floor of the first floor, then mineral wool insulation should be laid between the beams, as described in the previous section. The thickness of the polystyrene system is not enough to fully insulate the building from below.
Fasten damper tape to the walls around the perimeter of the room.
Lay polystyrene foam plates on the finished surface, fastening them together with locks.
Install the diffuser plates in accordance with the scheme and the piping spacing, fixing them between the bosses. Unwinding the pipe from the coil, insert it into the recesses of the plates.
Cover the heating circuits with polyethylene film, overlapping and gluing the sheets.
Mount the base of the floor from gypsum fiber sheets (GVL), where you subsequently lay the finish coat (a popular option is laminate).

Details of the work are shown in the video from the Russian manufacturer of polystyrene foam systems - the company "Rusteplopol":

Advice. Before laying the finish coat, connect the line connections from the circuits to the manifold and carry out a leak test (pressure test) with a pressure of 4 bar.

The advantages of figured insulation for warm water floors are obvious - the simplicity and speed of installation work, the ability to lay out pipes not only with a “snake”, but also with a snail. There are also disadvantages:

high price;
the material can bend from large mechanical loads;
due to the gaps between the bosses, a small part of the heat is spent on useless heating of the air under the floor covering.

Other pipe laying methods

Other products can serve as the basis for heating loops where metal plates can be inserted:

expanded polystyrene plates with pre-grooved grooves;
factory sets of wooden products with cutouts for laying pipelines;
sheets of polystyrene with a density of 35 kg / m³, where the recesses are cut out with their own hands using a special thermal knife.

In addition to expanded polystyrene with bosses, polymer plates with ready-made recesses are found in the distribution network. This option is suitable both for mounting on a flat surface, and inside the ceiling flush with the joists, as shown in the diagram:

Thermal insulation boards can be placed between the joists

Note. The disadvantages of the option are the need to cut grooves in the logs for the passage of pipes and the fastening of the polymer on the corners so that it does not adhere to the wood. Therefore, it is better to lay slabs with recesses on a base made of OSB plywood or leveled boards.

A set of wooden elements (left) and styrofoam with grooves for pipes (right)

A big plus of wooden sets for underfloor heating is the ability of the coating to carry a large load from bulky furniture without deformation. Products with cutouts for plates are mounted on beams together with insulation, as described above (Uponor brand technology). Type-setting wooden underfloor heating has only one drawback - the high price of materials.

Homeowners with the time can save on a polystyrene system by purchasing a hot groove burner and regular high density foam. The technology is simple: the insulation boards are laid out on a leveled surface, after which they need to burn the pipeline route in accordance with the scheme. It remains to install heat distributors and insert pipes into them.

Burning grooves in polystyrene with a hot knife

Is it possible to save on materials

Since underfloor heating components without screed cost decent money, many craftsmen have found ways to do without them:

Lay the heating branches inside the ceiling, directly on the insulation. Then Ω-shaped products are not used.
Make cutouts in the boards yourself, and instead of plates along the length of the grooves, roll out aluminum foil used for baking.
To make steel heat spreaders independently on metalworking equipment.
You can also make a wooden system for laying pipes in grooves yourself, for example, from chipboard sheets.

Of these options, only the last 2 will save money and at the same time organize efficient heating. Indeed, on a bending machine, plates can be made from any metal, only the groove profile will turn out to be rectangular, and not “omega-shaped”.

Pipe wiring inside the ceilings is practiced to this day

When laying pipes inside a wooden structure, they have poor contact with the finish coating and heat the air around them more than the room. In order for such heating to have an effect, the pipes must be laid at a distance of 10 cm from each other, and the temperature of the coolant must be raised to the maximum. Then the idea loses its meaning, it is easier to install radiators.

Thin aluminum foil serves as a poor heat flow distributor due to its thickness of hundredths of a millimeter. In addition, it crumbles over time from gradual oxidation, so using foil is pointless.

