combining heating types

[Ggg]

I will hopefully be buying a home with a 4 car garage very soon. In the future I would like to build an addition to the arage. The current 4 car garage is heated via a "Modine" style L.P. heater. I would like to use in floor radiant heat for the new addition. Does anybody have any pros or cons to mixing the two types of heating?
Must you use a tank style water heater for the rdiant heat? Or can a "on demand" style heater work.

 

[kbs2244]

I would guess it would depend on the type of floor in the existing garage.
If it is a detached garage on a "floating slab," and you are in hard frost country, then you are going to have some pretty big differences in ground temps under the new and old.
And that will not be good because the old will want to lift up on the frost and the new will not.
I would stick with the same style in the addition.
Getting additions to work with old is hard enough without adding to the problem.
If you are really into the concept of radiant heat, go with overhead.
It works very well and is a whole lot easier to install.

 

[mmg440]

I don't think you would have any major problems. I worked in a shop in the 80's here in northern Illinois. Older section of it was gas hung radiant heaters the newer much larger area was heated by radiant floor until a year or so ago I heard that they put in a new above ground lift and drilled into a line loosing part of the floor system. I think a little forced air goes a long way with the radiant if you must open the doors.

of course that was a foundation and not a floating slab.

 

[Ggg]

I am not sure of the type on floor the existing garage has; floating or foundation. It should be foundation due to frost. IIRC my frost line is 42" I know I have been trenches 6' or more deep and I still had frost in the bottom, but they were in areas if little to no snow cover.

 

[kbs2244]

Without looking at it I will say that the rule of thumb in North Illinois is that a detached garage will be a "floating slab" where the entire slab is expected to lift with the frost.

An atached garage will have a below the frost line fondation around the
outside that is tied into the house foundation. The actual floor of the garage will be allowed to "float" inside this rim foundation.

A quick way to tell is if the floor is smooth going under the wall or if there is a step up with a joint between the wall and the floor. But this is not a 100 % test since some higher end garage builders will pour a 4 inch high rim around the outside of a floating slab to keep the wall sill plates out of the snow slop.

If you cannot tell, a trip to the county building dept should give you the way they approved the orginal build.

 

[Ggg]

If you cannot tell, a trip to the county building dept should give you the way they approved the orginal build.

Thats where things get interesting. There have been several "improvements" made without proper permits, inspections etc. I am starting another thread about septic and codes. I will go into more detail there.