Remodeling bathroom - tile floor - heated or not?

[red911sc]

Remodeling bathroom and installing new ceramic tile floor (over concrete slab). Bathroom is small (20 sq. ft. area to be heated). Both wifey and I work during the day so only use will be early morning and late evening. It seems like a no-brainer to me to install the heater, wifey says no (abnormal fear of burning house down). Who likes theirs and why? Who doesn't like theirs and why?

[Red88Carrera]

I've got radiant floor heating throughout the entire house. 7 programmable thermostats. Once you have a heated floor in the bathroom, you'll never go without it. We even have a heated towel rack.

[89911]

No brainer, install it. I have done 2 bathroom remodels myself. The first one was when we moved into our house and knew that 2 of our bathrooms had carpeting in them, right under the toilet. I couldn't rip it out fast enough. The first bathroom was in a guest room that sat above an unheated garage. I knew it would make the tile cold, but this was more the 10 years ago and tile heating wasn't as popular. We had an addition put on that included a master bathroom and I insisted on the putting it in. I has made such a difference. I then redid another hallway bathroom and put it in myself after seeing the contractors do it. The easiest way is to do it in two stages. Place the wiring where you need it and the place a skim coat of mortar over top of it, keeping it as thin as possible. Once set up, set the tile as you would normally. You can do this all at once, but it is difficult to scrape with the trowel and not move the wiring. I have even contemplated ripping out my first tile job to put this back in. The room and bathroom had become my oldest daughters and I got tired of her complaining after seeing how toasty (floor is always around 85 deg) of the hallway bathroom.

[TimT]

No question... heat it.. it works on a thermostat, only heats to you needs when called...

[HardDrive]

Heater. We have it in our kitchen and our master bath. Love it in the winter.

[89911]

Plus the wire is sandwiched between hardy backerboard and mortar. Nothing too flammable there.

[mikester]

did it in our bathroom when I redid the floor two years ago. Wonderful.

Plus it is so inexpensive to do that I don't see a reason not to. I would have an electrician run a box for it, run it on a computerized thermostat and set the times you want the heat on. We have it cool down after we go to bed at night and heat it up before we wake up and then cool it down again mid day, etc...

[Rot 911]

How long does it take to heat the floor up when you turn it on?

[Robert Adams]

Installed radiant heat in the house a couple years ago and will never do anything else again. Getting up in the morning to a warm floor not to mention a warm room and not be all dried out from forced hot air or having a breeze of heat with water baseboard is just fantastic. Because it's about the most efficient way to heat your home (told it's around 85% vs water baseboard at around 45% and forced hot air ..maybe 18% on a good day) its also about the most economical to use as well, no matter what the heating fuel source is.
Our 1st phase was the flooring and general heating system. Phase 2 is to provide (2) solar panels to preheat the water to the boiler so the boiler doesn't have to work as hard if at all buring the fossil fuel.
I know you only asked for the bathroom, but you might want to consider doing the rest of the house if it's practical.
There are several methods of installing the radiant heating hardware. Method 1 is under the sub-floor, but you need the ceiling under the floor open to install it. The second is to lay it over the existing sub-floor. There are also electric radiant floors, but I don't know how cost effective they are, but that may be the better way to go for just a single room. To do all the required plumbing for only one room is probably not to cost effective, but having a radiant floor in the bathroom is fantastic! It's like walking around outside (summertime). You're aware that the room is warm, but you have no clue where it's coming from, except your feet are warm to. Very HOT stuff!
The good news is most of the stuff you need to do radiant heat is available at Lowes or HD. When I did it, it felt like I was on MARS or something. Few suppliers carried the hardware and most plumbers had no real experience with it. Frankly, that may still be the weakest link depending on where you live. Not many guys out there really know what they are doing with radiant heat. So more advice..read, resarch and research some more. You need to be an educated consumer before you go anywhere near this technology or get a very highly referred installer with a lot of experience. He'll cost more up front, but you either pay for it now, or pay later redoing things and ripping out already installed sheetrock to get at the piping or manifiolds and it ain't fun with the family living in the house. Good luck with the project.

