32x64 slab on footer, company wants 5k for the pipe/insulation/grid installed, I'm a little short on money and may forget doing it all together, I was wondering if I did it myself before they poured and just used foil bubble on bottom then zip-tied the pex to the rebar, would that work ok on a budget, or be worthless? or have them do half the floor the right way, or is that worthless, I occasionaly work out in the shop in cold months, never had it before but everyone tells me I need it and I'm dumb not to while in this early planning stage....your thoughts?
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Radiant floor heating(new shop)
- Thread starter ryan77
- Start date
mcirish101
Well-known member
Ryan....I am in southern michigan (hillsdale county) and am having radiant floor heating installed at some point this week....40 x 60....heat will be in 2 zones..(apartment and shop)
foam insulation and all the labor and material is around $3,500 (if memory serves) - my guy has been doing it for many years
i was in building that he did in the middle of winter.....it was about 15 degrees outside...cold and damp.....thermostat was set @ 62....it felt much warmer inside....that particular building was also 40 x 60....with 10' walls - that's what sold me
that bldg also had spray foam insulation - fwiw
foam insulation and all the labor and material is around $3,500 (if memory serves) - my guy has been doing it for many years
i was in building that he did in the middle of winter.....it was about 15 degrees outside...cold and damp.....thermostat was set @ 62....it felt much warmer inside....that particular building was also 40 x 60....with 10' walls - that's what sold me
that bldg also had spray foam insulation - fwiw
Radiant is great, but pricey. I did not put it in my slab. I will say that radiant, well done, is great, but the sub-slab and slab work has to be right. Otherwise it can cost a bundle to operate. Sub-slab and edge must be correct to get the best out of it.
Rookie2
Well-known member
Radiant is great, but pricey. I did not put it in my slab. I will say that radiant, well done, is great, but the sub-slab and slab work has to be right. Otherwise it can cost a bundle to operate. Sub-slab and edge must be correct to get the best out of it.
Absolutely ! not for occasional use , I would use maybe radiant tube.
Kaizen
Well-known member
tough call. you can figure out the price on the insulation and metal mesh pretty easily. that foam is expensive but needed.
so about 2000sq ft
pex 1/2 12inch separation = about 2000 feet. hd sells 1000 ft rolls for 439 so say 900 including zip ties
insulation about 1 dollar per square foot for 2" underslab. so 2000
metal guesstimate 600 bucks.
not sure about that bubble wrap stuff. not sure it would hold up under a 6inch slab.
doing just part of the slab would be an improvement over nothing but only if you could close it off and have a thermal break from the rest of the slab otherwise the heater will never shut off. keep in mind too how you will use the space in winter. under floor takes days to come up to temp so if you are only out there one night a week it might not be very uselful. I put in two slabs in my house in rooms and put it in for future use as there is not any heat in those two rooms. ironically because I insulated the slab well and walls and ceiling they are the warmest rooms in the house even without direct heat.
so about 2000sq ft
pex 1/2 12inch separation = about 2000 feet. hd sells 1000 ft rolls for 439 so say 900 including zip ties
insulation about 1 dollar per square foot for 2" underslab. so 2000
metal guesstimate 600 bucks.
not sure about that bubble wrap stuff. not sure it would hold up under a 6inch slab.
doing just part of the slab would be an improvement over nothing but only if you could close it off and have a thermal break from the rest of the slab otherwise the heater will never shut off. keep in mind too how you will use the space in winter. under floor takes days to come up to temp so if you are only out there one night a week it might not be very uselful. I put in two slabs in my house in rooms and put it in for future use as there is not any heat in those two rooms. ironically because I insulated the slab well and walls and ceiling they are the warmest rooms in the house even without direct heat.
wssix99
Well-known member
that foam is expensive but needed.
so about 2000sq ft
Right. It's hard to know if the price is good or not, unless we know how much insulation board the contractor is proposing.
For a garage, I'd use mesh and zip-ties for the pex anyway. I would think that would give a stronger slab, less prone to cracking for a garage vs. the fancy/expensive grid systems.
The contractors love the grid because:
- its fast
- they don't have to bend over and do the zip ties
The OP might be able to get a price cut if they have the contractor put down the pex with minimal zip ties and then offer to come back and do zip tie fill-in by yourself before the pour.
cj7jeep81
Well-known member
32x64 slab on footer, company wants 5k for the pipe/insulation/grid installed, I'm a little short on money and may forget doing it all together, I was wondering if I did it myself before they poured and just used foil bubble on bottom then zip-tied the pex to the rebar, would that work ok on a budget, or be worthless? or have them do half the floor the right way, or is that worthless, I occasionaly work out in the shop in cold months, never had it before but everyone tells me I need it and I'm dumb not to while in this early planning stage....your thoughts?
I'm almost done putting up my 40x64 pole barn in SE Indiana. Thought about radiant heat in the floor, but can't justify the cost. I won't be out there working every day, so heating it 24x7 just doesn't make sense. I plan to have a couple of rooms in the back that will be very well insulated, and heated, but won't heat the whole space all the time.
Right now, I have 2" insulation on the walls/roof, and will add more as I finish out the inside. The guy building mine has a very similar size and same construction method about 2 miles away, and easily makes his comfortable with a couple salamanders when he's out working in the winter.