Craftsmen make their own grooves for pipelines and roll rolls of aluminum foil into them

There is another way to save money - to organize the heating of a wooden house with electric underfloor heating using infrared film heaters. But such a system will lose its versatility, that is, you can only use electricity for heating, you will have to forget about gas or wood.

About the pros and cons of "dry" floor systems

In conclusion, I would like to note the advantages of a warm floor without a screed that can attract owners of private wooden houses:

The design is light, reliable and efficient at the same time.
Unlike heating circuits immured in a screed, in such a system it is easy to detect a leak and eliminate it.
The thickness of the "pie" protruding above the upper cut of the log is from 20 to 50 mm.
Water floors with dissipative plates made of steel or aluminum are not able to accumulate heat and are practically devoid of inertia. Accordingly, they quickly warm up the rooms and quickly respond to automation commands and changes in the flow rate of the coolant in the loops.
The speed of installation associated with the absence of "wet" processes and the solidification of the solution. How light warm floors are arranged in a short time is shown in the next video:

For reference. On various Internet resources there is conflicting information about the reduced heat transfer of the flooring system compared to a monolithic one. Theoretically, this is true, but in practice the difference is small, and it is quite difficult to make a comparison.

The only drawback that makes home inventors wiser with aluminum foil is the price of steel products, especially complete with figured polystyrene foam. You can get around this nuance like this: make a warm floor in all rooms in turn, upon the appearance of financial opportunities. First you need to insulate the floor and put the comb, and then gradually install the pipe wiring, starting from the premises where the residents stay permanently.

To install a warm floor in a wooden house, it is necessary to take into account several important parameters, including structural features, the preferred type of flooring, as well as follow the recommendations of experts on the choice of materials and installation.

Possibility of installation

If the requirements are met, underfloor heating on a wooden floor can be the best solution.

Among the specific restrictions, it must be taken into account that wood should not be exposed to temperatures in excess of 30 ° C, since it is capable of breaking down, quickly losing performance. For this reason, a local heat source should be provided in the house. Among modern developments, you can choose boilers adapted for separate connection of underfloor heating and heating radiators due to the presence of two circuits with different degrees of heating.

Installation of a water heated floor

The heating of the surface of a parquet or laminated floor is limited to a temperature of 25ºC in order to exclude formaldehyde fumes that are unsafe for health.

Necessary materials

In order, having a wooden house, to install a water-heated floor without much difficulty, it is necessary to stock up on high-quality materials suitable for specific conditions.

If the water floor will be mounted without a screed, then you will need plates - cement-bonded, wood-polymer, gypsum fiber. Experts rarely recommend the use of chipboard, since such plates are able to deform under the influence of moisture.

Since it is recommended to connect the installed warm floor on wooden logs to autonomously functioning boilers, it is necessary to analyze them in order to determine the most cost-effective type.

The greatest autonomy and independence from various energy carriers - main gas or electricity is shown by a boiler operating on diesel fuel. The gas analogue turns out to be cheaper in terms of monthly expenses.

To equip a water heated floor, solid fuel boilers are also in demand. They ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the warm floor, working on wood. Electrical equipment is ineffective in environments where there are power outages.

Adjustment and tuning

The elements necessary for setting up the equipped underfloor heating are placed in the manifold. These are flow control devices, valves, emergency drain mechanisms, air vents.

By design, the collector is a branch pipe with the required number of outlets. This solution makes it possible to connect several circuits from the underfloor heating to the main line at once, providing the supply of heated water and the collection of the cooled (return) liquid.

Simplified versions have only shut-off valves, which does not allow you to practically adjust the operation of the water heating system. It is advisable to select collectors with control valves, which regulate the water flow in any area, ensuring uniform heating of the room.

There are automated models of collectors, but their price is very high and they are rarely used in private homes.

Temperature control without water floor heating mixer

Varieties of pipes

To lay the water floor, pipes with a cross section of 16, 18 or 20 mm are used, made of different materials.

