Warm floor without screed

A water-based warm floor without screed is installed in rooms where concrete pouring is difficult or impossible, for example, in houses with wooden ceilings, with a small height of the premise not designed for a device of ordinary warm floors, or in premises where delivery of concrete is not possible.

Advantages of a water-heated floor without concrete tie:

• Ease of construction, allowing it to be laid on any floors;
• The small thickness of the floor does not make big changes to the useful height of the room;
• The possibility of laying the finish coat immediately after the installation of the warm floor, no need to wait for the maturation of concrete;
• Minimum requirements for the basis. This can be a concrete or a wooden floor.

Materials for laying the floor without screed

The system of water-heated floor without screed implies the laying of heating pipes on a polystyrene or wooden base with special grooves when using metal heat spreading plates. On top, the pipes are covered with a moisture-insulating substrate and the finishing coat is laid: carpet, tile, parquet, laminate.

Pipes for flooring can be copper, polypropylene or polyethylene. Preference is often given to the latter option because of the ease of laying, low price, resistance to aggressive environments and long service life. In the system assembled from polyethylene pipes, it is possible to use not only water, but also any antifreeze - they do not have destructive effects on the pipes.

The expanded polystyrene plate provides thermal insulation of the rough floor and prevents heat loss in the lower direction. In addition, it provides the convenience of laying pipes: special grooves or protrusions on its upper part allow you to lay pipes with the desired pitch without additional marking and fix them. Between each other, the plates are fastened with a lock. The size of the plates is 500x1000 mm.

Wooden modules from OSB or chipboard with pipe channels. They put metal plates, on top of which the pipes are mounted. Modules are plates with a width of 13, 18 or 28 cm - the size is chosen depending on the pitch of the pipe.

The heat distribution plates are made of aluminum or galvanized steel, have a groove for laying the pipe of the required diameter and stiffener. The flat side of the plates closely adjoins the substrate and the finish coat, redistributes the heat along its lower surface and heats it.

Ways of laying the water circuit

Before laying down, it is necessary to draw a plan for the placement of pipes in the room. Usually, each room is connected to a separate circuit, the pipe is more reliable to use the whole, without joints. The contour is usually performed in the form of a spiral( Fig. 1), a snake( Fig. 2) or a double snake( Fig. 3).The "snake" contour is the simplest in installation and economical in terms of material consumption, but because of cooling of the coolant, there are possible temperature changes in different areas of the room. Therefore, this method of laying the contour is used only in small rooms, where the coolant does not have time to cool down substantially.

After completing the plan, you need to determine the laying step based on the requirements of the project. For different types of basis, the step can be different.

Floor laying on the polystyrene base

Polystyrene is a familiar foam plastic. It has good heat and sound insulation properties, does not rot and retains its properties for a long time.

1. Polystyrene plates are available with a base thickness of 30 mm. If the calculations require a large thickness, the rough floor is pre-insulated with additional polystyrene plates.
2. If the polystyrene base is laid directly on the rough floor, it must be leveled, remove all debris, eliminate the swings and mobility of the substrate.
3. Place a polystyrene base plate with grooves, straight and swivel, following the layout plan. These plates are released at a pitch of 150 and 300 mm. The plates are fastened together by means of a snap lock.
4. If universal plates with lugs are used, the pipe laying contour can be more complicated, for convenience, mark with a marker.
5. Aluminum plates are placed in the grooves, and in them - the pipes in accordance with the contour laying plan.
6. You can lay the backing on top of the plates and the finish coating - parquet, laminate. If a tile is chosen as a coating, a dry screed must be laid under it - chipboard, plywood or moisture resistant gypsum board.

Wooden floor heating floor

Most often such a floor is arranged in wooden houses. The wooden system can be assembled either on the basis of special modules or on a rack-and-pinion basis. Modular method of laying implies the use of ready-made modules from a wood plate with grooves for laying pipes. The rack system is executed with the help of boards or racks.

1. Wooden modules can be laid directly on the logs in steps of 600 mm, between the lagging it is necessary to lay the waterproofing and insulation. The modules are laid with a gap of 20 mm, necessary to compensate for the temperature expansion. Modules are interlocked with a standard snap lock.
2. For the rack-and-pinion method, flooring of the rough floor is required. The racks are placed at a distance sufficient to place the pipes at a certain distance in accordance with the selected contour.
3. When laying modules or slats, observe the pre-set layout plan.
4. On the prepared system of modules with grooves lay metal plates, and in them - pipes.
5. Solid finish coatings with a thickness of at least 10 mm can be laid directly on top of the metal plates, laying on them a soft substrate for sound insulation.
6. Under the laying of tiles or linoleum, a warm wooden floor must be prepared: lay over the metal plates of the plaster board, plywood, chipboard, fix them, putty joints. Coating is carried out in the usual way.

A warm flooring made of polystyrene or wooden modules provides not only room heating, but also sound insulation. Its service life depends on the quality of installation and materials, so do not save on them.

Also read about floor tiles made of natural stone, as well as laying tiles on a wooden floor.