Pole Barn in floor heat advice needed

[HUSKYMAN]

I am building a 32x48 pole barn which I will be heating with a Woodmaster 4400 that has not arrived yet. I am picking up my pex tubing for the infloor heat tomorrow. My dealer said I should use 1500ft of 1/2" pex, spaced about a foot apart.

Anyone who has done there own in floor heat, please feel free to share some do's and don'ts. Thanks

 

[dnjgormley@comc]

Thinking of doing something similar myself. Here's a good site for info. Note the limit of about 300' per run. And do remember you're not going to want to be drilling down into the concrete after it's installed.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman64.html

 

[ktm250rider]

use 2" polystyrene insulation sheets and make sure that the tubing is well secured to the insulation so that it doesnt float to the surface. I used a 2 inch staple/clip that held the tubing down.
Keep the runs to less than 300 feet pulling each run off of a 5 circuit manifold. When I was laying mine, I used a couple of radiant heating sites for info such as radiantec and radiantco. Search the net for DIY radiant heating. Its a lot easier than many plumbers will say.

 

[leon]

wood heat

I am building a 32x48 pole barn which I will be heating with a Woodmaster 4400 that has not arrived yet. I am picking up my pex tubing for the infloor heat tomorrow. My dealer said I should use 1500ft of 1/2" pex, spaced about a foot apart.

Anyone who has done there own in floor heat, please feel free to share some do's and don'ts. Thanks

Is the pole barn to become a residence? Are you dead set against using a few hot water radiators(not baseboard; I hate/despise baseboard heat) for heating the pole barn? You will not spend near as much money for materials and good pipe for this job.

There are a lot of good surplus/restored hot water radiators for sale at salvage yards and they are clean inside painted and ready to install.

Are you not worried about excess wood being burned for heating?


my two cents :chainsawguy:

 

[IndyIan]

You might want to look into just insulating the outside edges of your slab. Saves some $$ on insulation. I assume your going to put reinforcing mesh in? We just zip tied the tubes to that. In my floor we didn't do any relief cuts but I 've read that were you plan to have them you should sleave the pex to help if the joint moves at all.
I would also make sure you get the surface under the slab as packed as possible. Every floor I've seen on crushed washed stone has cracked and one fairly badly and I think this is because "they" say that stone doesn't need to be compacted.
My foundation excavater recommended sand partially because the excavation was so big. So we tamped and watered the hell out of it and there's not one crack in a 28x32' slab after 4 years.
We also pressurized the tubing with air so a puncture would show up immediately if the guys pouring weren't careful which I think helped them be careful....

 

[Al Smith]

I had an old buddy,may he rest in peace,that used the in floor system for the office of his trucking company.The office was 24 by 40 feet.

He compacted the dickens out his fill then made his pour over 2 inchs of styrofoam using 1/2 rebar 12" on center.He used just cheap old PVC rolled black pipe tied to the rebar and fed with an 80 gallon residential water heater using a small recirc pump.Worked like charm.The concrete floor was 12 inchs thick thus causing a great thermal mass.It took a while to raise this temperature but once there it was real easy to maintain,even in northern Ohio winters.His shop area was heated from the used crankcase oil from his fleet of tanker trucks.

 

[gene1605]

floor heat

I heated my well insulated 16 x 32 ft. shop with 1 1/2 in pipe just under the 4 in. floor with 1 loop 4 ft inside the walls using a 35000 Btu water heater, keeps it 65 % at 20 % outside temp

 

[MS-310]

12" to 18" works great for a poll barn, use a mixing valve to keep the water at a Max or 130 deg so you dont crack the hell out of the floor.

No more then 250 foot runs.....NO MORE THEN 250 Foot runs. Trust me I did 300 foot 400 foot and 500 foot runs less is better with this system.

I just got done with one last weekend, its the way to go.

Put protectors for the pex line comming out of the floor and also Mark the pipes so you know where they go.

Jack

 

[HUSKYMAN]

I met the dealer today, I have 250' rolls of pex, so that will be the length of the runs. I am going to use the zip tying method to the wire mesh, with 5" of concrete methinks.

My base is very well compacted, we have been driving dozers and trucks over it for the last two months, with the top layer being very clean yellow sand. I have never heard of watering the sand before pouring the concrete. I would try it if I had running water at the site. One good thing is my barn will be 3 feet above grade so groundwater should not be a problem.

So I will have 6 runs of tubing and my dealer sold me a 12 bank manifold which will handle the tubing. I don't want to use baseboards in the barn because they will eat my valuable wall space and probably get ran into be everything I have with wheels on it. Putting my heat in the floor will cost about $400, which to me is a reasonable price.

 

[grandpatractor]

pressurizing with air is a good Idea. I had one of my lines start leaking air during the pour. someone had drug some rebar across it and scuffed thru the pex. works good to tie it down to mesh sheets when the mesh is spaced at six inches.I put insulated tarp made for heated floors on the bottom. spraying down the sand helps it pack better and it keeps the concrete from curing too fast.

 

[Columbia34]

Anyone used or seen this?

http://www.nofp.com/barrier.html

Scott

 

[dimanager]

I met the dealer today, I have 250' rolls of pex, so that will be the length of the runs. I am going to use the zip tying method to the wire mesh, with 5" of concrete methinks.

250 is a good lengt, also keep them all about the same length. When I did my radiant floor heat in an addition, I was told to keep the runs within 10%. I think it helps keep a more even heat.

Sam