Copper ones are the most expensive, which is offset by a long operating period.
Metal-plastic pipes are more affordable, being in the middle price range. They are corrosion resistant, easy to bend and process. Due to the low coefficient of thermal expansion, they are one of the best options for water heated floors.
The same price category includes pipes made of cross-linked polyethylene with additional reinforcement. They are not inferior to metal-plastic in their technical characteristics. Additionally, high wear resistance, impact strength and toughness are noted. This material allows you to equip a reliable water-heated floor, since it does not collapse even under the influence of sub-zero temperatures.
Polypropylene products are considered a budget option. It should be borne in mind that non-reinforced polypropylene varieties are recommended for cold water, therefore, in order to equip a water-heated floor, reinforced counterparts should be purchased. They can serve for a long time, the average service life is 25 years.

Ferrous metal pipes are not recommended by experts for water floor heating for a number of reasons:

Fitting range

In order to reliably mount a water-heated floor using the most suitable metal-plastic pipes, it is necessary to purchase fittings for making connections.

Collet (threaded) - detachable. They are convenient because they allow you to repeatedly perform the operations of separating the elements and their subsequent assembly. The package includes a brass body with a protective coating, a rubber sealing gasket, a ferrule. There are several types of detachable fittings:

Press fittings are one-piece, they require the use of a special tool for installation, which can be a press machine, press tongs with manual or microprocessor control. There are several types of press fittings:

Compression - conditionally detachable fittings, consisting of a fitting, a union nut, a ferrule, are usually not used for underfloor heating, as they are recommended for pipelines with cold water.

Advantages disadvantages

Considering the warm floor in a wooden house, the following positive characteristics are noted:

the possibility of using it as the dominant heat source;
obtaining evenly distributed heat not only on the floor plane, but throughout the entire volume of the room;
more economical operation compared to electrical systems;
compatibility with almost all types of floor coverings (tile, laminate, linoleum, carpet, etc.);

Among the disadvantages of a water floor mounted on a wooden base, there is a risk of leakage. This is compensated by competent installation.

Video: Pros and cons of water heating

Underfloor heating on a wooden base is not an easy task, but possible. The advantages of such a floor are obvious, heat naturally moves from the bottom up, while the absence of batteries adds comfort and convenience. In the case when the finishing layer is made of wood, there are certain nuances and limitations, but they are not so significant as to refuse to use it.

With some knowledge and following the recommendations of experienced professionals, you can independently carry out all the necessary installation work without having professional building skills. The arrangement process is also simplified by the fact that there is no need to use any special expensive equipment.

Mounting Features

The arrangement consists in laying heating pipes that act as. Such pipes will be located directly under the finished floor covering, which has a certain effect on it.

The following finishing materials can be used as such a coating:

Due to the temperature characteristics of the wood finish, it is recommended to use separate heating sources. There are heating devices in which several circulation circuits are provided for such cases.

When wooden beams are used as floors, the possibility of laying heating pipes inside the cement base (screed) is practically excluded. The pressure that the necessary layer of such a screed will exert will be excessive, and creating a structure that can withstand it is irrational.

Ways to install a warm floor

There are not so many mounting options and which one is preferable depends on the structural features of the building. Not the last role is played by the cost of materials, the use of which implies one way or another and the technological complexity of the proposed work.

The most common methods are described below:

Modular. The pipes of the heating system are laid through special grooves that are provided for by the design of the module (often this is a chipboard plate with a thickness of about 22 mm). This method is relatively fast and simple, but due to the high cost of the modules and the mandatory intermediate layer, it is more expensive than other mounting options.
Rack. The difference of this method lies in the fact that the grooves through which the pipes of the heating system must pass are formed by laying out the rails. The relatively high labor costs of this method are offset by lower cash costs.
Mixed. This method involves milling grooves for pipes in a wooden floor. The milling process is not very labor intensive. It assumes the presence of a milling machine and some skills in handling such a machine.

With the modular method, the pipes of the heating system are laid through special grooves, which are provided for by the design of the module.

