I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube in
the floor. The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with any
flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on the
future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought is to
have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/ press
brake). another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be thicker
anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to several
contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V

If you make the floor thick enough you can lag where ever you want to.
Cracking is your biggest fear, real cracks can sever the tube. have it
in my garage with no problems as of yet.

Note on machine shops: A friend has it in his busy cnc shop, and they
have the doors open in the moderately cold weather; all the added heat
load from machines. If I were putting it in my busy shop, I might
undersize or figure some other way to deal with overheating.

radiant is the best

Andrew V wrote:
I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube in
the floor. The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with any
flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on the
future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought is to
have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/ press
brake). another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be thicker
anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to several
contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V

If you use the aluminum tubing(Kitec) you can find it with a metal
detector. The other stuff can be located with reasonable accuracy by
wetting the floor and noting where it evaporates first.

I have tubing in my floor and it is awesome. I definitely recommmend
it. I do not have any equipment anchored to the floor. I did place a
steel subframe in the floor for a crane, but I am not sure that will
ever get placed.

You could go to a thicker floor or go around the equipment. I would
probably lean towards the thicker floor. With a 6+" floor you could
still sink a 4" anchor directly above a tube and not have to worry
about hitting a line.

JW

Another thing. I spent considerable time playing with the layout so
that all loops are the same length(approximately). This eliminates the
need for more expensive valves and balancing manifolds etc. I got all
5 loops within about 10' of nominal. Autocad was a great tool for
this. By using splines and a length tool it was easy to check where I
was at.

JW

What sort of control system does he have? I find it hard to believe it
overheats. With a proper control and understanding the hysterisis of a
hydronic system it should be possible to hit a very stable and accurate
heating.

JW

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 13:30:18 -0500, Andrew V wrote:
I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube in
the floor.

You'll love it. It's a great way to heat a space.

The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with any
flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on the
future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought is to
have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/ press
brake).

Well, you'll tie it to 6-inch wire grid, right? Lay it down, take lots
of pictures, and you'll know where to miss.

another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be thicker
anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to several
contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

When I put mine in, I was told to have it on the wire grid, about half-depth
in the concrete. So, in my 5" slab, it's about there-ish. Impossible to
tell where specifically, so I wouldn't count on it being deep enough.
If you happen to be on a fire department and have access to the thermal
imaging camera, you could use that to see exactly where the lines are.
Maybe if you're in a rural area and they have one, they'd come out and
do it for you in exchange for a donation of liquid refreshment?

Dave Hinz

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:47:51 GMT, yourname wrote:
If you make the floor thick enough you can lag where ever you want to.
Cracking is your biggest fear, real cracks can sever the tube. have it
in my garage with no problems as of yet.

Note on machine shops: A friend has it in his busy cnc shop, and they
have the doors open in the moderately cold weather; all the added heat
load from machines. If I were putting it in my busy shop, I might
undersize or figure some other way to deal with overheating.

That's what thermostatic controls at the heat source are for, no?

On 14 Feb 2005 10:47:52 -0800, wrote:
If you use the aluminum tubing(Kitec) you can find it with a metal
detector.

A metal detector works on aluminum?

The other stuff can be located with reasonable accuracy by
wetting the floor and noting where it evaporates first.

That's a really good idea. Less elegant than the thermal imaging
camera, but certainly cheaper.

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 13:30:18 -0500, Andrew V
wrote:
I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube
in
the floor.

You'll love it. It's a great way to heat a space.

The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with any
flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on the
future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought is
to
have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/ press
brake).

Well, you'll tie it to 6-inch wire grid, right? Lay it down, take lots
of pictures, and you'll know where to miss.

another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be thicker
anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to several
contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

When I put mine in, I was told to have it on the wire grid, about
half-depth
in the concrete. So, in my 5" slab, it's about there-ish. Impossible to
tell where specifically, so I wouldn't count on it being deep enough.
If you happen to be on a fire department and have access to the thermal
imaging camera, you could use that to see exactly where the lines are.
Maybe if you're in a rural area and they have one, they'd come out and
do it for you in exchange for a donation of liquid refreshment?

