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kg4951

Heated floor in master bath

kg4951
9 years ago

If you have a heated floor In your master bath do you use it? Would you recommend putting one in?
Our bath is above a heated space so the best advise I have been able to get is it isn't necessary but a nice to have if we want to spend 1500 on it. DH says he could care less and has left it up to me.
What do you think? Yes or no?

Comments (29)

  • HappyValleyHome
    9 years ago

    I love mine! We have it programmed to be warm in the morning and evening when we use it most and it is so nice to have warm feet. It was one of my must haves in our build as my feet are always cold. Surprisingly, my husband, who is always warm, loves it as much as I do.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    Have it, love it, use it all winter long. Like HVH above, we have it programmed for certain times in the a.m. and p.m. We turned the temp down on the thing though as it was so warm, it was heating up the whole back of the house. But we really notice the difference. The mat didn't go under the toe kick and when you step on that tile, yikes! What a difference. We also made sure the electrician buried 2 controller wires or whatever they're called so that, should one fail, they don't have to dig up a chunk of tile floor to replace it...the replacement is already there and wired.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    If you are tiling, it was well-worth it. Even my DH, who really, really didn't pay much attention to most of my planned details in our reno has complemented me on making the decision to heat the tile floor in the bathrooms. It is NOTICABLE--very noticable. And, our bathrooms are on the second floor, so above a heated space.

    Worth it and then some.

  • bus_driver
    9 years ago

    I did electric radiant in the floors of our two largest baths. Saved over half the cost of the materials by shopping on eBay. Local tile supply was much higher.
    Wife is not into programming. The baths are not used on completely predictable schedules. So while the thermostats are top-of-the-line programmable, they are presently programmed to be ON all of the time. An added wall switch next to the thermostat controls the power from the thermostat to the heating elements. Anyone anticipating needing the warm floors simply turns the switch ON an hour or more in advance of the use.
    Seems wasteful to use the floor heat during air conditioning season.
    We find 82 to be comfortable for the floor heat. AC is set at 76 during that season.

  • User
    9 years ago

    I've had it for 20+ years. Worth every single penny as an upgrade. The cats adore it too. Nothing like having to do the ''shuffle walk'' into the bathroom at night in the dark to avoid stepping on a blissed out animal on his back with all 4 paws in the air!

  • Mistman
    9 years ago

    Love it! Everyone in our home loves it, cats, dogs and kids :)

    We also are not consistent with the use of the MB but do have it come on in the morning and shut off around 10 am. It comes on in the evening also (my shower times) however I crank it all the way to 99 degrees, feels sooo nice. A couple times when my feet have been real cold (came in from outdoors) 99 degrees felt like it was burning my feet but for the most part it feels like heaven. When I take a shower the dog camps out on the floor and melts, she loves it.

  • weedyacres
    9 years ago

    Hands down love it. In our last house we loved the master bath heated tile so much we added heated floors in the kitchen, breakfast nook and sunroom when we renovated them. No regrets.

    Any house I ever live in again will have heated tile floors in the bathroom. Even if I have to rip out the floors of a perfectly good bathroom to put them in.

  • xc60
    9 years ago

    We had it in last house but decided not to install it again in our new home. We don't spend much time in the bathroom. Husband is mostly out of town and I have a separate make-up dressing area to get ready. Not to mention it costs around $3500 and up to have it installed here. So spent the money on more needed and wanted items.

  • LE
    9 years ago

    I don't remember how much it added, and I wouldn't care now, anyway. (But I don't think it was a lot since we were adding the tile shortly afterward.) I have never caught myself thinking "gee, I wish my bare feet were just a little colder." We also use it on a timer for the AM and PM periods of most likely use. Our room is slightly oddly shaped, so we used the wires that are laid out to fit, rather than a mat. I noticed the tile person didn't take it all the way to the threshold. She said the tile would conduct the heat sideways and it would be fine. There is a cold spot that annoys me whenever I step on it. Grrr!

  • User
    9 years ago

    I would hope that $3500 would be for a giant bathroom. It really shouldn't add that much additional expense! I think it cost $600 extra for the materials for a little bath that we did in my girlfriend's old house.

