Warm water floors on a wooden floor: features of laying the system on a wooden base. Warm floors on wooden floors: Finnish technology, adapted by FORUMHOUSE craftsmen Laying a water floor on a wooden floor

Among all types of heating, installing a water heated floor in a wooden house is perhaps the most complex and difficult. When laying, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the building, select the optimal type of flooring and strictly follow the phased installation plan.

Is it possible to water heat a wooden floor?

In fact, no matter what skeptics say, installing a warm water floor in a wooden house made of timber is not only a possible, but also a reasonable solution to the heating issue. Of course, you will have to take into account certain nuances related to the peculiarities of operation. wooden house.

So, for example, heating floors above 30 degrees is prohibited. A wooden surface under the influence of high temperatures is easily deformed and turns into dust. Therefore, a water heated floor on a wooden base must not be connected to the central heating circuit, but a separate heat source must be used for this purpose.

Cake of warm water floor in wooden country house greatly limits the possibility of using concrete screed. The heating system will have to be installed dry, which also creates certain inconveniences.

When choosing a floor covering, you should consider that some popular Decoration Materials: laminate, parquet board- when heated above 25°C, toxic fumes of formaldehyde begin to be released.

Most manufacturers of heating equipment take into account the need for the simultaneous use of two heating circuits with different heating intensities, providing customers with boilers with the ability to connect heating radiators and heated floors.

Options for installing a wooden floor with water heating

There are several options for installing heated floors in a wooden house. The choice of installation method is selected depending on technical characteristics building.

Common installation methods are:

Mats - represent ready-made structures with grooves for laying a water circuit. The mats can be laid on a flat floor base. To do this, first trim the surface using plywood or QSB boards. Modular type floor does not require use cement mixtures. Polypropylene pipes cover the DSP on top and the floor covering is laid.
Installation of warm concrete water floors on top of wooden structures. Before installation, ensure maximum insulation of wooden elements from moisture. All work is carried out exclusively ready-made compounds with a short drying period.
Milling a wooden floor for pipes of a warm water floor system. Using cutters, machines cut out recesses for the passage of the pipeline. The wooden base begins to serve as mats. As a result, costs for floor components are reduced. The disadvantage of milling is the labor intensity of the process. But if you have specialized tools, installation time can be reduced to a minimum.

You can install water-heated floors on a wooden floor using other methods. There is the following method. In a wooden frame, a pipeline is simply laid under the logs. The plank floor is dismantled, the water circuit is installed, after which the flooring is laid back.

To protect the wood as much as possible from moisture, the water circuit is laid in a special corrugation. The corrugation protects against the effects of water even in the event of leaks.

How to make water floors in a wooden house

Installation of a warm water floor wooden floor with your own hands is practically no different from the structures used in other buildings. The exception is special safety measures necessary to protect wooden surfaces from moisture.

Practice has shown that the best option will use polypropylene pipes.

Installation work is carried out as follows:

The maximum length of the water circuit should not exceed 70 m. If this is not enough for the heated area, so-called water floor laying areas are created. To ensure uniform supply to each heating circuit, a water manifold is installed.

What floor coverings are suitable

The choice of material is limited both by subsequent operation and by the method of manufacturing the heating system.

Traditionally used following types flooring:

Ceramic tile– the advantage of ceramics is rapid heating of the surface and high heat transfer. Use limited to hallway, bathroom, kitchen and non-residential premises. When choosing ceramic tiles, heated floors must be filled with screed or covered with a cement bonded particle board.
Laminate and parquet boards– there are two types of installation of water heating on wooden floors: on mats or prepared grooves. Laminate or parquet can be laid regardless of the method of installation installation work. The only drawback of the floor covering is the inability to heat the surface above 25°C.
Regular board - you can also lay a water-heated floor according to wooden beams with your own hands, laying boards over the water contour. The solution does not require serious material investments. This method is chosen if it is not possible to reduce the distance to the ceiling. Subsequently, it is possible to additionally lay linoleum or laminate.

Hammer.
Rules.
Angle grinder for cutting reinforcement.
Construction level.

To work with wooden surfaces A set of cutters and drills and a powerful drill will come in handy.

What mistakes should be avoided during installation?

The peculiarities of the design on a wooden base are that any violations and changes in the phased installation of heating will lead to operational problems. The appearance of condensation and leaks is critical.

The pipe laying system does not allow the following violations:

Warm floors for a wooden house are a reasonable solution. If you follow the installation recommendations, you can avoid possible difficulties during future operation.

Most people are attracted to the idea of the device warm system, based on a wooden floor base, is skeptical. After all, everyone knows that temperature changes trigger deformation processes - and in general, wood-like materials have too low a coefficient of thermal conductivity for such a design to be effective. However, new technologies are emerging that make it possible not only to additionally heat individual rooms, but also to organize quite comfortable main heating in an unconventional way. We will tell you how to do it on a wooden floor in a private house in this article.

Basically, the issue of installing heated floors on prefabricated wooden foundations arises in individual households. In the apartments, all floors are concrete, and such technology may only be necessary if you do not want to remove the old wooden flooring or parquet during renovation. And in houses, even if the floors of the first floor are arranged in the form of a concrete screed on the ground, the overwhelming majority of interfloor ceilings - even in brick houses, are constructed from beams.

This design is a multilayer sandwich, the top of which is the subfloor of the above room. If the house is just being built, heating elements can be placed inside this pie; if it is already in use, floor heating can be organized without removing the sheet flooring.
The layering of the structure can be different and depends both on the structure of the floor as a whole and on the type of floor covering that is supposed to be laid at the finish. And note, this does not necessarily have to be a board, carpet or any decorative particle boards. This may well be ceramics, which, when proper preparation The base fits perfectly on wood.
With the same success, heating elements can be installed under any coating, and the choice of one or another installation technology depends on their type. It is possible, for example, to provide for traditional wet screed, on which it is very convenient to install not only ceramic, but also quartz vinyl tiles. And it’s not so much about convenience as it is about the better ability of the solution layer to accumulate and transfer heat.

Note! However, today there is also alternative ways improve heat transfer of prefabricated wooden floors. For example, for laying water pipes or cables, metal plates were invented that warm up to the temperature of the coolant and give off heat well.

