Over Insulated Subfloor
Applying radiant panels over a raised floor subfloor provides a dry, low-profile, lightweight, fast-responding, and efficient integrated hydronic panel underlayment system that is finished-flooring friendly. This radiant heat subfloor installation is easy, with panels applied near the completion of the building project.
The Smart Alternative To:
Underfloor Radiant Heat: Stapling radiant heat with aluminum plates under a subfloor significantly increases the resistance to heat transfer resulting in higher water temperatures, low system efficiency, and slower response time, with challenging insulation application conditions. We recommend using this type of system only if the chief design criteria are maintaining existing flooring goods, such as hardwood in a remodel.
Gypsum Cement Pour: Gypsum pours over a subfloor are a type of radiant heat subfloor system characterized by a wet and heavy underlayment medium mass assembly installed by a specialty contractor. Curing for finished flooring goods can delay the construction flow, particularly in cold climates. Double plating all walls is required as gypsum concrete floor pours are 1 ¼” thick with a surface unsuitable for nailed hardwood floors without expensive modification. Gypsum concrete floors respond at about half the rate of WBI radiant panels, something that is possibly not so important to contractors but of very real concern to end users.