Floor device

The whole process of installing a warm wooden floor can be divided into the following stages:

Drawing up a project.
Preparatory work.
Assembly and subsequent testing of the heating pipeline.
Finishing work (laying of fine floor coverings).

Project

Before starting any work, you need to draw up a detailed project and perform all the necessary calculations. It is possible to do this on your own, having studied significant amounts of information, you can order an individual project or choose the right one from those developed earlier.

The project includes:

Detailed drawing (diagram).
Calculation of heat losses for each room.
Calculation of the amount of heat that should be supplied to each room.
Resistance of the pipeline of the heating system.
Calculation of the pipeline laying step, depending on the heat loss of each room.
The number of consumables that may be needed in the course of the work.

After the project is drawn up and all the necessary calculations are completed, you can proceed to the next stage.

Preparatory work

Includes all necessary work up to the laying of pipes. You should start with the arrangement of the lag. The distance between them should not exceed 60 cm.

Before mounting, wooden logs must be treated with antifungal and antiseptic solutions. To exclude the possibility of the appearance of a wood bug, it is unacceptable to leave bark fragments on any wooden products.

Between the lags on the vapor barrier film, it is necessary to lay heat-insulating material (mineral wool, polystyrene foam, penoizol, etc.). The thickness of the insulation depends on the height of the log, but, in general, does not exceed 100 mm.

The next step is the laying of the subfloor, the function of which, on the one hand, is to ensure an even distribution of the load on the logs, to reduce their deformation (if they are used as a floor). On the other hand, it will exclude possible deformation of the finished floor, providing the necessary rigidity.

The rough floor, as a rule, is made from some kind of sheet material or from planed boards. The thickness of this floor depends on the distance between the joists, the laying methods and the material used for subsequent layers.

Further actions completely depend on which type of underfloor heating is selected.

Modular option

Modules are mounted on the subfloor, this is usually done with screws or nails, sometimes glue is additionally used.
Metal plates are inserted into the slots of the modules for heat reflection, if it is provided for by the design of the module (instead of plates, special foil is sometimes used).
When everything is ready to be laid heat-conducting water circuit.

Warm water floor on a rack basis

According to the project, slats of the required width and thickness are prepared. The thickness of the lath depends on the pipes to be used. The most suitable outer pipe thickness for residential premises is 16 mm. The rails should be a few millimeters thicker than the pipe so that there are no unnecessary difficulties during installation. The width of the board varies between 100 - 200 mm and depends on the amount of heat required in each particular room or area.
Properly prepared slats, screwed with screws to the subfloor, guided by a pre-developed project.
In the grooves obtained after mounting the rails, heat-reflecting plates or foil are laid.
Next, you can do the wiring thermal circuits.

Most often, sheets of laminated chipboard are used for the manufacture of rails. It is cut into strips of the appropriate size, after which the corners on some strips are rounded, for the convenience of laying the pipeline.

Mixed styling option

If a wooden floor from boards is laid in the room and there is a need to make it warm, this can be done in a mixed way. To do this, you must first remove the floorboard. Then, using a milling machine or machine, grooves are made in it, in appropriate places.

After that, the board is fastened back, and the missing grooves are already selected directly on the floor. Heat-reflecting plates are mounted in the grooves, into which the water circuit is then laid.

Connection and test run

After the pipes are laid and connected, as well as other necessary work has been carried out, a test run of the heating system should be done and let it work for some time at critical loads (within acceptable limits).

Floor covering

The choice of material for the finishing coating depends on the method of laying the previous layers and should be carried out at the design stage.

Traditional types of flooring:

Wooden plank. Can be attached directly to the surface in which the pipes are laid. The thickness of the board should not exceed 22 mm. There is an opinion that a foam polyethylene substrate can be placed under the board to compensate for possible unevenness of the base, but it should be remembered that the heat transfer of the floor will decrease.
Floor tiles. These materials must be laid on an intermediate layer of sheet materials (QSB, DSP). This is necessary for the uniform distribution of heat and pressure over these coatings. The advantages of these coatings are good heat dissipation.
Linoleum, carpet. The laying process is similar to tiles, the difference in temperature, which should not exceed 25˚.
Laminate floors, parquet. The installation of these coatings is the same as when laying a wooden board. The difference is that these materials cannot be heated more than 25˚.