The plates have recesses, thanks to which the heating elements do not protrude to the surface and do not interfere with the laying of the finished floor. Only a thin membrane is laid between them, which helps remove steam from the internal space. This is if the coating itself is vapor permeable. You can pour and on top of the plates, only in this case the layer between them should be waterproof.

Are there any advantages to not having a monolithic screed?

If there is a concrete monolith floor in the cake, the principle of the heating effect is more or less clear to everyone. Heating elements - whether pipes with hot water, molded electrical cable or rolled mats and films - give off thermal energy to nearby material.

If it is a stone, which is a concrete screed, then it heats up perfectly and gradually transfers heat to the overlying layer. If it is tiles made of natural or artificial stone (ceramics also belongs to this category), the tandem turns out to be simply ideal, since their properties are approximately the same.
But when the heat source is shrouded not in a material that transfers heat, but insulating it, the efficiency of heating the premises is significantly reduced. Hence the need arose to use metal strips that could accumulate and transmit instead of structural material.
However, in some situations, the absence of a screed is even preferable. For example, if there is a building under the first floor, into which heat should not flow. Or in old houses, where after many years of use the floor beams may lose some of their original strength, and it is undesirable to load them with a rather massive layer of concrete.

On a note! Let us give one more, very significant argument in favor of a prefabricated heated floor, which does not have a screed. Such a floor can be used immediately after installation, whereas when concrete pouring You must first wait the required 28 days to gain strength (you can walk, but you cannot apply heat). Moreover, even without a screed, you can lay any covering, including tiles, at the finish.

Methods for dry assembly of heated floors

The most common method of installing layers of insulated flooring is the laying option. In this case, pipes or other heating elements are laid either between the joists or on top of the rough boards.

Between the joists

In the first case, a special structured substrate is laid between the lags, into the recesses of which it is very convenient to install pipes.

It is best to take a substrate with a reflective top layer, but you can also use regular foil insulation. Simply, thanks to the recesses in the special substrate, you don’t have to figure out how to fix the pipes in the desired position.

But if necessary, you can always come up with something, as the photo below convinces us of. Here, transverse strips were installed between the logs, to which the heating elements were fixed with metal clamps. Finally, all this is sewn up with sheet material, on top of which a decorative covering is already mounted.

On rough surface

In the case of laying pipes or cables on top of a subfloor or an old plank floor in the latter, it is necessary to mill grooves into which the metal plates that we have already mentioned above must be inserted. The only problem is that the tool needed for this is unlikely to be at hand, and not everyone can handle it. And hiring a specialist for this work will cost about 65 rubles/m2.

To avoid milling, you can use the method shown in the example below. Here, in order to install galvanized plates, boards were mounted on a wooden base. They were chosen to be of such a thickness and installed at a pitch that would allow the protrusion in the plate to fit perfectly into the gap.

It is doubtful that this method provides any savings, because you have to pay for milling and boards one way or another. If it is not possible to lay heating elements between the beams, you don’t want to dismantle the old floor, or low height the ceiling does not allow installing another tier of logs; it is much more convenient and cheaper to use heating films rather than pipes. True, due to the cost of the coolant, such a floor may turn out to be more expensive in operation.

You don’t even need to make a screed over them - just close the system protective film and lay the laminate. But under the rolled materials you will have to arrange an intermediate hard layer in the form of plywood or other sheet materials. But this is a double-edged sword.

On a note! Such a layer will become an additional obstacle to heat - reflective elements will not help much either. For greater heating efficiency, a mortar screed is still better. In the case of a film, it can be made very thin, from a self-leveling floor or a self-made mortar without large filler, which adds increased weight to ordinary concrete. Just keep in mind that the filler mixture must contain additives that make the monolith immune to elevated temperatures.

There is no uniform technology for assembling heated floors on wooden bases. Here everything needs to be decided based on the specific situation, and there are quite a lot of options. You can come up with your own way of arranging layers, only in this case you need to correctly compare the abilities of a particular material to perceive and transfer heat.

Sequence of work on a wooden base

As already noted, now most developers provide heated floors immediately during the construction of a house. Thanks to them, real estate can always be sold more profitably, and the buyer will be sure that he will definitely not freeze in his new home. But people don't always buy ready-made houses, but try to build them themselves whenever possible. Everyone understands perfectly well that it works out cheaper, and it’s easier to correct your own mistakes than other people’s.

Require special attention wooden buildings, since wood is highly susceptible to shrinkage. This applies not only to the frame of the house, but also to its internal lining, which after a year no longer becomes so attractive: cracks appear from which it blows, and in some places cracks.

Often, only then does the owner begin to think about installing heated floors. But there is furniture on them, and disassembling the covering to get to the joists is too labor-intensive work. How to get out of this situation?

Analysis of the “flight” step by step

We propose to consider this situation in more detail, using a specific example as a basis.

Table. Step-by-step installation instructions.

Steps, photo

Let us now consider the installation of a water heated floor on a wooden base, be it heated floor wooden joists or on wooden floors. With this type of heated floor installation, there is no need to work with concrete, and the system will be ready to start immediately after installation is completed.

In addition, wooden heated floors are used where it is impossible to make a concrete screed due to the design features of the building (room). For example, in the example given below, a heated floor is installed in a wooden house.

Let’s clarify right away: the connection to the collector, to the boiler and the layout of the heated floor loops are the same for a wooden heated floor and for a concrete one, so if you have not read articles on the relevant topics, but immediately came to this page, then it is better to start from here.

Warm floors on wooden logs: first installation option

There was a wooden floor. Logs from 50x150 mm boards were placed on it at intervals

60 cm. Insulation – mineral wool – 100 mm thick was placed between the joists. For insulation - underfloor heating pipes.

Cuts were made in the joists for the passage of pipes. Possible gaps between the joists and the insulation were foamed (although when correct distance There is no need to foam between the joists; if the insulation is mineral wool, then the distance between the logs should be 1.5-2 cm less than the width of the mineral wool sheet). On top of the joists they placed plywood, on which some kind of finishing material was already applied.

The weakness of the device shown: between the pipe and the plywood there is air gap, which does not need to be: it worsens the thermal conductivity of the floor.

Warm floors on wooden logs: second installation option

More labor intensive, but also more reliable. Lags are installed. Between them is polystyrene insulation, mineral wool, etc. A base is laid on the joists - plywood, OSB, chipboard, etc. (but not gypsum plasterboard, which tends to crumble if you constantly walk on it).