Oh yeah, addressing the time line for heat to come up in a room. The 1st time you use it you should not turn it on full blast. The floor covering (anything but carpet) should be allowed to get used to the heat. After the initial 48 hours, you can pretty much turn up or down as much as you want or need. There is a slight lag in the time the heat arrives until the time you feel the heat; sort of like the early turbos. Thermostats can deal with this issue by setting certain times you want the heat to come on, or plan ahead knowing it may be 10 minutes before you feel any difference in a room. The electric radiant may perform slightly better, but I don't have any direct knowledge on that product.
My 2 cents worth.

[UconnTim97]

I was just in the bathroom located in the back of our house that was redone last year. I chose not to get the heated floor and all I can say is that I wish that I had installed it now. Wow, that tile floor is cold right now.
I say go for it.

[RWebb]

Heated = fabulous - your elec. bill will go up with the electric grid heat

your elc. bill will down if you do hydronic heat (and have forced air)

[trekkor]

Expect to double the cost of the installation.
Super cheap to operate, however.

Use a bath matte. Save $1000.


KT

[Hugh R]

1st experience with it last week in a hotel in Toronto, wonderful.

[Drisump]

I'm a builder and have installed many of these. The end result, is a far more inviting space in the winter. During installation there are a few things to make the job go right. If the adjacent room has different (thicker) flooring, you can raise the bathroom floor with Hardi-backer to minimize the transition and "polish"up the height difference with the thickness of the thin-set you apply to the tiles. On most jobs I like to use floor leveler first, to take out any weirdness in the floor to start with, it's a cement based slurry you pour on the sub-floor. Be very careful with the wires, they damage very easily until covered with a protective material, avoid walking on them, scraping drywall mud off of them...etc. I had a tiler who I warned how fragile they were and when I was gone, he used a scraper to clean the surface.....floor heating was toast...very disappointing...primal scream therapy was required. I can't say how expensive they are to operate but getting into and out of the shower on a cold winter night....nice touch. Cheers

[Scuba Steve]

How about for areas outside of a bathroom like an entry way / hall / kitchen and dining room? I'm looking at a house in Charleston that'd need to be retiled in those areas and if it would be good to add I'd like to know going in. The wife and I usually run around without shoes at home FWIW.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by trekkor

Save $1000.

KT

Thunderbolt Heated Electric Socks

[JavaBrewer]

I regret not installing heat under the stone floor in our master bath. Huge mistake...even here in SoCal tile/stone gets damn cold in the winter.

[GH85Carrera]

100% no option, HEAT the floor. She will love it, you will love it.

All of our guests love it.

We are going to replace the carpet in the hallway with tile. It will for sure have heat.

[89911]

Originally Posted by Scuba Steve

How about for areas outside of a bathroom like an entry way / hall / kitchen and dining room? I'm looking at a house in Charleston that'd need to be retiled in those areas and if it would be good to add I'd like to know going in. The wife and I usually run around without shoes at home FWIW.

Put this way, you can't go wrong installing it anywhere tile is. The biggest downside to tile is that it's hard surface feels cold at room temperature. Generally where you are barefoot is the biggest area's to heat the tile, but I have seen them doing it in kitchens and other living spaces. We contemplated this with our lower level of out addition, but you have to put a limit somewhere. Also, don't confuse floor tile heating with radiant heating. The floor tile will just heat the tile, although to me, it gives the room a slightly warmer feel.

[trekkor]

I guess you have to ask yourself, how often do you walk around barefooted?

The only time I do are the few steps onto the shower rug and then onto the rug and out of the bathroom.
If I did have warm floors, I'd still wear socks all the time.

To me , it's an expensive novelty.

Yes, I've installed them and I do not recommend them.



KT