Rolling out the Pex (My experience)

I was going to add this to the Pex-Al thread, but its not really related because I went with the Pex-b.

So anyway I wanted four loops in inverted spirals and neither Blueridge nor Loopcad can easily do this so I just drew it up on graph paper. I had my 6" mesh down so I counted how many I had each way and made each one one square on the graph paper. The garage is about 27 by 34 inside and I placed the manifold half way down the side wall so if I do a control joint no tubing will cross it. Two of the loops are 220' and two are 230'. Well within the 10% rule and close enough for me. The tubing is 12"oc and I ended up with 900' of tubing in a 900sf space. All good.


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Here is a pic before I started.

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I was going to buy four 250' rolls, but I'm too cheap for that so I got a 1000' roll and it ended up working out well. I made a wooden spool for it out of some old plywood I had and put it in the spool before I cut the bands on it.

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Then I(The wife helped) just rolled it along the pattern ahead of where I wanted to tie it down. It worked really well with the full roll, but when the roll got smaller toward the end I had to sort of pick it up and spin it because the outside diameter of the spool and the tubing no longer match. If that makes any sense?

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The separate tube to the right of the manifold in the last pic is for a floor sensor for the thermostat.

Some of these pics were taken from the top of a ladder the the ceiling height 12'. The white panels on the walls are smooth door cutouts that I am using to insulate the cement block portion of the walls. They will also insulate the perimeter of the slab.

The 14 white pvc tubes sticking out of the floor are place holders that will be pulled out after the cement sets up. There will be floor anchors going in those spots and I didn't want to take a chance drilling into the pex with a 3 1/2" core bit.

John

Did you forget the pictures?

Yes pictures please!

Sorry, I had the album marked as private. I thought I could do that and still put them in a post for everyone to see, but I guess not. I could see them so I thought it was working.

Can you see them now?

I can see the pictures fine. Looks awesome! After doing mine, I know what kind if time and patience you spent on that. You'll be very happy when the system is up and running .

Interesting choice of slab insulation...

Somebody works at a door factory, obviously!

What's the 3" PVC poking though the floor in numerous locations all about?

A_Pmech said:

Interesting choice of slab insulation...

Somebody works at a door factory, obviously!

What's the 3" PVC poking though the floor in numerous locations all about?

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I found out on this site about using "door cut-outs" as insulation. I got those and some damaged full doors from a local manufacturer. No I don't work there. There are two layers under the mesh.

The pipes are explained at the end of the original post.

John

custom1 said:

I found out on this site about using "door cut-outs" as insulation. I got those and some damaged full doors from a local manufacturer. No I don't work there. There are two layers under the mesh.

The pipes are explained at the end of the original post.

John

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Ahh, cool!

That's a good idea with the PVC.

Nice job! Whose manifold did you use?

Possum said:

Nice job! Whose manifold did you use?

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The manifold is also from Blueridge. Having never done this before, I thought having everything from one source would simplify things if there were any problems.

Actually I did have one problem that was my own fault. I had one compression fitting that would not seal no matter how much I tightened it. I took it apart and found that I must have had it misaligned and pinched the O-ring and cut it. I called Blueridge(before I found the problem) and they were very helpful and are sending me two new fittings although I now don't need them since I just replaced the O-ring and all is fine. It is holding air just waiting on the concrete guy.

Being a simple one room, one zone install, this manifold is probably overkill. Here is a link.
http://www.blueridgecompany.com/radiant/hydronic/638/rht-ss-x-stainless-steel-manifold