heated travertine floors

[mnahrgang]

This is a new one for me. (I love this job, always learning something new. ) I have an inspection scheduled for later in the week. I was able to take a look at the MLS info on line and noticed this in the description. "totally remodeled master bath offering heated travertine floors w/ programmable thermostat".

Can someone point me to some info on these?

Also, those of you who have some experience with them, what do you do to inspect them? Just take their temperature and ensure they are getting warm?

Is there anything in particular I need to look for?

[James F. McKee]

Mark
my understanding of these is that most of them are electric, low voltage. they are fairly new and i have not installed one yet but the simplest way to understand it is that it is like the rear window defroster on your car . most are embedded in the mortar under the tile and about the only thing you can inspect is if it warms with operation of the thermostat...there are other hot water units available that have tubes under the floor but You would usually only see one in a house with boiler heat....jim

[bzimbelman]

Originally Posted by mnahrgang

This is a new one for me. (I love this job, always learning something new. ) I have an inspection scheduled for later in the week. I was able to take a look at the MLS info on line and noticed this in the description. "totally remodeled master bath offering heated travertine floors w/ programmable thermostat".

Can someone point me to some info on these?

Also, those of you who have some experience with them, what do you do to inspect them? Just take their temperature and ensure they are getting warm?

Is there anything in particular I need to look for?

The two basic ways to heat a radiant heat floor are using hot water or electric. Some sites for electric sub floor heat mats are:
Nuheat and SunTouch.

These sites should also give you a good idea about how they are installed. I inspect all electric radiant systems in the same way. With an electric system the main thing you are looking for is proper wiring and that the floor gets warm based on the thermostat adjustments.

The other main type of radiant floor is hot water based, in that case you have a source for hot water, a distribution system if the source isn't in the same room and the pipes in the floor for heating.

Just like the mat is usually impossible to see most of the distribution and heating piping is impossible to see, but you can see if the temperature changes based on the thermostat. You can also usually check the source. It could be a boiler, a hot water heater, solar system or some combination of them. Most of ours down here are solar heat collectors with either storage or gas (propane typically) water heater backups/augmentation.

Hope that helps!

-- bz

[mnahrgang]

Thank you gentlemen. That's a great start.