Dave Hinz

I laid down 2" Certifoam and used the plastic chairs made for this purpose
that screw into the styro to clip on the tubing. I also insulated the edge
of the slab as they say that is where the biggest heat loss is. Best
investment I ever made!
Steve

CNC machines make a great deal of additonal heat: ths adds into the heat
always radiating form the slab, causing overheating. Same thing happens
with houses with lots of sun loading. Didn't mean to say it had to be
this way, just a note on one such instance.

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:47:51 GMT, yourname wrote:

If you make the floor thick enough you can lag where ever you want to.
Cracking is your biggest fear, real cracks can sever the tube. have it
in my garage with no problems as of yet.

Note on machine shops: A friend has it in his busy cnc shop, and they
have the doors open in the moderately cold weather; all the added heat
load from machines. If I were putting it in my busy shop, I might
undersize or figure some other way to deal with overheating.


That's what thermostatic controls at the heat source are for, no?

I laid down 2" Certifoam and used the plastic chairs made for this purpose
that screw into the styro to clip on the tubing. I also insulated the edge
of the slab as they say that is where the biggest heat loss is. Best
investment I ever made!
Steve




Yes I should mention that I have 2 inch foam under my garage floor, a
bit of a leap of faith but it hasn't cracked yet....spose you wouldn't
think twice at pouring concrete over compacted sand, and it will squish
underfoot, but foam seems wrong. If you are concerned about point
loading [a punch press or something] you could insulate well[deep]
around the perimeter. I loses some efficiency over insulating under but
you have a large increase in thermal mass[all the dirt]

I thought that was strange too. I guess I haven't tried it. It's just
something they advertise. I went with the cheap(er) stuff.

I did likewise. There is a "special" foam for this application that
has a higher load rating. I dont' remember specifically. The little
plastic clips make it so easy to lay out the tubing. My whole slab is
insulated everywhere except for the little bit that sticks through the
doorways. Couldn' t feasibly insulate that facing edge. I know there
is some heat loss there, but I suspect it is minimal in comparison.

JW

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 19:42:57 GMT, yourname wrote:
CNC machines make a great deal of additonal heat: ths adds into the heat
always radiating form the slab, causing overheating. Same thing happens
with houses with lots of sun loading. Didn't mean to say it had to be
this way, just a note on one such instance.

Something to consider - you can also _dump_ heat into this system. In
the summertime, when the sun shines into my kitchen/sunroom, I circulate
water through that, and then into the basement slab. The thermometers
show that I'm getting a 3 degree temperature rise in the water as it
goes through the kitchen floor, which works out to heat that raises
the basement floor by about 1.5 degrees. It'd dump more but the floor
is well insulated from the ground underneath it. Doesn't change the
overall heat picture in my house, but it does move the heat to places
other than where I don't want it to be.

Dave Hinz

"yourname" wrote in message
...


I laid down 2" Certifoam and used the plastic chairs made for this
purpose
that screw into the styro to clip on the tubing. I also insulated the
edge
of the slab as they say that is where the biggest heat loss is. Best
investment I ever made!
Steve




Yes I should mention that I have 2 inch foam under my garage floor, a
bit of a leap of faith but it hasn't cracked yet....spose you wouldn't
think twice at pouring concrete over compacted sand, and it will squish
underfoot, but foam seems wrong. If you are concerned about point
loading [a punch press or something] you could insulate well[deep]
around the perimeter. I loses some efficiency over insulating under but
you have a large increase in thermal mass[all the dirt]


Typical foam insulation found in building supply houses runs from 15 to 25
PSI. It is available as high as 100 PSI compression, so there's no good
reason to not use it. I installed 40 PSI stuff under my 6¼" thick floor,
which has ½" rebar @ 18" centers both ways, to which I tied my heating
hoses. The rebar sits on thin dobies, so the heating hoses (mine are
rubber---a Heatway/Watts product) are down about 4". I run a forklift
that weighs 5 tons, along with a 3 ton load, and have NO cracking aside from
the original scores that were intentionally placed for controlled cracking.
The rebar, which I highly recommend, prevents any settling and shifting of
the cracks.

There is no better way to heat a shop---especially if you don't like cold
feet.

Harold

Just turn down the boiler temp in warmer weather. My hot air furnace
has an differential thermostat that raises the plenum temp in colder
weather, lowers it in the mid range temps.

yourname wrote:
If you make the floor thick enough you can lag where ever you want to.
Cracking is your biggest fear, real cracks can sever the tube. have it
in my garage with no problems as of yet.

