underfloor electric heating

18 years ago

I am wanting to put underfloor electric heating mats under ceramic tile in a sunroom only in areas we will be walking. My tile man has never put one in before but he is reading up on it. He is telling me I would have to put mats under all the tiles or the tiles will end up uneven because the mats are going to add up to an inch of girth (depending on which type I use). Is that a possibility? I would think the mats will be buried in thinset, so the thinset would even out the floor.

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Comments (4)

bob_cville
18 years ago
I think he might be confusing electric radiant heat with hot water radiant heat where loops of pex pipe are layed out on the floor, embedded in (something) often self-leveling-cement and then the tile is laid in thin set atop that.

For electric radiant heat the mat itself is about 1/8" to 3/16" thick. The installation directions for it often specify to avoid putting the mat where kitchen cabinets or bathroom vanities or other essentially permanent items will sit.

The unit I used in my kitchen remodel was made by Warmly Yours, and they have a great deal of useful info about their electric radiant heat mat on their website.

In my floor going from the subfloor up, I had a thin layer of thinset, a layer of 1/4" hardibacker, the heat mat, another layer of thinset, and then the 3/8 thick tile. The floor ended up nearly level with the 3/4" thick hardwood floor in the adjacent room.
heimert
18 years ago
Yeah, the electric mats basically go into the thinset you would otherwise have. They shouldn't alter the height that much, and any difference could be fixed with a touch more thinset.

I suggest finding a tile guy who has done these before, however, since you don't want to crimp the wires and end up with a non-functional system.
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bud_cline
18 years ago
NO way!!!!! It doesn't work like that and "a touch more thinset" won't get it. If he doesn't know how to do the heat mats now...trust me...you don't want him attempting a "touch more of thinset" approach.

The mats can go anywhere you want heat. The rest of the floor area must then be brought up to the same elevation. The easiest way to do this is to use Self Levelling Compound.

The mats will consume about 3/16" of height and the SLC will have to be installed at a thickness of about 3/8".

SLC comes in fifty pound bags and you get 50 square feet of 1/8" of elevation per bag.

That'll get you started.

Personally I think you need a more experienced tileguy.

Heat mats and SLC's have been around for quite a while now and if he has no experience with either he ain't your man.
Vicki
Original Author
18 years ago
LOL You guys are cracking me up. I think you're right about not using the guy who has never done it before. I am getting conflicting information from people who have. I went to HD to see what they said. The guy there has been installing them for 5 years and he is telling me he has never had any luck with self leveling compound but he adds more thinset on the areas without mats and it's a little tricky but it works and is easier. I definitely think I don't want to be a guinea pig on this one! If anyone else has methods that work or don't work for them, I would enjoy hearing about them.