We have a 10 x 16 family room with three exterior walls, It is on the
main floor of a bungalow and dropped 12 inches from rest of house. The
basement ceiling below is finished and wish to not disturb that
drywall, I therefore propose to run PEX above the 3/4 inch plywood
subfloor on 12 inch intervals, fill in between the loops with plywood
strips and install 11 mil laminate flooring over this. As the PEX is
above the subfloor will I require the ratiation strips? Water heat by
a combination water heater (natural gas) heat and potable water. Is
someone in a position to give me advise on the project, please. Tx.
jesse

Jesse wrote:

We have a 10 x 16 family room with three exterior walls, It is on the
main floor of a bungalow and dropped 12 inches from rest of house. The
basement ceiling below is finished and wish to not disturb that
drywall, I therefore propose to run PEX above the 3/4 inch plywood
subfloor on 12 inch intervals, fill in between the loops with plywood
strips and install 11 mil laminate flooring over this. As the PEX is
above the subfloor will I require the ratiation strips? Water heat by
a combination water heater (natural gas) heat and potable water. Is
someone in a position to give me advise on the project...

Sure. I suggest you put some fin-tube under the floor near the basement
ceiling, along with a few floor registers to let warm air rise up from
the basement ceiling area. Ideally, the warm air would rise up near the
center of the room inside some sort of vertical duct, and registers near
the walls would act as returns.

Nick

Can't find the website I found this on but the process they had was
basically this.

thin (1/2"?) foil back insulation layed down on subfloor
12" wide osb strips over that spaced 1/2" apart
run tubing between osb strips
nail down floor to the OSB

The site I saw was a little more detailed than this:
http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/page29.html

I would check with the manufacturer of your flooring to see what they
say about this type of install.

side note:
I installed Pergo in my kitchen, 6x9, and was not happy with the
results. 10x16 is a lot of floor to lay and not be happy. You may
want to check out prices compared to hardwood. When I had the floors
redone in the house we recently bought we got prices ranging from
$2,000 to $5,000 to sand & refinish the entire house so the 'pro's'
prices vary drastically. Or you could probably lay sand and finish it
yourself since it is a room off to the side and wouldn't need to be
done in a day.

found the link:
http://www.radiantcompany.com/details/suspended.shtml

On 10 Mar 2006 12:25:05 -0800, "RayV" wrote:

found the link:
http://www.radiantcompany.com/details/suspended.shtml

Thank you Ray, there is a lot of information to digest at your link
but the addition of sand on the subfloor frightens me, I don't think
I'll use that. Probably more questions to follow. Local ordinance will
allow me to use my existing potable hot water heater to also provide
the floor heating but prohibits the installation of a additional HWH
to supply only the floor heat. I have not been able to determine why
this may be so. Tx jesse

On 10 Mar 2006 12:15:15 -0800, "RayV" wrote:

Can't find the website I found this on but the process they had was
basically this.

thin (1/2"?) foil back insulation layed down on subfloor
12" wide osb strips over that spaced 1/2" apart
run tubing between osb strips
nail down floor to the OSB

The site I saw was a little more detailed than this:
http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/page29.html

I would check with the manufacturer of your flooring to see what they
say about this type of install.

side note:
I installed Pergo in my kitchen, 6x9, and was not happy with the
results. 10x16 is a lot of floor to lay and not be happy. You may
want to check out prices compared to hardwood. When I had the floors
redone in the house we recently bought we got prices ranging from
$2,000 to $5,000 to sand & refinish the entire house so the 'pro's'
prices vary drastically. Or you could probably lay sand and finish it
yourself since it is a room off to the side and wouldn't need to be
done in a day.

OVERLAY USING PLYWOOD OVER WOOD SUB FLOOR is what I propose to do,
the sketch does not show any heat deflectors. Do you suppose I could
elininate to plywood layer over the tubbing or would that create hot
spots on the finished flooring surface? Tx for your help. jesse