Radiant tube, I forgot all about those, a friend of mine has one and loves it, that is a thought, yea I won't be out there all the time a couple times a week tops, I may just skip it, but the people who have it swear by it, but man are the materials expensive, I mean $2,000 for foam, I'd a never guessed.
Radiant tube, I forgot all about those, a friend of mine has one and loves it, that is a thought, yea I won't be out there all the time a couple times a week tops, I may just skip it, but the people who have it swear by it, but man are the materials expensive, I mean $2,000 for foam, I'd a never guessed.
I just bought some foam for mine, although a little smaller. Menards has their foamular 250 on sale right now. You'd be looking around $1500 to get the foam for yours. The sale price is good through this weekend.
MScott
Well-known member
Check CL for some recycled or surplus foam. I found some on KIJIJI (our version of CL) that was surplus. A contractor had purchased extra when doing a Hospital job (was cheaper to buy a full load than by the square foot) and had intended to use the excess on a personal build but changed his mind. I got about 1000 sq. ft. of high density R10 foam for $600. when building my garage. I found a lot of it when looking (some as thick as 4") but this was close so I went with it. YMMV
kramarj
Well-known member
When we built our shop like 10 years ago, my dad was going to save a bunch of money by doing it himself, didn't quite work out. Our shop is 38x60 and he did it in two zones and while it does heat, it is economical. We had a 50 or 60 gal water heater on it and when it got cold it would run and run. The main problem was that with only 2 zones, the water returning to the tank was too cold and needed to be completely heated up again.
I am by no means an expert on this, just sharing what I know about it. There are programs offered by menards(I think) that will lay it out for you or get you close to what you need. There is a guy we have worked for and he has done a couple of his own buildings and he has the program to do it and has worked well for him. It really helps to know guys who have done it correctly and get some tips from them. Maybe do a search for some good solid info and you can probably save yourself some money, but just trying to wing it won't be a good investment.
At the very least you could get the tubing laid and use a different heat source until you can afford to finish it. You only have one shot at getting the tubing in the concrete.
I am by no means an expert on this, just sharing what I know about it. There are programs offered by menards(I think) that will lay it out for you or get you close to what you need. There is a guy we have worked for and he has done a couple of his own buildings and he has the program to do it and has worked well for him. It really helps to know guys who have done it correctly and get some tips from them. Maybe do a search for some good solid info and you can probably save yourself some money, but just trying to wing it won't be a good investment.
At the very least you could get the tubing laid and use a different heat source until you can afford to finish it. You only have one shot at getting the tubing in the concrete.
The bubble wrap will be fine if you run the reflective 3.8r stuff...
Figure it this way..
Wirsbo 1/2" tuing 2 1000 foot rolls $1150
4-500 sq foot rolls of concrete barrier tubing $1750
So you are around $3000 before you buy a boiler, manifolds, circulators, mixers, etc.
If you have natural gas available, I would go with something like this sourced locally..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Goodman-4-T...530?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e9d32202
Look for a dual fuel package heatpump a/c unit...
They work really nice, you will be surprised how little the gas burner runs, and the install is simple in a large open building. Only run a gas line, thermostat wire, and electric service. Then pop the 2 ducts into the building they sit at ground level.
You will obviously have to get the proper size to control your buildings temp, but you will also get A/C. It will be medium efficiency since your heatpump will run most of the season and then the gas burner will kick in on cold days, but since most people keep garages around 60, it is usually very cheap to run...
You can get a goodman or rheem 4 ton, 130K btu-ish unit for about $3000.... Just have to call the local supply houses and see what they sell... Sometimes the internet is a good deal so always check amazon ebay and google after you decide on a part number, make sure you factor in freight and tax...
good luck, I have installed many dual fuel units in garages, they work excellent..
Figure it this way..
Wirsbo 1/2" tuing 2 1000 foot rolls $1150
4-500 sq foot rolls of concrete barrier tubing $1750
So you are around $3000 before you buy a boiler, manifolds, circulators, mixers, etc.
If you have natural gas available, I would go with something like this sourced locally..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Goodman-4-T...530?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e9d32202
Look for a dual fuel package heatpump a/c unit...
They work really nice, you will be surprised how little the gas burner runs, and the install is simple in a large open building. Only run a gas line, thermostat wire, and electric service. Then pop the 2 ducts into the building they sit at ground level.
You will obviously have to get the proper size to control your buildings temp, but you will also get A/C. It will be medium efficiency since your heatpump will run most of the season and then the gas burner will kick in on cold days, but since most people keep garages around 60, it is usually very cheap to run...
You can get a goodman or rheem 4 ton, 130K btu-ish unit for about $3000.... Just have to call the local supply houses and see what they sell... Sometimes the internet is a good deal so always check amazon ebay and google after you decide on a part number, make sure you factor in freight and tax...
good luck, I have installed many dual fuel units in garages, they work excellent..
xyster101
Well-known member
Some good ideas on here. Forced hot air is cheaper to install but radiant sure is nice. I put it in my 24x46 shop and did 4 loops. I ran the pipe and zip tied it down. Took a few hours and was a pain.
If you plan on parking cars in there then it is nice to have it always 55 degrees out there.
You only need to do insulation once. Think about that. Be cheap and save $1,000 that you might regret in 10 years and you cant change it.
If you plan on parking cars in there then it is nice to have it always 55 degrees out there.
You only need to do insulation once. Think about that. Be cheap and save $1,000 that you might regret in 10 years and you cant change it.