The most preferred material for water circuits is. However, whichever pipe is used, the presence of additional waterproofing will help protect the wooden floor from possible leaks. As such insulation, a special corrugation for pipes is used. All wooden products also need to be treated with water-repellent impregnations.
With a pipe thickness of 16 mm, its length should not exceed 70 m. Also, it is not recommended to make one large general contour for a large room, and then divide this room with a wall. It is desirable to make a separate circuit for each room.

A warm water floor in a wooden house is the most successful solution for warming a room. Although it seems that this statement is not entirely true, because in the usual version of laying a water-heated floor, a concrete screed is used, with the help of special technologies, it can also be equipped for a wooden house.

Thanks to a large selection of building materials, today it becomes possible to install a water floor without increasing the load on the floors. The advantage is that the height of the room when arranging a warm water floor in a wooden house will not decrease by much.

We make a warm water floor in a wooden house with our own hands

If you insulate the floor with water heating, you will eliminate the danger associated with laying electrical wiring under the floor of a wooden house, and since the floor heating pipes are strong enough, the water floor will last you a long time.

Today, the water floor is the most convenient and completely real way to insulate a private wooden house.

It is also necessary to remember that the warm floor must be maintained from the outside, with the help of wall insulation. In a private house, heating a room with a warm floor will be much faster and more efficient when using some kind of wall insulation. This is due to the fact that, since the tree warms up for a long time, the entire room in general will warm up rather slowly.

How to install underfloor heating on wood

So, you have decided to lay a warm floor on wood. But how to do that? There are several ways to arrange a warm floor on a wooden base, and each specialist does it in exactly the way that is convenient for him. But we will focus on one specific.

Consider the procedure for performing the work necessary for arranging a warm floor:

1. First, let's calculate the heat losses and hydraulics. This operation is carried out using a computer program, calculation instructions are not difficult to find on the network. At the exit, we must find out the length of the pipe, diameter and laying step.
2. Now you need to dismantle the old floor (if any). This is done to eliminate drafts under it and to align it with an accuracy of 2 mm. Why align like that? Yes, because the laminate (namely, under it the floor will be laid) requires just such an accuracy of the base.
3. After that, let's do floor insulation. The surface of the insulation should be protected with a vapor barrier film. Do not protect the insulation with a conventional film, as condensation will occur.
4. Now let's get down to laying the floorboard. To begin with, from one edge of the boards we cut a groove 20 by 20 mm under the pipe. Also, at the ends of the extreme boards, you need to cut roundings so that the pipe bends smoothly. As a result, after assembly, you get a floor, on the entire surface of which a “snake” is cut out under the pipe.
5. The next step is to prepare the reflective layer. This layer consists of foil, the thickness of which is from 50 microns and above (it is convenient to use). Why stack foil? To improve thermal conductivity. As already mentioned, the tree conducts heat poorly, but the foil will absorb it at the moment. You can also use special metal sheets, but it is expensive, and it takes a long time to install.
6. Now you need to put down the phone. We lay the cut foil over the grooves in the floorboard, after which a metal-plastic tube of the selected diameter is placed in the grooves. Next, the tube is wrapped in foil, which must be fixed to the floor with a stapler. To prevent the pipe from popping out of the grooves, it must be secured with small metal plates, which should be located at an angle of 90 ° to the grooves.
7. After that, you need to do the connection and crimping. Connecting to the heating system is the most important step. The simplest way is a warm floor with manual regulation. Although the choice will depend entirely on you, you can use both mixing units and collector systems, that is, any system that allows you to control and regulate the temperature of underfloor heating. When everything is laid and connected, the system should be pressure tested, thereby checking it for leaks and damage to the pipeline. This action is mandatory, because, otherwise, you run the risk of swelling of the floor.
8. And finally, laying the flooring. Which material to choose is your own business, the easiest option is a laminate, although any other will do. However, there is one "but". All floor materials have their own individual coefficient of thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of wood is the worst, while the thermal conductivity of ceramic tiles is the best.

