It's a toaster. The simplest circuit possible. I think your guy is resisting. Do it yourself and remove him from the equation. You only need electrical resistance to generate heat in the places you want heat; you don't need his resistance generating heat and doubt in your brain.

Thanks - the more I thought about it the more I'm coming to the same conclusion. I can't see how there can be enough flex in the floor to actually break the cord - the bloody tile would fail long before that, I'd guess.

I have electric radiant heat in my bathroom for almost 1 year now and I love it. I can't believe I used to walk on a cold floor and all my life. Forget bathroom mats and rugs a warm floor is priceless.

My installation is in a 1-bedroom apartment in New York, Queens, on the 17th Floor and this building definitely shifts and moves as it is a 21 story building. The contractor I used was really good. I bought a 5 foot by 3 foot heating mat. The contractor laid down a thin coat of concrete over the mat. I didn't really want him to do this as I thought it would take the floor longer to heat but it really doesn't make a difference. We talked about putting the thinsulate, used for the tiling, directly on the heating mat at first but he also said he was not comfortable doing this and felt the mat needed to be protected, at least a little, in the concrete floor.

I used NuHeat and their daily programmable thermostat. That is an absolute MUST. I set the floor to start warming up at 6am and when I hit the shower at 7am it's toasty warm. Don't go cheap on the thermostat. Some do NOT have timers and you have to manually turn it on. It totally defeats the purpose. Who's going to wake up one hour before they have to and turn on the heat, they go back to bed.