Next, plates with rounded corners are cut out of the chipboard to create grooves into which the pipe will be laid. The width of the plates depends on the required pipe pitch, and the thickness is 20 mm. These plates are screwed to the previously installed base at intervals equal to the diameter of the pipe plus 3...4 mm. Between the plates there are strips of foil 20...25 cm wide - a reflective layer. And - a pipe:

To enhance the reflective effect, lay a layer on top of the pipes. metal sheets, either aluminum or galvanized steel. The top is laminate, but not parquet!

The figure does not show a layer of sheet material on top of the logs, but it is possible without it, although it is more reliable with it. Why? With a large distance between the joists, boards 20...25 mm thick can sag under the weight of furniture and people. (Especially if these are not boards, but strips of chipboard.) With thicker boards, the distance from the pipes to the floor surface increases, which is why the floor will have to be heated more intensely...

Such a base is not suitable for parquet, because it is very movable and flexible. For parquet you need a concrete base, and the backing (plywood) is firmly screwed to the concrete base. And it is suitable for laminate.

The second option is more suitable for laying the pipe in a “snake” pattern, and photos illustrating this installation option are given below.

Warm floors on wooden logs: third installation option

The most labor intensive. As in the 2nd option, there is insulation between the joists. Next, take a board 50 mm thick and a width equal to the pipe pitch. The board is sanded on all sides. A groove is made in one corner of the board (yellow is the cut material; the blue circle is the pipe):

- and in this groove we first put the foil (with an overlap on the top of the board), and then the pipe. We fasten the foil with a stapler to the boards, which are first attached to the joists close to each other. We lay the floor covering on top of the boards.

Warm floors on wooden logs: fourth option

To install a wooden heated floor, you can use different ready-made solutions, produced by companies specializing in products for heated floors. For example, reflective plates with grooves for laying pipes:

The plates are mounted on top of the logs, the distance between which must be determined in advance based on the width of these plates.

Or insulation with a metallized layer applied to it:

There are also grooves for pipes here. We place the insulation on the corners, specially fixed for this purpose along the upper edges of the joists.

Warm floors on wooden logs: fifth option

Another technology.

There is a false floor between the joists:

In the photo there is a raised floor made of boards, but this is not important; OSB, chipboard, etc. are also suitable.

We put insulation between the beams, and sheets with bosses on it, flush with the upper edges of the joists:

Where the pipe crosses the logs, grooves are made, and the pipe in these places is enclosed in corrugation so that due to linear expansions the pipe does not rub against the wood. On top of the pipe are reflective metal sheets. Well, a clean finish.

Warm floors on wooden logs: sixth option

Another option: you can lay the heated floor pipes directly on the insulation (only if the insulation is not cotton wool, but polystyrene) between the joists. So that the pipes are located below the top of the joists. And fill the space between the joists with gypsum mortar:

However, if you really want to do without wet processes instead gypsum mixture you can just fall asleep dry clean sand. Gypsum or sand will smooth out one of the disadvantages of a wooden heated floor: the absence of a heat accumulator, which is concrete system concrete screed.

(I have given six options for installing a heated wooden floor, but this does not mean that you are limited to them; perhaps you can come up with your own or make additions/improvements to those shown; the main thing is that the operating principles of a heated water floor are not violated)

Installation of wooden heated floors step by step

Now let's look at the installation of a warm water floor on wooden logs in detail, clearly and step by step. (This is just one possible option.)

In the photo below we see logs for laying a wooden floor:

The logs are laid in increments of 0.6 m. To fasten the logs, you can use galvanized supports, of which there are many types now available:

The convenience of using such supports is that they can first be secured with self-tapping screws and/or nails, aligning all the supports at the level, and only then attach the logs themselves to the supports.

After attaching the joists, a subfloor is laid underneath - in order to put a layer of thermal insulation on it:

We lay it on the subfloor waterproofing film(clearly visible in the following photographs); then - thermal insulation:

In the photo above as thermal insulation mineral slab on a basalt base in two layers (100 mm). A 40 mm board is laid on top of the thermal insulation (it is not necessary to lay this board; you can lay strips of chipboard on the joists ( chipboard thickness 20-22 mm), between which the heated floor pipe will be located).

On next photo laid strips of chipboard with a pitch of 20 cm are visible (since the calculations resulted in such a pitch between the pipes):

The chipboard strips are laid in the following sequence: first, the strips are laid along the walls, after which we lay the strips over the entire area. The corners of the strips are cut - for laying pipe bends:

Between the chipboard strips, as can be seen in the photo, a gap is left into which the pipe will be laid.

There are special aluminum sheets with pipe profiles pressed into them. Such sheets are needed as heat reflectors. They are not on sale everywhere, so you can get by with sheets of galvanized iron 0.5 mm thick, which can be found in any building materials store.

The photo below shows the galvanized steel strips mentioned in the paragraph above already attached to the chipboard:

Galvanization is attached to the chipboard with ordinary nails. Galvanized strips are bent in such a way that grooves are formed, into which the metal-plastic pipe is then laid.

The figure below shows the profile along which a galvanized strip is bent:

We see that the supply and return pipes are laid along the wall, and the “rolls” of the warmest floor are laid nearby:

When designing, it is important to take into account all the gaps that should be left between the laid pipes, and then attach the chipboard strips taking into account these gaps.

Another important point– lay the pipe so that it does not protrude above the floor level and does not interfere with later installation finishing coating. As you understand, this is precisely why the pipe is laid in grooves made of chipboard strips, and the thickness of the chipboard is taken to be greater than the diameter of the pipe.

The next photo shows the finished one wooden system water heated floor:

The next step will be to lay plywood on this floor and finish the floor covering on top (but first the system should be pressurized: filled with water and kept under pressure).

Only two things can be said about laying plywood: choose moisture-resistant plywood with a thickness of at least 10 mm, and leave a gap of 5-10 mm between the sheets of plywood (the gap can be filled with sealant, but you don’t have to fill it; a gap is needed due to the possible expansion of the plywood - Wood, as you know, absorbs moisture - even moisture-resistant wood, the same applies to OSB).

That's the whole montage wooden underfloor heating system– as we see, there is nothing super complicated.

Installation of a warm water floor on a wooden base: step by step

Installation of a warm water floor on a wooden base: step-by-step instruction with photos for dummies. Six options for installing wooden heated floors.