  • outsideplaying_gw
    9 years ago

    Love ours. We had one in our original master bath and when we remodeled it was on the top of the list for the reno. Wouldn't be without it ever again if I can help it. Ditto the $3500. We have a pretty large master bath and it was no where near a $3500 added cost. The kits with programmable thermostats are very reasonable these days and a good tile setter can install it with no problem.

  • mrspete
    9 years ago

    I wasn't really on the fence about a heated floor . . . but if I had been, y'all would've convinced me here.

  • Mistman
    9 years ago

    Yeah, pretty sure it added about $1200 to our 10x12 bath (not all of that is floor, in fact maybe 1/2+). Not bad at all, the builder suggested it as it's pretty standard w/his homes.

  • User
    9 years ago

    I just turned ours on a couple of weeks ago and love it. We live in a pretty temperate climate and I was starting to wonder if we shouldnâÂÂt have spent the money. But then we went away for a week over the holidays and turned the heat off while we were gone. When we got back, walking in the bathroom in bare feet was torture! I programmed it to go to 77 degrees in the mornings, and 68 the rest of the time. I imagine weâÂÂll turn it off come summer. 77 is just enough to feel a tad warm, and 68 just means it doesnâÂÂt get too cold. We only did it in the master bath and I wish we had done the hall bath too.

  • dedtired
    9 years ago

    I love, love, love the heated floor in my bathroom. Sometimes I just stand there enjoying the warmth on my feet. I turn it on set at 83 at the beginning of winter and leave it there until winter ends.

    It misses a few tiles right at the threshold and when I step on those -- wow, are they chilly.

    It's one of the best things I did for myself.

  • amberm145_gw
    9 years ago

    $3500 might be a large bathroom, but it might also be builder markup. If you're doing a stock build, variances often cost the homeowner a lot more than the actual cost of building it. So while the cost for those of us doing custom builds or renovation might only be $2k, a builder might pass on an upgrade charge of $3500.

    And yeah, I might be more hesitant if I had to face that price.

  • pps7
    9 years ago

    Now that I've live with heated floors, I don't think I could do without.

  • kg4951
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for all the input. I was on the fence, thinking the money could be better used elsewhere, but no more. You all got me off the fence and firmly on a heated floor!

  • xc60
    9 years ago

    It was not a huge bathroom in a very expensive custom home (over a million including lot). It's just the price the builders charge here in Alberta. I also have worked for a couple of builders and built a few homes, the price has been around the same. $3000 - $3500. Any type of upgrades are expensive here whether custom or not. I am so jealous of some of the costs of houses and upgrades in the States. :)

  • Perseco2012
    9 years ago

    Do you think this is a must southern Florida on a slab?

  • amberm145_gw
    9 years ago

    xc60, I am also building in Alberta. But I'm not going through a builder. I priced out the the materials, and the extra electrical, and the tile setters time, and I'm looking at about $2000. The difference you were quoted was your upgrade charge.

    I only know how stock builds work, where the builder relies on conformity to keep their prices low. So any change costs him a lot more than the apparent costs, so even though the tile might cost the same on the sticker in the show room, getting the red instead of the blue is an "upgrade". I assumed it wouldn't be so bad in a custom home, since they aren't trying to save money by doing it exactly the same as the neighbours.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    Canadian v Dollar probably adds some to the cost too.

  • xc60
    9 years ago

    Unfortunately at the time our dollar was about par with the U.S. dollar. Which usually doesn't matter too much ever in our favor when it comes to cost of items or services. The trades here are also busy and charge premium price running up costs.

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    Every time I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night during the winter, I regret not following through on having a heated floor. :-( We've only been in the house a year, but I've seriously thought about having the floor ripped out and re-done with heat.

  • rmverb
    9 years ago

    What type if heated floors are you guys using? Electric? Hot water?

  • amberm145_gw
    9 years ago

    Electric. We don't have a boiler, so that would make it cost a lot more than $2000.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    Electric here too.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Electric heating cables or mats with a room thermostat/timer should be used a floor finish to warm a bathroom floor for the times you are in the space. It would be the only heat for the space in a very warm climate.

    Forced hot water tubes should be part of a radiant system that provides heat to the entire bathroom and other spaces with a control system that monitors inside and outside temperatures and adjusts for normal hours of use. Such a system is more common in northern climates where air conditioning is less likely to be provided.