Note on machine shops: A friend has it in his busy cnc shop, and they
have the doors open in the moderately cold weather; all the added heat
load from machines. If I were putting it in my busy shop, I might
undersize or figure some other way to deal with overheating.

radiant is the best

Andrew V wrote:

I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant
tube in the floor. The problem I'm running into is designing the
layout with any flexibility for future machine placement. I know what
machines are on the future list but am unsure of exact make/model type
info. One thought is to have exclusion zones with no tube for the
anchored machines (shear/ press brake). another idea is since the
floor in these spots needs to be thicker anyway place the tubes deeper
in the slab. I will be talking to several contractors but options from
the group are worthwhile.

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it


I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up to
temp in 30 minutes.

In my case, I need to add a space heater and use the floor only as a
supplemental heat source. Awful expensive lesson here, but it is nice to
have the floor not to be an ice box.

Karl

I think I'd look at solar to keep it at minimum temp, and add powered
heat when you are there.

Karl Townsend wrote:
If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it



I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up to
temp in 30 minutes.

In my case, I need to add a space heater and use the floor only as a
supplemental heat source. Awful expensive lesson here, but it is nice to
have the floor not to be an ice box.

Karl

I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours.


You do not do that. Really. If it is not enough heat then either your
boiler is too small or you need to put more tube in the floor. it is a
design, not a guess. Did you insulate the foundation walls? IF you
didn't dig up the outside and insulate to the footing.

(I'm not in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up to
temp in 30 minutes.

My guess is a 8 foot ceiling, 2 walls are inside walls, much easier to
heat.

Propane is super expensive, and if you didn't buy an efficient boiler,
it will cost you. You need a over 85 percent efficient to avoid going
bankrupt.

I would do 2 things. Stop setting the shop back as severely. If it isn't
drafty it ought to recover a degree and hour. It may actually cost you
less than running that boiler balls out for a day to heat the place.

Change to oil. more expensive boiler, cheaper fuel. Run a
primary/secondary setup using the high temp loop to run a fan forced to
help speed recovery.
www.heatinghelp.com, go to 'the wall', ask questions read, learn, these guys

are the best at this stuff, some have the attitude to match....

Hmmm ... I would guess that the shop gets to and maintains the "right"
temperature overnight, but then when the machines come on, heat gets added
in to the shop much faster than the large thermal mass of the shop floor can
cool down.

"yourname" wrote in message
...
CNC machines make a great deal of additonal heat: ths adds into the heat
always radiating form the slab, causing overheating. Same thing happens
with houses with lots of sun loading. Didn't mean to say it had to be
this way, just a note on one such instance.

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:47:51 GMT, yourname wrote:

If you make the floor thick enough you can lag where ever you want to.
Cracking is your biggest fear, real cracks can sever the tube. have it
in my garage with no problems as of yet.

Note on machine shops: A friend has it in his busy cnc shop, and they
have the doors open in the moderately cold weather; all the added heat
load from machines. If I were putting it in my busy shop, I might
undersize or figure some other way to deal with overheating.


That's what thermostatic controls at the heat source are for, no?

Andrew H. Wakefield wrote:
Hmmm ... I would guess that the shop gets to and maintains the "right"
temperature overnight, but then when the machines come on, heat gets added
in to the shop much faster than the large thermal mass of the shop floor can
cool down.



yup

I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up to
temp in 30 minutes.

In my case, I need to add a space heater and use the floor only as a
supplemental heat source. Awful expensive lesson here, but it is nice to
have the floor not to be an ice box.

Karl



Oh, ana 'nuther thing, radiant will have difficlty in drafty barn like
areas, insulation is waaaaaaaaay cheaper than oil or gas. If you expect
to throw a pole barn with a tin overhead 14 ft tall and a coupla
splotches a fiberglass to sooth your concience, it won't work[not saying
you did that Karl]

I dont' know about Karl, but I have my thermostat set to 40F. Sounds
really cold, but I typically work out in my shop in a long sleeve shirt
quite comfortably. With the warm floor, your feet don't get cold.
This is a big factor.

I am using an electric water heater on off-peak power (~$0.03/kwh). My
heating bill is only an extra $50 or so a month.

