Cabin bathroom insulation + hydronic heating

5 years ago

Hi,

We have a small cabin in Quebec, Canada. It was built +/- 60 years ago with whatever materials and equipment were available since the location is remote. Among our multiple ongoing projects, we want to winter poof the whole thing. In the long term, we plan on insulating from the outside when we'll replace the siding and the roof shingles for a metal roof.

One major problem with the cabin is that we have little but no access from under. There's only a few inches of clearance under the floor joist. Just enough for the drain pipes. There is no skirt around the cabin, but I plan to build one (though the walls are so close to the ground, I'm not sure it's gonna make a huge difference). Insulating from under would need to either lift the cabin or dig a few inches so we can crawl and spray foam everything.

For now, our focus is on the bathroom. We're striping everything and installing new floors. While we're there, I'd like to insulate the floor, and maybe install hydronic heating. Here's what I plan to do.

1. Slide a plywood / osb bord under the joists, screw from inside, and seal everything with spray foam

2. Install plumbing (line and drain)

3. Lay fibreglass insulation

4. Install pex tubing and transfer plates under the subfloor sheets

5. Lay the subfloor and mark tubing location

6. Install the floor without punching holes in the tubing!

Am I missing something? Am I about to do something I'll regret? Am I overdoing something?

Other notes :

- Ceiling is quite low, and we don't plan to change the floor elsewhere, so making the bathroom floor thicker is not really an option.

- Everything is on the smallest budget possible.

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Comments (2)

SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
I'm going to think outside the box here...just for a minute. As a cork flooring expert I've helped over a dozen cabin owners do something *like what you want.

I would suggest you use subfloor grade plywood in the bathroom. If you have nasty looking wood sitting on the joists right now, I suggest you replace them (like you were going to do anyway).

A little sanding, a little SLC (Self Leveling Compound) to get things smooth and as close to flat as is possible.

Now for the 'outside the box' stuff. You don't have any floor-ceiling/crawl space to play with...so ignore it. Go with a 6mm (1/4") cork GLUE DOWN tile. I like to use the Canadian company on the West Coast, Cancork Floor Inc

6mm glue down sound dampening and temperature insulating (cancork.com)

Best Bathroom Flooring - Tasmanian Burl 6mm Cork Tiles pkg of 22sf (cancork.com)

The cost of the glue adds a bit more... Water Based Contact Cement (cancork.com)

And the polyurethane adds a snick more Water Based Polyurethane Archives - Cancork Floor

(ignore the 'winter' prices...that includes HEATED BOXES and SUPER FAST delivery. In the summer these prices come down by 30% or so.

And for the heat??? Ahhhh...that's were a little ingenuity comes in: HEATED TOWEL RACK!

Here's how my project would look like for you: In CANADIAN Dollars ('cause that's where I am too)

Subfloor grade plywood = $1/sf

Cork glue down Tiles = $3.20/sf + shipping (roughly $0.75/sf) = $4/sf

Water Based Contact Cement = $0.50/sf

Water Based Polyurethane = $0.50/sf (there are some NICE products out of Quebec = perfectly fine for the cork).

Towel Warmer: $170 - $600

Yep. Once the cork is in it BECOMES your floor insulator! No need to go under the house! No need to fiddle and tweak a system that is going to be hard to get in there. Simply install the cork (glue + polyurethane can be obtained close to home if you want this as a winter project), and hang/plug in the towel heater.

It should save you a few hundred dollars. As long as the room is insulated the heated towel rack will offer the WARMTH you are looking for while in the bathroom.

The cork is going to be (roughly) $6/sf + Towel Rack...compare that to what you propose to do with in floor heating. Which one looks easier/faster/cheaper?

Just a thought.
mtvhike
5 years ago
Why are you putting the plumbing in BEFORE you put in the insulation?
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