That's all. If you do not stretch the work and work hard, then the whole process will take about two days. And the costs will be minimal.
And in addition to everything written above, a video is attached.

Warm floor on the lags

If you want to warm up the joists, you will have to overcome some problems with the base - the tree. A traditional concrete screed cannot be laid on top of the wooden logs, as this may turn out to be an overload for the logs. And this means that the logs are deformed, the screed will crack, and, consequently, the entire floor covering will deteriorate.

So how to lay the floor on the logs? Consider the procedure for doing this:

That's all. As a result, we got a base, on wooden logs, on top of which almost any coating can be laid, not excluding tiles and porcelain stoneware.

The method of heating bath rooms by means of heated water circulating "underfoot" was used in ancient times by the Turks and Romans. The "underground" method was not new, but insufficiently studied and worked out. For a long time it was believed that it was pointless to put a warm floor system on a wooden floor due to the specific properties of natural building materials. The main advantages of wood - excellent insulating qualities and lightness - were recognized as a hindrance. The difficulty was caused by the characteristic shifts of organic matter caused by fluctuations in the temperature background and changes in the level of moisture. The unsolvability of combining water-heated floors with a wooden base forced them to find a technological “way out” that would ensure their working union.

Video about underfloor heating system

What will you have to face while working?

The principle of operation of the "warm floor" family of structures is based on the transfer of heat carrier energy through the surrounding material to the floor covering. The heated floor then transfers the heat into the room. A traditional concrete screed surrounding pipes with water or ethylene glycol moving through them does an excellent job of this function. What can not be said about the wood that prevents the spread of thermal energy. She, of course, does not let the energy received during heating into the underground, but she is in no hurry to give it to users.

Question: why not then corny pour a concrete screed over a wooden flooring? Answer: then about 300 kg of concrete layer will press on 1 m² of wooden flooring. There is no doubt that wood cannot withstand such a heavy burden, even if the beam structure were ultra-reliable, such as it is unreasonable to make under a Russian bath or a log house.

Another snag is the substrate, without which it is not customary to lay a floor covering on a wooden floor. Most of the materials used as a substrate, after all, also belong to the category of heaters that create a barrier to the passage of heat.

The whole range of problems and obstacles will be eliminated by improved technology, according to which a water-heated wooden floor is now being built. Thanks to the features of its device:

the weight of the heating “underground” structure has been reduced by an order of magnitude;
the heat received from the heating pipes is completely transferred to the floor covering and indirectly to the users;
the substrate spreads only under carpet, linoleum or under floor tiles;
the term of arrangement is extremely shortened;
the waiting period of 28 days required for the complete curing of the screed is excluded.

After laying the final coating over the water-heated floor, built on a wooden system, you can start using it immediately. An important advantage is the ability to repair and replace damaged areas without tangible problems, which is completely unrealistic in the presence of a cement screed.

Design features of a wooden water system

Designed specifically for suburban buildings with beamed ceilings, the wooden system of a water-heated floor is laid in a kind of flooring method:

a pipeline with a circulating coolant is not located in a cement screed, but is mounted on top of a log or a rough plank floor in specially formed channels;
for the accumulation and transfer of heat, the channels are equipped with heat-distributing plates with a longitudinal recess for laying pipes of the heating circuit;
metal plates, along with the duties of heat distribution, perform the function of elements that increase the rigidity of the structure, thereby eliminating the need for a substrate.

Note. In budget home-made versions, instead of expensive plates, foil with a thickness of 200 microns is used.

If the substrate is still needed, for example, for finishing the floor with ceramic tiles or linoleum, gypsum-fiber (GVL, GVLV) or cement-bonded particleboard (DSP) boards with minimal insulating performance are used.