Water-heated floor on a wooden base: problems you will encounter and how to get around them

The method of heating bathhouses by circulating heated water “underfoot” was used in ancient times by the Turks and Romans. The “underground” method was not new, but it was not sufficiently studied and developed. For a long time They believed that it was pointless to install a heated floor system on a wooden floor due to the specific properties of natural building materials. The main advantages of wood - excellent insulating qualities and lightness - were recognized as a hindrance. The difficulty was caused by characteristic movements of organic matter caused by fluctuations in temperature background and changes in moisture levels. The intractability of combining water-heated floors with a wooden base forced us to find a technological “way out” that would ensure their working union.

What will you have to face during the work?

The principle of operation of the “warm floor” design family is based on the transfer of coolant energy through the surrounding material to the floor covering. The heated floor then transfers heat into the room. A traditional concrete screed surrounding pipes with water or ethylene glycol solution moving through them copes well with this function. The same cannot be said about wood, which prevents the spread of thermal energy. It, of course, does not allow the energy generated during heating to pass into the underground, but it is not in a hurry to give it to users either.

Question: why not simply pour a concrete screed over the wooden flooring? Answer: then about 300 kg of concrete layer will press on 1 m² of wooden flooring. There is no doubt that wood cannot withstand such a heavy burden, even if beam structure was super-reliable, the kind you would expect from a Russian bathhouse or log house it is unwise to do.

Another catch is the underlay, without which it is not customary to lay flooring on a wooden floor. Most materials used as a substrate also belong to the category of insulation, creating a barrier to the passage of heat.

The entire range of problems and obstacles will be eliminated by the improved technology according to which water-heated wooden floors are now being built. Thanks to the features of its device:

the weight of the heating “underground” structure has been reduced by an order of magnitude;
the heat received from the heating pipes is completely transferred to the floor covering and indirectly to users;
the underlay is laid only under carpet, linoleum or floor tiles;
the period of arrangement has been extremely shortened;
The 28-day waiting period required for the screed to fully harden is excluded.

After laying the finishing coating over a water-heated floor constructed using a wooden system, you can begin using it immediately. An important advantage is the ability to repair and replace damaged areas without significant problems, which is completely unrealistic with a cement screed.

Design features of a wooden water system

Designed specifically for suburban buildings with beam floors Wooden water heated floor systems are laid in a unique laying method:

the pipeline with the circulating coolant is not located in a cement screed, but is mounted on top of the joists or rough plank floor in specially formed channels;
for heat accumulation and transfer, the channels are equipped with heat distribution plates with a longitudinal recess for laying heating circuit pipes;
metal plates, along with the duties of distributing heat, serve as elements that increase the rigidity of the structure, thereby eliminating the need to use a substrate.

Note. In budget homemade options, instead of expensive plates, foil with a thickness of 200 microns is used.

If a substrate is still needed, for example, to finish a floor with ceramic tiles or linoleum, gypsum fiber boards (GVL, GVLV) or cement-bonded particle boards (CSB) with minimal insulating properties are used.

Two technologically different options to choose from

All the differences lie in the method of forming channels for the location of the pipeline, hence the division into two methods:

To lay heated floors over wooden joists, you can now purchase special chipboard modules with “grooves” pre-milled at the factory, the spacing between which is determined by the planned heat transfer of the system. The factory set comes in fully equipped with all components: modules with existing channels, metal heat-distributing plates, fasteners and pipes. They just need to be put together in accordance with the attached project instructions. A significant disadvantage of modular chipboard flooring is the cost, sometimes equivalent to the price of a log house. Therefore, cunning folk craftsmen, relying on factory developments, came up with a cheap rack-and-pinion alternative.
The slatted version predetermines the formation of channels not by milling in a chipboard, but by stuffing slats. To make slats, use edged planed boards, moisture-resistant plywood or the above-mentioned boards with a thickness of at least 21 mm, maximum 28 mm. The distance between the slats is usually equal to the thickness of the slats, since in the grooves created by stuffing, pipes with an outer diameter of 17 mm should not only lie freely, but also not be deformed by the movements of the wood. The width of the guide rails is determined by the distance between the pipes of the circuit being constructed. For example, when laying a pipeline in a snake with a pitch of 300 mm, the width of a 22 mm board should be 278 mm.

There is another ingenious folk technology - a kind of hybrid of the rack and pinion and modular principles. According to it, laying heated floors on wooden beams is done quite quickly and very economically.

To do this in edged board on one side, a quarter with the dimensions of the channel is selected. At a distance of at least 7 cm from the wall, a continuous strip is milled to an equivalent depth so that the pipe can be brought to the next row. The thickness of the board, naturally, should be greater than the sample size, but the width of the board is in this case equal to the laying step. Boards with channels are attached with self-tapping screws directly to beams or joists, because there is no need to construct a subfloor.

Installation of the system on a light slatted floor

Before constructing a heated floor under a used wooden floor, it is necessary to carefully check the condition of all elements. It is advisable to disassemble the floorboards and inspect the joists, and if necessary, replace components that are in doubt. If the structure was not insulated enough to the beams or to the joists at the level of the bottom line, you need to nail the bars and lay slab insulation on them. Then you need to lay insulating roll material with an overlap (preferably polyethylene 200 microns) and attach a 5 cm wide damper tape to the wall along the perimeter of the floor.

Those who want to know how to make a wooden floor warm by installing a water circuit probably realized that the most simple option laying the pipeline will be a snake. On a plan made according to the dimensions of the room, we will mark the place for connecting pipes and installing control equipment, and draw the location of the guides with the required step. For our latitudes, the pitch between pipes varies from 150 mm to 300 mm. It is recommended to take corrugated pipes with a diameter of 16 or 17 mm. Based on the data obtained, we calculate the dimensions of the slats and make them.

The base has been prepared, the slats have been prepared - you can begin installation:

in accordance with the personal project, we lay the prepared guides, between which we leave a groove-channel for the pipes;
we fasten the guides with self-tapping screws to the rough base;
We round the corners of the slats in the pipeline turning zone;
We place foil with a thickness of at least 50 microns into the channels created by this method, press it, carefully bending around the recess, and fix it in places to the slats with a stapler;

Advice. To increase heat transfer, craftsmen recommend additionally wrapping the pipes themselves with foil.

