There’s nothing like the feel of a warm floor beneath your bare feet. The floor that is usually the coldest and most exposed to bare feet is the bathroom. Why wear socks or slippers in a room that requires you to take them off as soon as you enter? Instead, consider installing heated flooring in the bathroom of your new home. Warm floors aren’t just for the winter; the cool spring and fall days can make bathroom floors just as uncomfortable. It’s a relatively inexpensive upgrade and a guaranteed value-add for resale, enhancing your new home experience for years to come.
Heated flooring was once considered a luxury, but today it’s an affordable option for most new home buyers. It’s even a project some can tackle as a DIY project. If you have the skills to install flooring, you can manage the basic installation of many of the systems on the market today. You’ll just need an electrician to make the final connections to your home’s wiring.
What is heated flooring and how is it accomplished?
Heated flooring uses a method called radiant heat, which relies on heat from a source (electric wires, hot water pipes, etc.) radiating or transferring through air or flooring to produce heat on the floor’s surface or in the living area. There are typically two types of systems available. The most popular is the electric grid system, which operates on the same principle as electric baseboard heaters. This system consists of electrical mats (or circuits) installed beneath your finished flooring, within a bed of thinset mortar. The mortar holds the electric mats in place and covers them to allow for an even distribution of heat from the cables or circuits to the flooring above. Once the mats are in place, you install your finished flooring on top of the thinset mortar, and you’re ready to go! This system, compared to the hydronic system, is found in many new homes due to its lower initial cost and fewer moving parts. The electrical mats or cable mats are widely available in various configurations, most of which can be custom-fitted to your specific floor plan. This is crucial because you want to ensure even heat distribution across the floor to avoid cold spots that would defeat the purpose of having the floor heated in the first place.
The second type of system also uses radiant heat and is called a hydronic system. This system circulates hot water through a series of copper pipes to heat the floor. Water is an excellent conductor of heat, and early systems were hydronic systems embedded in concrete floors. However, the main concern with this type of system is the potential for leaking pipes. Hydronic systems offer the same versatility as the newer electric systems, allowing you to control individual rooms through zone control, but they require many more components and a much thicker concrete slab, which increases the floor height. These systems need a source to heat the water—typically a boiler, but they can also use electric heating or geo-thermal sources. The heated water must then be pumped to different areas through control and flow valves, which can potentially fail. The hydronic system’s complexity and cost have led to a decrease in popularity. Additionally, this system tends to lose heat the farther away the water travels from its source, while electric systems maintain consistent heat regardless of distance, providing a warmer and more comfortable floor.
What type of flooring should I use with a heated floor system?
Today’s heated floor systems can be paired with almost any type of finished flooring. These systems are very thin and add little to the overall floor height. Most people associate heated floor systems with stone or ceramic tile, and there are good reasons for this—stone and ceramic transfer heat better than carpet or wood. Additionally, when installing a heated floor in a bathroom, it’s important to choose the most water-resistant flooring possible. However, don’t let this stop you from considering other flooring options for your bathroom.
Many homeowners now choose hardwood floors for their bathrooms because of their visual appeal, lasting beauty, and versatility. Hardwood can be sanded and refinished in a different color after many years, without the need to replace the entire floor or install a new heating system underneath. The new thin mat heating systems work just as well under hardwood as they do under tile or stone. If you’ve found laminate wood flooring that’s perfect for your bathroom, but you didn’t think you could use it with a heating system, think again. New electric mat systems are also compatible with laminate wood flooring. Their low profile allows them to fit easily under floating floor systems. Even carpet can be used over a heated floor in your bathroom (though installation is slightly different). The real advantage of the electric mat system is that your flooring installer can typically lay down the mats while installing your flooring, saving you time and potentially money.
Heated flooring in the bathroom is a smart upgrade for today’s homebuyers. It may only add a small amount to the overall cost of your new home, but it will bring years of comfort and satisfaction to your warm, happy feet.