heat pads for floor

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

My end of the install is always just fine - Tile guy's is a major factor on the other hand. Sure a thin-set bed with a lot of contact surface are on thin ceramic tile - No problem! 1/2" - 3/4" stone with a wide knotched trowel is a much different story! And that end of this multi-trade install that I (as an Electrician) have no control over.

So I don't spec them - just connect them. Have the tile guy put down the pad, temp it up with the thermostat - "See it gets warm..." Disconnect it, document ohm values, put on those little alarms if they have them - then come back at trim out after the tile or stone is down and re-connect it. Damage during tile install, different ohm values or low heat output at the surface - not my problem...

I once had a GC turn on one in a bath room and sit there for over an hour with an IR thermometer waiting for a change in temp. Turns out the tile guy put a 1/2" dura-rock layer over the pad before setting the tiles. I have also had people expect that they can use these in place of "Heating". Things like this, and something as subjective as the tempature sensitivity of someone else's foot have fixed my position on them.

The best way to install the warm tiles system is within a mud bed. I understand in most residential tile work these days, "mud jobs" are out and "hammer down durock or wonderboard and thinset the tile/ marble/granite right over it" is the way they go. IMHO both durock and wonderboard would act more like an insulator with this method, and the end result wouldn't be as effective.

Lucky for me, my "tile connection" friend is an anal retentive German who, room by room gutted his own home and re-did everything inside and out. I did all his wiring and service, he did 2 of my warm-floors bathrooms, and still owes me a utility room and a 3rd bath. (With the cost of discounted ceramic tile, I might even do the garages one day!) According to him, each was his last "friggin' mud job, the next one I'm gonna do like the damned residential tile hacks!" but I know better.