We lay a pipeline along the formed grooves, periodically fasten it with metal plates to subfloor or to the slats;
connect to the heating circuit and perform pressure testing of the heating system;
Once you are convinced of its functionality, we either immediately lay down the floor covering or a substrate under the tiles or linoleum, for which formaldehyde-free DSP boards are strongly recommended.

This is how you can build water heated floors yourself without extra costs and unnecessary fanaticism. The principles introduced by Western engineers can be practically used, leaving the money in your own wallet. What is preferable: a very expensive factory “designer” or an affordable homemade product?

Water-heated floor on a wooden floor: on wooden logs and slatted options

A specific technology allows you to install a “warm floor” water heating system on a wooden floor with your own hands. Let's figure out how to make a heated floor on a wooden floor - the technology of work.

Warm water floors on wooden floors

For a country house, wooden bath will become convenient and practical floor system heating A warm water floor, the contour of which must be hidden in the underground, is capable of efficiently and effectively heating fairly spacious living spaces. This is especially convenient if you want to improve the habitability of your dacha and create more comfortable conditions in the bathhouse.

It is not possible to solve such an engineering problem by laying water pipes under a concrete screed. This is affected by the technological features of the structure itself and the very nature of the technology. Not every wooden floor or logs lying at the base of the building can withstand the enormous additional load in the form of monolithic slab. The way out of this situation is to make heated floors, water-based, laid on a wooden floor.

Basic idea and practical solution

For quite a long time, it was generally accepted that installing water heating circuits directly on wooden floors was not a very good idea. Mainly, the reason for this opinion lay in the characteristics of the building material. Construction wood, despite a lot of technological advantages, is highly susceptible to the effect of thermal deformation. In addition, excessive exposure to moisture also negatively affects wood. The lightness of wooden structures and insulating properties were considered disadvantages when it came to installing more complex thermal and hydraulic structures in a building.

Despite the obvious obstacles, attempts to find a reasonable way out of the current situation have led to the emergence of new technologies that make it possible to install heated water floors over wooden floors and create water heating systems in wooden buildings. The main thing is to choose the right consumables and adhere to a certain technology.

Today, there are two types of underfloor heating used in residential buildings as a heating element. About electrical diagram we will not talk about it, since it has not found its development in combination with wooden structures. Let's pay attention to water system heating - a warm water floor in which hot water runs through the pipes of the heating circuit.

What difficulties await us in this case from a technological point of view? The operating principle that underlies this heating system is well known and understood. It makes no difference whether the water circuit lies in a concrete screed or is skillfully hidden in a wooden floor. Water circulating through the pipeline heats the floor surface, thereby releasing precious heat internal space heated room.

On a note: Skeptics may make a remark - wood does not conduct heat well, and the wooden structure itself can become deformed as a result of heating. There is a lot to answer to these comments. The use of special heat-conducting plates makes it possible to ensure that thermal energy flows in a strictly vertical direction, heating the floor covering.

Here we should say a few words about the fact that from a technical point of view, laying heating pipes on a wooden floor does not present any difficulties. If at the initial stage you have a clear idea of what your heated floor should be like, what type of floor covering you will have, make a water underfloor heating quite capable.

Key points

We have already said that it is not always possible to solve a problem as simply as you would like. For permanent stone structures with concrete floors, concrete screed for heated floors is very convenient. However, in most cases, wooden residential buildings with wooden floors are not able to withstand an additional weight of 10-15 tons. Wood, even if you are dealing with a beam system, cannot withstand such a load. It makes no sense to strengthen load-bearing structures during the construction of a country house or bathhouse. This will lead to higher costs and heavier weight of the entire structure.

For reference: any water-heated floor requires the creation of a substrate. This element is mandatory for heated floors of any type. Without underlayment, even one floor covering will not have sufficient support.

The key point in this situation is the new technology, thanks to which it was possible not only to significantly reduce the weight of the entire heating system structure, but also to ensure that the heat began to be transferred directly to the floor covering. The substrate can be successfully covered with linoleum or carpet. The emergence of new practical and high-tech materials makes it possible to create an entire heating system based on wooden floors in a matter of days. When working with concrete screed, you will have to strictly adhere to the technology and wait 25-28 days until the screed reaches its maturity.

Assessment of the condition of wooden structures. Preliminary insulation

Before you begin designing a water-heated floor heating system, you need to examine wooden structures, floors, logs and other load-bearing elements. The wooden base, consisting of boards, must be solid. The gaps existing between the boards are carefully sealed with heat-insulating materials. The floor in a wooden house is usually mounted on joists, so it is important to study their condition and location.

Condition assessment includes:

visual inspection of surface condition wooden planks;
feeling and scraping the surface of wooden boards to assess the structure of the wood;
eliminating cracked and sagging boards;
alignment of lags in places of deflection;
adding lags if the distance between existing elements is too large.

For reference: If the condition of the wooden floor is unsatisfactory (old, dried out or rotten boards), it is better to dismantle such a base. The joists that hold the boards in place are too far apart. For a warm floor, the logs must be at least 60 cm apart from each other.

There is an installation option where the heated floor is laid over wooden joists. Those. in other words, the entire structure will be on top load-bearing structures, representing an independent structure.

Old boards that are not marketable must be treated with a jointer to make the surface of the material smooth and uniform. The maximum permissible unevenness in height for a wooden floor is no more than 2 mm. This level of care and precision is required for a wood floor because there is no underlay in this system.

Having finished assessing the condition and preparing the wooden floor, you should begin insulating the structure. This preliminary procedure is necessary due to the fact that all the heat emitted by the water circuit should not go down into the underground, but be retained and directed upward.

Reinstall the logs at an acceptable distance, and begin installing the raised floor. Plywood or used boards are nailed onto the joists from below. This will serve as the basis for the laid thermal insulation material. Steam and heat-protective film should be laid on the prepared base. In the openings between the joists, insulation is placed on the film, the thickness of which should not exceed 100 mm. The thermal insulation film is again fixed on top of the insulation. Only after all this can you begin laying the heating water circuit.

On a note: It is highly not recommended to use ordinary polyethylene film as thermal insulation. Neglecting technology will lead to condensation starting to accumulate in the underground. Due to the accumulation of moisture, the insulation may soon become unusable.

The insulation in this situation can be mineral wool, the density of which is 35-40 kg/3.

