I have a normal concrete basement floor (1972) which gets cold during the winter but my addition concrete floor (1985) feels much colder. Not sure why.. I plan on tileing the entire basement soon but would like to know if I can insulate some how to help keep the area & feet warmer.

Iv installed infloor heating in the concrete before & we recommended foam insulation under the concrete. Does this mean I would need a jackhammer? lol

Thanks

Mike

 

Hello Giant Scale,

There's several systems available on the market for heated tile flooring that can be set over your floor w/o any demo needed. Warmly Yours, Nu-Heat, being a couple of the ones that jump off the top of my head.

Idea here is heating the tiles, instead of the slab. This will take care of your cold Iowa basement floor. I'm in North Central Mo, my customers love them!!

What part of Iowa you from?

 

Im in Iowa City..

I found the nuheat & Warmly Yours websites but dont like the btu per watt cost of electric heat. With the costs of gas on the rise it may become "again" the way to go in the future.

Is there a tile that is insulated? I may just install hardwood floors. But am worried about water damage. That jack hammer is sounding like the solution more & more since the numb nuts that poured my basement made my drain the highest spot.

Thanks Bud!

Mike

 

Yeah I know where you're at, I'm out in the sticks SW of Kirksville.

How did they manage to make the drain the high spot in the floor? Never mind, I've done alot of work in Iowa, Dollar Stores & Movie Galleries, and have have found myself standing looking at alot of construction up there scratching my head wonderin, why did they do that, & how are we gonna get around it.

Honestly Mike, I've never had the issue of operating costs raised, but I also have to admit, I've only installed them in upper end homes.

There are other systems available also that use tubing & hot water, which I beleive could be less expensive to operate, I've always used the electric based systems, because it seemed to me that there was alot less that could go wrong with these.

Instead of the jack hammer, which let's face it, is a real dirty, noisy operation to be going on in your home. Could come in there and build the low spots with mud, then incorporate your heated floor and tile & resolve the drain issue. Just a thought.

They've got a good tile forum here also, it's further down the forums list in the Decorate section. Check the forum jump on the left just under the last reply to your post. Good luck.