I don’t want my name on an ill-performing, glutinous system. I take the time to find out the installation details, but, more times than not, I walk away. Nothing makes me lose interest in a job faster than that (all too familiar) line. How many times have you heard this from a builder or homeowner: “We have installed the tubing, we just need you to hook it up”? All that “frugal” he had invested in his radiant slab was out the window, and he had to resort to an entirely different type of heating system that offers far less comfort to an equipment shop with high ceilings. The water in the tubing froze and split open every tube under the slab. Neither was the radiant slab hooked up to a heat source. Here’s what happened though: cold weather arrived, and the building was not completed. Unnecessary? Yes, but not the end of the world. Now this in and of itself, may not have been so bad.
#RADIANT HEAT TUBING PROFESSIONAL#
Since he was the boss and there was no one there to offer a professional opinion, that’s exactly what happened. I’m going to fill it with water so it stays at the bottom where it belongs.”
![radiant heat tubing radiant heat tubing](https://www.buildinggreen.com/sites/default/files/articles/wirsbotubinglayout.jpg)
It’s going to float right up to the top of the concrete. After he had the tubing all laid out, he started thinking, “That tubing is filled with air.
#RADIANT HEAT TUBING INSTALL#
A frugal business owner attempted to install his own system he had just enough knowledge to get himself into a peck of trouble. Here’s another failure that I have seen, and it makes me chuckle. People just can’t afford to pay the operating cost for a system that doesn’t have the proper insulation under the slab. Even more common than that, is the lack of proper insulation underneath the slab. Typically, a large crack in the concrete slab has compromised the tubing, resulting in multiple leaks. The failures I see invariably are the result of incorrect installation. Actually, if the amount that I have seen is any indicator of the rest of the country, failed applications must be more common than we realize. How many times have you walked into a shop or other building that has a “long since discarded” radiant slab application? I have seen quite a few.
![radiant heat tubing radiant heat tubing](https://diy.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/diy/fullset/2006/8/16/0/detp307_1fd.jpg)
A radiant heated concrete slab has far too much definition to be branded as “tubing in concrete.” What it really is is a robust, highly efficient heating system that should last for the lifetime of the building that it serves.