Installation of floorboards and methods of laying heating pipes

At this stage, it is necessary to take into account technological subtleties. This will of course take a little more time, but further work will already lead much faster. It should be said right away. The layout of the water heating circuit in this case is a “snake”. Installation of a pipeline using a “spiral” or “snail” pattern is unacceptable for this technology.

On the prepared base we begin laying boards that have a special configuration and are equipped with special grooves. There should be grooves measuring 20x20 mm between the boards. The edges of the boards are turned in a semicircle for easy turning of the water pipe. Having made all the necessary preparations, you can begin laying all the boards on the prepared base. The presence of grooves and semicircular edges boards are the route for laying the water circuit. This to some extent makes the task easier in the future when installing the underfloor heating pipeline directly.

Ready-made grooves for installing a water pipe for a water-heated floor under wooden floors are shown in the photograph.

Thanks to the grooves, laying the heating circuit is easy and quick. Before working with the pipe, foil is unwound over the grooves. After this, a pipe is placed in the grooves, the diameter of which should not exceed 16 mm. In order to obtain maximum heat transfer, the pipe is wrapped in foil, securing its edges with staples to wooden boards.

On top of the pipes they are secured to the boards with metal plates. According to this scheme, the entire water pipe, thereby covering the entire floor area.

On the preliminary floor plan, marks are made where the control equipment will be installed (manifold, manifold cabinet).

Important! Pipes should be laid taking into account a certain step. For the central regions of the country, where the average monthly temperature in winter is -15, -20 0 C, optimal step for laying is 150-300 mm.

It is better to use a stainless corrugated pipe with a diameter of 16 mm.

The final stage. Connection to an autonomous heating system

After you have installed the water circuit, you can begin connecting it. For manual regulation, the connection is simply made to the main pipeline using a regular tap. If you want to make the system adjustable, warm water floors under a wooden floor are equipped with mixing units and a manifold. In this case, you get a comfortable, efficient and adjustable heating system.

For those who want to improvise, remember! Under no circumstances should warm water floors be connected to the central heating mains. Connecting additional heating devices, including heated floors to centralized system heating and hot water supply is illegal.

Based on this, installing a water floor in a city apartment is impractical and risky. For a private home or cottage, this option is quite acceptable and effective. After connection, the water circuits must be pressurized. The procedure is mandatory and allows you to identify coolant leaks and identify areas low heat. Only after this can you start working on the flooring.

Finish. Floor covering

The coating you choose can be anything. Today, the retail chain has a huge selection of the most various materials. You will have to choose not so much by manufacturability, but by cost. If you prefer to use laminate, then for this you will need certain time. The costs will not be so large in this case.

On a note: Any material has its own coefficient of thermal conductivity, so your level of comfort and heating efficiency depend on how your heated floor is covered.

Wood has low thermal conductivity compared to ceramic tiles. Before you begin installing a water heated floor along the joists, you should do thermal calculations, giving an idea of the amount of heat that will be on the surface. By doing everything correctly and in accordance with technology, you can do it yourself effective system heating in residential premises.

Lay a water heated floor over a wooden floor

Article on the topic: “Warm water floors on a wooden floor” - heating encyclopedia ZnatokTepla.ru

What should a water heated floor be installed in a wooden house?

Is it possible to water heat a wooden floor?

Options for installing a wooden floor with water heating

There are several options for installing heated floors in a wooden house. The choice of installation method is selected depending on the technical characteristics of the building.

Mats - represent ready-made structures with grooves for laying a water circuit. The mats can be laid on a flat floor base. To do this, first trim the surface using plywood or QSB boards. A modular floor does not require the use of cement mixtures. Polypropylene pipes cover the DSP on top and the floor covering is laid.

How to make water floors in a wooden house

Installing a warm water floor on a wooden floor with your own hands is practically no different from the structures used in other buildings. The exception is special safety measures necessary to protect wooden surfaces from moisture.

What floor coverings are suitable

The choice of material is limited both by subsequent operation and by the method of manufacturing the heating system.

Ceramic tiles - the advantage of ceramics is the rapid heating of the surface and high heat transfer. Use is limited to the hallway, bathroom, kitchen and non-residential areas. When choosing ceramic tiles, heated floors must be covered with a screed or covered with a cement bonded particle board.

What tools are needed for installation?

To install the water circuit you will need:

Installation of concrete water heated floor wooden floors, will additionally require:

To work with wooden surfaces, you will need a set of cutters and drills, and a powerful drill.

What mistakes should be avoided during installation?

Excess maximum length contour - the pipe should not be more than 70 m in length. The circuit should be located below the boiler, this ensures natural circulation coolant, in the absence of a circulation pump.

Warm floors for a wooden house are a reasonable solution. If you follow the installation recommendations, you can avoid possible difficulties during future operation.

Do-it-yourself water heated floor installation in a wooden house, installation options with and without screed

The seemingly complex installation of a water heated floor in a wooden house is actually simple. Self-installation allows you to save significantly by installing the heating circuit and completing

Warm floors are an invention of the 20th century. Our great-grandfathers did not have electric heating cables or gas boilers. However, they came up with their own heating method. To do this they used the walls of buildings. When making masonry, they left channels in them for the movement of hot furnace gases.

Today there is no need to resort to such tricks. You can make heated floors in a wooden house with minimal effort and money.

Choosing a heating heating system is very simple:

Electrical cable or mats with flat current-carrying conductors;
Warm floor based on plastic pipes with liquid coolant.

Both heating options have earned positive reviews. They are equivalent in comfort and heat transfer, but not the same in energy cost. Electricity is significantly more expensive than gas, so heating cables for heated floors are best used in small spaces: bathrooms, kitchens and hallways. A liquid system made of pipes, a gas or solid fuel boiler is optimal for bedrooms and living rooms.

A lot has been written and said about the fact that heated floors are better than radiators.

We will only note its most important advantages:

Optimal heat distribution. Zone comfortable temperature coincides with the living space (from the floor surface to a height of 1.7 meters). When the batteries are running, the air near the ceiling warms up the most.
A radiator heating system activates dust movement to a greater extent than a warm floor.
From the point of view of interior aesthetics, heated floors are superior to radiators.