I am heating a 40x48 shop w/ 16' sidewalls. I insulated the heck out
of it. There is nearly 18" of cellulose in the ceiling. The walls are
ICF. An effective R factor of 50.

I have considered adding a corn boiler for a primary system, but am
having a hard time justifying given the above stated results to date.

"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT to reply wrote
in message k.net...
If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it


I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not
in the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for
when its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the
same barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes
up to temp in 30 minutes.

In my case, I need to add a space heater and use the floor only as a
supplemental heat source. Awful expensive lesson here, but it is nice to
have the floor not to be an ice box.

Karl


If you use the shop occasionally it probably would be best to use a
thermometer to sense floor temp, set it lower than needed to heat the space
at a comfortable temp. Then add a fan/coil hydronic heater that uses the
boilers water to heat up the space when you want to work in there. You can
probably run the floor at 70-80 degrees and still get the benefits of warm
feet, and the fan/coil heater to boost the temps.
Greg

For the slab, consider having the plant add fiberglass or PP chop to the
mix. The chop acts like millions of pieces of tiny, distributed rebar,
and with a 4000 PSI (six-sack) mix and good curing, you can forget about
hairline cracks. The only downside is the finished surface is a bit
"hairy" -- but for a shop floor that's OK as it's less slippery.

Big machines require a massive footer to minimize vibration. We have
some 4500 pound machines sitting on a 4-6 inch slab, and the limiting
factor for surface finish is vibration they create during heavy cuts. It
would be better if they were on separate footings 12"-24" thick and
isolated from the rest of the slab. I suspect stuff like hammers and
such would benefit from the isolation too.

As for radiant heat in the slab, I'd recommend against using it in a
workshop floor. You will never locate the tubes with certainty after the
pour, and in a workshop the chance of an accident is just too high to
justify this kind of heating. Others mentioned the long lag time to
bring temperatures up, and IMO you're better off putting money into
creating a well-insulated, tight structure, and heating that with
overhead radiant units or conventional forced-air heaters. Definitely
put some foam under the slab to minimize heat loss in that direction.

Andrew V wrote:

I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube in
the floor. The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with any
flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on the
future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought is to
have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/ press
brake). another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be thicker
anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to several
contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V

Tim Killian wrote in
:



As for radiant heat in the slab, I'd recommend against using it in a
workshop floor. You will never locate the tubes with certainty after
the pour, and in a workshop the chance of an accident is just too high
to justify this kind of heating.

I feel all you would really need is some metalized tape like the gas
company uses when they bury lines, and a detector. As an added bonus, you
could find the rebar in the floor also, so when you went to anchor a
machine, you didn't ruin a concrete bit.



--
Anthony

You can't 'idiot proof' anything....every time you try, they just make
better idiots.

Remove sp to reply via email

Andrew
Good thing you thinking ahead. Placement of tubes is the one thing I regret
not paying attention to when I did my shop. Next time I will lay the tubing
out on a grid and then map the grid so that I know where the tubing is. I
attached mine to 6" remesh on 1' centers. They are long straight lines and
if they were mapped and measured from the foundation then I could figure out
where they are. Map them out and don't lose the map. Other than that I
would not have another shop without it.. I do have to plan ahead to heat
the shop up or just leave it on. It is also a prime candidate for solar
collection.
lg
no neat sig line
"Andrew V" wrote in message
...

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V

"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT to reply wrote
in message k.net...
If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it


I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not
in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up
to
temp in 30 minutes.

In my case, I need to add a space heater and use the floor only as a
supplemental heat source. Awful expensive lesson here, but it is nice to
have the floor not to be an ice box.

Karl


Yep, using it for part time heating isn't a good idea, especially with
thicker concrete. Look at it like it's a flywheel that you spin up. Once
it's to temperature, it's not a big deal to keep it there, but if you allow
it to cool off, it's starting over each time, so it doesn't do you much
good. My floor is an honest 6¼" thick, and has hoses @ 18" centers (as
per Heatway's design) and keeps the shop very warm with no effort. However,
in order to bring up the more than 40 yards of concrete to a temperature
that keeps the shop warm takes hours. I fully intend to keep the heat on
full time in my shop, even after I'm living in our new house, but I'll lower
the thermostat so it keeps the shop at a more comfortable temperature for
working. Costs a little to keep it warm, but to me it's worth it. I
hated my old shop that had a cold concrete floor.

