RADIANT HEATING FLOORS

Radiant heat floors? Are they any good?

Our builder is suggesting radiant heat floors and I think though I’d like the warm floors; if we have a problem with it, we would have to tear up tile floors. Anybody had experience with this?
It’s a main floor, no basement, we plan to be in this home forever. We are building in Central North Dakota.

All righty then – I’m an installer here in Canada and can positively say that the main issue in service for radiant floor heating lies within the peripferal equipment and not the PEX (infloor) tubing itself. The PEX tubing is polymeric and all manufacturers have at least a 25 year warranty on their tubing. So most service, years after installation, is either with the pumps or boilers, which should be readilly accessable in the basement or mechanical closet.
While radiant floor heating does tend to keep floors ‘warm’, the main objective is to heat the floor mass, which is large, which in turn radiates out to the home. If the heat loss in your home is very small, (i.e. – ultra efficient design and build), the heat input to replace the heat loss may be small enough that a ‘warm’ floor may not be noticed.
You can put ANY floor covering over radiant, even wood, although there are parameters, which need to be met. Also – you need to humidify your home, regardless of what type of heating you have so as not to dry out your hardwood floors or furniture. It’s a bit more imperative with hardwood over radiant.
If you can, try to get the tubing into a floor pour, or at least over the subfloor. Staple-up works, but by far is the least efficient way to use this system.
Please – please – please get a pro to do this work. Not your GC, not his brother-in-law, not your uncle Fred – and typically, not an air conditioning contractor. You need someone who understands the nuances of this type of heating and how it should be installed specific to your situation.

Best of luck