Features of installing heated floors (water and electric) in a wooden house

The technology for laying water-heated floors in a wooden house depends on the type of floor. If the first floor and basement are blocked reinforced concrete panels, then the heating system is made according to the “classical” scheme:

leveling mortar screed;
insulation (extruded polystyrene foam, perlite concrete);
heating cable or plastic pipes;
leveling screed covering the heated floor;
finishing coating (tiles, parquet, laminate).

It is more difficult to make a warm floor when wooden beams are used to cover the basement and first floor. In this case, there is no solid base, so the structure is assembled according to one of two options:

Option #1

a board is placed underneath the beams to support the insulation (mineral wool, polystyrene foam, ecowool, perlite);
Having laid the thermal insulation, plastic pipes are attached to the side faces of the beams;
cutouts are made in the beams to allow pipes to pass through;
lay a finished wooden floor from tongue-and-groove boards or a rough floor for laying parquet or laminate flooring.

Option No. 2

Thick plywood is laid over the beams or OSB board(15-20 mm);
attached to the coating wooden blocks section 50x50mm;
insulation is laid between the bars;
lay a material that reflects heat (aluminum foil);
pipes are placed on top of the thermal insulation, fixing them to the bars;
install a subfloor from boards, gypsum fiber sheets (gypsum fiber sheets), particle boards or plywood;
lay the finishing coating (ceramic tiles, parquet, laminate).

Two options for installing a warm water floor using “dry” technology

In advanced systems mounted on wooden floors, heat-distributing metal plates are used. They perform two functions: they form channels for pipes and reflect heat.

Water Floor Heat Distribution Plates

To simplify installation, you can use ready-made factory chipboards with milled recesses for pipes. In addition, on the market you can find panels made of dense foam plastic with stamped channels (foam shield). In them, the pipework is fixed quickly and easily.

Installation plastic pipe into a foam board

A pipeline of any configuration is mounted in a profile plate (laminated mats with bosses)

If foam is used, there is no need to attach a board to the beams to support the insulation. In this case, rigid insulation is attached directly to the surface of the subfloor. After this, a substrate under the laminate is spread on it or an adhesive solution is applied, then a reinforcing mesh is applied and the tiles are laid.

Foam board with distribution plates and pipe

The main disadvantage of ready-made structures (foam board and milled chipboard) is high price. Therefore, some home craftsmen use more cheap way channel formation. They stuff wooden strips onto the base, leaving gaps between them for laying pipes.

Usage wooden planks and heat distribution plates for laying the heating pipe

Instead of expensive thermal plates, you can use affordable aluminum foil ( this method Suitable for both water and electric heated floors).

The planks are made from planed boards or cut from moisture-resistant plywood. Their thickness should be greater than the diameter of the pipeline (pipe 17 mm - rail 30 mm). To improve heat transfer, the width of the channel is made 5-6 millimeters larger than the diameter of the pipe.

“Folk methods” of forming channels for pipes

The width of the planks is made 3 cm less than the selected pipe layout pitch (for example, pipe pitch 30 cm - board width 27 cm). For a smooth bend of the pipeline loops, semicircular grooves are cut out in the strips.

Another method of laying a warm water floor with your own hands is presented in the diagram below.

Option for using galvanized corrugated sheets for laying pipes

In this case, the profiled sheet serves as a heat-reflecting screen and forms channels for pipes. In the diagram we see an option for installing a heated floor not above the basement, but on the first floor. From below, along the beams, a finishing lining of the ceiling was made from lining. Therefore, the shield (10), which supports the insulation, is attached not to the lower edges of the beams, but to the cranial bars nailed to their sides.

Please note that when laying thermal insulation (except for foam plastic), it is always protected from below and from above with a vapor barrier film. It protects the insulation from getting wet because it allows water vapor to escape freely.

Leaving a thermal gap between the edge of the flooring and the wall, you need to lay a damper tape in it. It seals the contact area and compensates for thermal deformations.

Helpful advice!

To lay the finished floor, use a board that has been chamber drying. Do not rush to secure the finished wood flooring to the base. Until this moment, the heated floor must work for at least 2 days.

Installing a “dry” electric heated floor in a wooden house is simpler than installing a water system. A thin current-carrying cable does not require deep channels. It is fixed to the base with plastic clamps or metal plates.

The installation sequence looks like this:

A reflective layer of aluminum foil is laid on the thermal insulation (expanded polystyrene, mineral wool, ecowool, perlite);
A galvanized steel mesh with a cell of 40x40 or 50x50 mm is laid on the foil.
Slots are made in the joists to allow electrical cables to pass through;
The cable is attached to the mesh with clamps;
A temperature sensor is installed in the middle between the wires in a corrugated tube and connected to the thermostat;
The power cable is routed to the electrical outlet along a fireproof base or in a metal hose;
A subfloor made of plywood is laid;
The finishing coating (laminate, parquet board) is installed.

If the electric heated floor is covered with ceramic tiles, the installation procedure changes. In this case, the insulation is covered moisture resistant plywood or OSB, fixing them to the beams. After this, a solution is applied to the coating with a spatula, a plastic reinforcing mesh is embedded in it and the tiles are glued. If the heating cable does not come in a coil, but glued to a mesh, then its installation is simplified. Having rolled out the roll, all you have to do is apply glue to the surface of the base and lay the tiles.

Installation of ceramic tiles on electric heated floors

Film heated floors are laid over wooden floors in the same way. It consists of thin mats with flexible current-carrying plates glued into them.

The minimum thickness allows infrared film floors to be installed not only under tiles and laminate, but also under linoleum and carpet.

Which floor in a wooden house is better?

The answer to this question is not clear-cut. If the cost of construction and work is at the forefront, then it is better to use electric floors. If you compare the price of energy, the water system is more profitable. To save room height, a thin film floor is used.

Regarding insulation, the following should be said: polystyrene foam for heated floors is not best material. Being in contact with a heated floor, the operating temperature of which can reach +70C, it ages, releasing toxic gas. Therefore, it is better to lay ecowool or perlite between the floor beams.

Having chosen mineral wool for insulation, it must be well insulated by wrapping it in a vapor barrier. Otherwise, warm air through gaps and leaks can carry its particles from the underground space into the room. It is better to use a chemically neutral product when laying tiles. sheet material: cement-bonded particle board, glass-magnesite board or gypsum fiber sheet. OSB and plywood are inferior to them in terms of environmental safety.

The wooden flooring above the heated floor should not be thicker than 21 mm. Do not forget that wood is a good heat insulator, which reduces the efficiency of the heating system.