Two technologically different options to choose from

All differences lie in the method of forming channels for the location of the pipeline, hence the division into two methods:

For laying underfloor heating on wooden logs, you can now purchase special modules made of chipboard with “grooves” pre-milled at the factory, the step between which is determined by the planned heat transfer of the system. The factory kit comes complete with all components: modules with existing channels, metal heat spreading plates, fasteners and pipes. They just need to be put together in accordance with the attached project-instruction. A significant drawback of modular chipboard flooring is the cost, sometimes equivalent to the price of a log house. Therefore, cunning craftsmen, relying on factory developments, came up with a cheap rack alternative.
The lath version predetermines the formation of channels not by milling in a chipboard, but by stuffing the laths. For the manufacture of slats, a planed edged board, moisture-resistant plywood or the above-mentioned boards with a thickness of at least 21 mm, maximum 28 mm are used. The distance between the laths is usually equal to the thickness of the lath, since in the grooves created by stuffing, pipes with an outer diameter of 17 mm must not only lie freely, but also not deform from wood movements. The width of the guide rails determines the distance between the pipes of the circuit being constructed. For example, when laying a pipeline with a snake with a pitch of 300 mm, the width of a 22 mm board should be 278 mm.

There is another witty folk technology - a kind of hybrid of the rack and modular principle. According to her, laying a floor heating on wooden beams is done quite quickly and very economically.

To do this, in the edged board, on the one hand, choose a quarter with the dimensions of the channel. Even at a distance of at least 7 cm from the wall, a continuous strip is milled to an equivalent depth so that the pipe can be brought to the next row. The thickness of the board, of course, should be greater than the size of the sample, but the width of the board in this case is equal to the laying step. Boards with channels are fixed with screws directly to the beams or to the logs, because there is no need to build a subfloor.

Mounting the system on a light slatted floor

Before the construction of a warm floor under a used wooden floor, it is necessary to carefully check the condition of all elements. It is advisable to disassemble the floorboards and inspect the logs, if necessary, replace the components that are in doubt. If the structure was not sufficiently insulated to the beams or to the logs at the level of the bottom line, it is necessary to nail the bars and lay the slab insulation on them. Then it is necessary to lay an insulating roll material with an overlap (preferably polyethylene 200 microns) and attach a damper tape 5 cm wide to the wall along the perimeter of the floor.

Those who want to know how to make a wooden floor warm by installing a water circuit, probably realized that the snake would be the easiest option for laying the pipeline. On a plan made according to the dimensions of the room, we mark a place for pipe connection and installation of control equipment, draw the location of the guides with the necessary step. For our latitudes, the pitch between the pipes varies from 150 mm to 300 mm. Pipes are recommended to take corrugated with a diameter of 16 or 17 mm. According to the data obtained, we calculate the dimensions of the rails and make them.

The base has been prepared, the rails have been prepared - you can proceed with the installation:

in accordance with a personal project, we lay the prepared guides, between which we leave a groove-channel for pipes;
we fix the guides with self-tapping screws to the rough base;
the corners of the rails in the pipeline turn zone are rounded off;
in the channels created by this method we lay a foil with a thickness of at least 50 microns, press it, carefully bending around the recess, in some places we fix it to the rails with a stapler;

Advice. To increase heat transfer, the masters recommend additionally wrapping the pipes themselves with foil.

we lay the pipeline along the formed furrows, periodically fasten it with metal plates to the subfloor or to the rails;
we connect to the heating circuit and carry out pressure testing of the heating system;
after making sure that it works, we either immediately put a floor covering, or a substrate under a tile or linoleum, which is strongly advised by DSP boards that do not contain formaldehyde.

This is how you can independently build water-heated floors without extra costs and unnecessary fanaticism. The principles introduced by Western engineers can be put to practical use, leaving money in your own wallet. What is preferable: a completely expensive factory "constructor" or a democratic homemade product?