Harold

"Tim Killian" wrote in message
...
For the slab, consider having the plant add fiberglass or PP chop to the
mix. The chop acts like millions of pieces of tiny, distributed rebar,
and with a 4000 PSI (six-sack) mix and good curing, you can forget about
hairline cracks. The only downside is the finished surface is a bit
"hairy" -- but for a shop floor that's OK as it's less slippery.

All you need do is go over the surface with a propane weed burner and the
"hairy" stuff is gone instantly. I cast window sills from glass
reinforced colored concrete and did as I suggest. Works great and takes
almost no time.

Harold

"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT to reply wrote
in message k.net...
I guess my experiences are slightly different from the rest. I put radiant
floor heat in my outside shop. The tubes are on 12" centers in a 6" thick
floor. Even with a very well insulated sidewall and ceiling I'm finding it
takes forever to bring the shop up to heat - more than 24 hours. (I'm not
in
the shop all day every day) It also just isn't enough heat source for when
its below 10 degrees F outside. A nearly equal size salesroom in the same
barn with a standard furnace takes WAY less propane to heat and comes up
to
temp in 30 minutes.

My problem isn't the speed with which I can heat the air, it's the speed
with which I can heat up the 4500-odd pounds of steel in my machinery.

It's pretty counter-productive to bring the air up to, say, 65F, then start
breathing in a closed space with 30-degree machines. Pretty soon, they're
coated with condensation, and the rust starts.

Better to well-insulate your space, and keep the temp up to the
non-condensing point for your equipment and humidity level.

LLoyd

"Andrew V" wrote in message
...
I'm in the design stage on a shop/garage and I'd like to put radiant tube
in the floor. The problem I'm running into is designing the layout with
any flexibility for future machine placement. I know what machines are on
the future list but am unsure of exact make/model type info. One thought
is to have exclusion zones with no tube for the anchored machines (shear/
press brake). another idea is since the floor in these spots needs to be
thicker anyway place the tubes deeper in the slab. I will be talking to
several contractors but options from the group are worthwhile.

If anybody has some experience's lets hear about it

Thanks

Andrew V


And for you folks who have radiant systems, did you take a look at heating
the water with solar collectors?

I'm in NC so the heating load isn't massive and it's an option under
consideration.

Thanks.
Steve.

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 19:24:23 -0700, Tim Killian wrote:
For the slab, consider having the plant add fiberglass or PP chop to the
mix. The chop acts like millions of pieces of tiny, distributed rebar,
and with a 4000 PSI (six-sack) mix and good curing, you can forget about
hairline cracks. The only downside is the finished surface is a bit
"hairy" -- but for a shop floor that's OK as it's less slippery.

Yes, but the "hairy" surface goes away after a few weeks of normal sweeping.
It's fine with bare feet, even (different part of the basement, but same
mix).

Dave Hinz

"Greg O" wrote in message
...

If you use the shop occasionally it probably would be best to use a
thermometer to sense floor temp, set it lower than needed to heat the
space
at a comfortable temp. Then add a fan/coil hydronic heater that uses the
boilers water to heat up the space when you want to work in there. You can
probably run the floor at 70-80 degrees and still get the benefits of warm
feet, and the fan/coil heater to boost the temps.


Yup.

This would serve to bring up the air temp inside the shop much, much more
quickly.

--

SVL

In article , larry g
wrote:

Andrew
Good thing you thinking ahead. Placement of tubes is the one thing I regret
not paying attention to when I did my shop. Next time I will lay the tubing
out on a grid and then map the grid so that I know where the tubing is. I
attached mine to 6" remesh on 1' centers. They are long straight lines and
if they were mapped and measured from the foundation then I could figure out
where they are. Map them out and don't lose the map. Other than that I
would not have another shop without it.. I do have to plan ahead to heat
the shop up or just leave it on. It is also a prime candidate for solar
collection.
lg

Another related idea is to lay the tubes out in squares instead of
laying out loops that go all the way across the shop. if you use the
square grid approach you will be able to heat just one section of the
shop, as needed. I have a 12 foot square loop just under my turning
center to protect it from dew.

FYI I am in the radiant business (radiantheat.COM) and I manufacture
radiant heat manifolds in my radiant heated shop.