New technologies, including construction ones, quite often become the subject of discussions and disputes. For example, there is an opinion that using a heated floor system on a wooden floor is extremely difficult and in some cases impossible. In reality this is not the case. Installing heated floors on a wooden floor is a completely feasible task. If desired, making the right choice materials and adherence to technology, even people who do not have an engineering or special construction education can cope with its solution.

Video review of a wooden water heated floor system

Which heated floor to choose?

How to make a wooden floor warm, which system to choose? Today there are two types of floors: electric and water. The option with electric floors for wooden floors has not found widespread use. Electric floors mean a special current-carrying system connected by heating cables, thin mats or heating film. The choice of heating element is determined by the power of the heated floor.

The cable sectional system is not used for the reason that its installation requires a concrete screed, and heating mats are not effective and cannot be used as the main and only source of heating. Therefore, infrared film is most often used as a heating element. Its advantage is its lightness, low thickness and easy installation. It is laid on a thermal insulation layer under the floor covering.

When using infrared film, the load on wooden floors will be minimal. For the finishing coating you can use any modern material. This floor arrangement meets the standards fire safety. The only limitation is that the heating temperature should not be more than 27 °C.

In most cases, after carefully reviewing both systems for a wooden floor, a water system is chosen, which consists of pipes hidden under the floor covering. Heated water is used as a coolant circulating through the pipes. Concrete screed, in which pipes are usually laid, is not used to avoid additional load on wooden floors.

It is important! A wooden water-heated floor system, if we consider it from a technical point of view, does not present any difficulties. From the very beginning, it is important to clarify what material will be used as the finishing coating.

Installing heated floors on a wooden floor is a completely feasible task, but it is better if specialists take care of the solution

Key features of a wooden floor heating system

The technology for installing water heated floors has its own key points. Therefore, before installing a wooden heated water floor, you need to familiarize yourself with them.

Foundation assessment

There should be no gaps between the boards on which the floor will be mounted. Existing gaps need to be filled heat-insulating material. If the service life wooden covering has exhausted itself, it is better to dismantle the old boards.

This is necessary if:

The floors are not insulated and the wind blows under the boards.
Rare arrangement of logs, the distance between them should be no more than 60 cm.
Old boards have significant unevenness and require processing on a planer.

The surface should be leveled as much as possible, and the boards should have the same thickness. For example, for laying laminate, surface unevenness should not exceed 2 mm.

Warm wooden floors are laid on a layer of thermal insulation

After removing the boards and adding joists, you will need to install a raised floor. For these purposes, plywood, used boards or anything else suitable for laying insulation is nailed to the joists from below. A layer of insulation 100 mm thick is laid between the joists. It is protected from above and below by a water vapor barrier film.

Note! The use of conventional film for hydro- and vapor barrier is not permissible, as it collects condensation, which moisturizes the insulation.

Mineral wool in the form of slabs with a density of 35-40 kg/m 3 is suitable as insulation. This type of insulation is extremely popular and is widely represented on the market.

Floor insulation mineral wool

Installation of boards

When laying boards, one circumstance should be taken into account - between the boards it is necessary to leave 20x20 mm grooves for laying pipes in them. Rounded grooves are made at the ends of the boards for the pipe turning section. At this point, the installation of the heated floor is complete; all that remains is to lay the pipes and floor covering.

To lay pipes in a warm wooden floor system, there must be grooves between the boards that are rounded at the ends

Pipe laying

On longitudinal grooves The foil is laid out and pipes with a diameter of 16 mm are laid on it. The pipes are wrapped in foil, the edges of the foil are secured to the board using a stapler. Foil is needed to reflect heat to the floor surface, because wood is a poor conductor. The coolant pipe transfers heat to the foil, and from it it spreads throughout the room. Covering with foil occupies 80% of the surface, turning it into one large radiator.

Previously, galvanized sheet metal was used as a reflector; Western builders use special plates with grooves for aluminum pipes for this purpose. Both of these options are more labor-intensive and expensive.

In order for the pipe with foil to be fixed in the groove, it is attached to the boards with special metal plates across the grooves. In this way, the pipes are laid throughout the floor.

The pipes are laid in grooves on foil, wrapped in it and secured with a stapler, then with plates

Heating connection

Connection is one of the most important and crucial moments. The easiest way is to connect with manual regulation. Warm floors on wooden beams can be connected by any of existing methods: using a collector system, mixing units, etc. Management can be carried out in various ways.

Worth paying attention! Independent connection of wooden floors to a centralized heating system excluded. To connect them, coordination and project development will be required. For this reason, they are more often used in private buildings.

Upon completion of the connection, pressure testing will be required to identify leaks and damage in the pipeline. This is a necessary procedure to avoid swelling of the floor covering and other surprises.

One of the options for connecting to the heating system

Choosing flooring

The choice of floor coverings is quite diverse, so everyone is guided by their capabilities and preferences.

It is important! Any floor covering has its own thermal conductivity coefficient. For wood it is much lower, for ceramic tiles, on the contrary, it is very high. Therefore, in anticipation of floor installation, calculations are carried out to determine the amount of heat required for the coating surface.

Option for installing a heated floor system

In this picture you see one of the possible options for laying heated flooring under a wooden floor.

When arranging the floor on interfloor covering It is necessary to take care of sound insulation. To do this, the subfloor (6), supported by beams (3), is installed on elastic pads. For the subfloor, cement particle boards (CPB) are recommended, ensuring uniform heat distribution, heat accumulation and sound insulation. DSPs do not contain harmful substances, including formaldehyde, unlike OSB, OSB, chipboard and plywood.

Laying heated floors under a wooden floor using DSP and galvanized corrugated sheets is one of the possible options for arranging a heated floor

Galvanized corrugated sheeting, used as a reflector-distributor, also promotes uniform heat distribution. The depth of the profile must correspond to the diameter of the pipes.

Note! For the floor installed in the basement, vapor barrier film placed on insulation.

If your house or apartment has a wooden floor, and you decide to install a warm water floor yourself, a wooden system requires careful attention to various nuances, knowledge of technological subtleties and construction skills. This is necessary to ensure your safety and the efficiency of your heating system. When planning upcoming transformations, think about whether it’s worth doing them yourself or whether it’s better to turn to specialists who will choose the best option for you and do everything quickly, efficiently and professionally.