Thank you AB Normal. I've read the horror stories where a worker nailed into the flooring system and ruined the connection, so I am nervous about something that could get destroyed and would be very disruptive and/or expensive to fix.

I would not bother in a kitchen unless this will be a whole house in floor heating system.I do agree best left for bathrooms.

no matter how cold outdoors or in the house.. when i have multiple burners and the oven going.. im usually running to go put on shorts and t shirt.. because the kitchen is so warm going on hot ... so i dont know why heating or warming the floor would be beneficial ... i call it full contact cooking.. lol ...

but i dont have an open floor plan.. so i dont know how that changes the concept.. but then.. i wouldnt want to be heating a vaulted ceiling great room/kitchen open floor plan with radiant heat in the floor ...

i suspect that the beauty of using such in the relatively small bathroom ... with a closed door ....

ken

This brought back a chuckle. Years ago, my SIL had a tile heated floor planned for her kitchen remodel and her husband issued one of his very rare 'No' responses. Saying, this is coastal Washington not Minnesota and I will buy you all the socks you might want - too many issues with heated floors in a kitchen/great room combination.

The floor is a lovely tumbled marble and it is not heated.

I agree with the others - we have heated bathroom floors and those are very nice, but in a kitchen it wouldn't make a ton of sense.

We used NuHeat for our master bath (under porcelain tile floor). We also installed it in the 1/2 bath and laundry area when you come in from the garage (under LVT) - that part of the house is built over a concrete slab, so the added warmth is nice. We talked about also doing the kitchen, but everyone talked us out of it - room is 14X28 and it just would have been too expensive (kitchen is the same LVT as the 1/2 bath and laundry area).

My niece has a heated kitchen floor ... love it. Hers is under tile. It's not hot-hot ... more like warm, as if the sun were shining on the tile.

Another consideration: heat under a granite counter top.

Is it possible to photograph the heating coils (coils?) before the tile is laid? So you'd know the exact location for future remodeling?

It’s called radiant heating, folks. And, its not that unusual in my neck of the woods. Works best under tile, but the systems have improved greatly and now also work under wood flooring.

Wanted to install radiant in our bathrooms, when we gut-renoed our home in 2016. However, with the renovation projected to run $350,000+, we decided to skip the warmed floors.

If you’re a household that walks around in socks…no shoes…a heated kitchen floor would be dreamy.

I know people who years ago, laid radiant heat in their den. They installed the system themselves. Have no idea of the brand, as they’ve been gone a long time.

We had Warmly Yours installed in master bathroom last spring. First winter using it. The floors are comfortably warm. It has added about $20-30 a month to our electric bill, we’re in Chicago suburbs. When it was being installed there was a sensor on it that would alarm if the tile contractor damaged any of the heating elements that was removed when the thermostat was installed.

Floor warming in either a kitchen or bath is a waste of money. If you're worried about frosty tootsies, buy a nice thick throw rug. There, I just save you thousands. Make out your check in appreciation to StarCraft Custom Builders.

For more information, read Bathroom Mistakes That Owners Regret.

Put on shoes if your feet are cold. And pants.

When we remodeled our Master Bath, we put in radiant heating under the tiles. Our shower floor includes the 2' cantilever upstairs, so cold air is under it in the winter. Even with insulation, the floor is still cold. Now, it's warm even when an arctic wind is blowing -- not hot, warm. It's set at 78 degrees 9pm to 9am. (My DH showers at night & I shower in the morning.) It's not necessary in the summer, but it definitely makes the shower floor more comfortable in the winter. An added benefit is that the bathroom is warmer than our bedroom overnight so if you have to get up in the middle of the night, it's relatively warm in the bathroom. (At night we drop the house temp to 67 degrees and it gets down to 62 or 63 in our bedroom -- great for sleeping, not so great if you have to get up in the middle of the night!)

I'll look into what we have and post once I find out.

As to the Kitchen, I probably wouldn't do it, but this is a case of personal preference -- if you want to do it, go ahead and do it! (I recommend turning if off in the summer though since a nice cool floor is usually welcome then! Ditto if you are doing a lot of baking or cooking.)

If you’re cold all the time and this would make you comfortable and you understand the costs, go for it! My sister recently put radiant heat under kitchen tile when she redid her kitchen. Even with socks and ugh slippers, she was still cold. Now she is happy. I forgot if her kitchen was over a concrete slab or unfinished basement, but the kitchen floor was cold.

If you do not have under slab insulation, the heat will go into the earth, and it will cost you more than if you have a modern insulated slab.

You hvae to be careful about turning the system off in summer (if you do install one). We did that the first year, went to turn it on for the winter and it was blank, and had to replace the thermostats...come to find out you don't turn it off you turn the settings down to 41 degrees (the lowest it will go) and then it just doesn't come on at all until you increase the settings) The system is made in Canada and we had to wait for the darn thermostats to clear customs to get them!

Electric is not necessarily your only floor heating option.

There are two kinds of radiant heating for floors—electric and hydronic (hot water). We have electric in all our bathrooms. The floors feel great and the warmth radiates upward, reducing our home heating oil usage a bit. (We recently did solar panels, so the electricity is practically free anway anyway.)

When we remodeled our kitchen in 2021, we installed hydronic floor heat under the tlle floors downstairs. Hydronic makes more sense for large areas. Also feels wonderful, just like the bathrooms. About half of the downstairs square footage is tile and the rest is wood. The heat produced by the hydronic heating has resulted in our never having to heat the entire downstairs. The net result is a lot less oil usage. This was a total surprise.

Aside from the comfort issue, I would try to approximate whether you might recoup some of the investment by saving on other energy usage. The plumbers are the ones who do the system.

Wow.. Lots of radiant heat haters! Go for it! If you live in a cold climate, radiant heat floors in the kitchen are a great add. NuHeat and Schluter, as others have suggested, are two good companies who have the right product. Pick a contractor for your remodel who has done radiant heat floors before and knows the product.

I’m a fan of radiant heat. We have had it in our bathrooms in two homes, but not the kitchen. We have Ditra heat in current house. No problems, and customer service is extremely helpful if you have any issues (thermostat questions, etc.). We don’t live in an extremely cold area, but I still wish I had a hydronic system throughout the house. Keep doing some research. I haven’t heard of any systems that have inherent problems, but it doesn’t hurt to talk to people about it. We would’ve put it in our last home, but it was older it would’ve required a panel upgrade, so that additional cost made it less palatable.

To do a 100 sf section, you are looking at about $1200 in product, $800 for an electrician if there is a free breaker, and an extra $3500-$4600 for the tile installer. Plus the standard tile install. If you fon’t have a free breaker dlot, you will need a sub panel install, or a new panel.

While it's nice, that's a big price tag.

Another idea to keep your feet warm: Skip the tile and go with laminate flooring. It's warmer to the foot, easier on the knees/joints, cheaper to buy, and -- in a kitchen -- less likely to break a dropped dish. Honestly, I like the laminate in my kitchen better than the tile in my bathrooms.

In contrast to Ms. Pete above, we hate the laminate in our kitchen. Once it scratches, or if water gets in the seam between planks, be ready for swelling of the cardboard-like body of the stuff that is under the extremely thin wear layer. We will be replacing it with wood.