Mats for warm water floor

heating systems the floor, still carrying roofing has long been considered "curiosities", now firmly gained popularity among owners of houses and apartments.More and more people prefer this convenient and economical way of heating buildings.Good exhaust mount technology and a large assortment of milestones necessary components enable to perform all work on the creation and launch of "warm floor" on their own.

most economical operation is considered a warm water floor, as if hot water heating system, it does not require additional significant energy costs.It determines the popularity of such a scheme.But it will show its full potential only if all the requirements of installation and circuits using really high-quality materials.And in this series are a very important element for warm water mat floor.

What mats for the "warm floor"?

If acquainted with numerous publicationson the Internet dedicated to water "warm floors", you can find recommendations on installation paths, in which the question mats somehow bypassed party.It is not clear what guided the authors of these notes - in fact some readers inexperienced in an independent building, it may take for the "face value".Judging from the point of view of reducing costs, against the background of the total cost of creating a "warm floor" system mats are far from being in the first positions - the price is not so great.But these costs dramatically and raise the efficiency of the system, and the duration of its use, and the level of overall comfort in the premises.

• useless to hope for the heating efficiency at low costs for energy, if the thermal energy heating system worked out will be spent on absolutely no right heating slabs or foundation on the ground floor.The heat flux has to be directed in the right direction - up to the front surface of the floor, and this is one of the main objectives of these mats.

• «Warm" water floor in most cases, closed the massive concrete screed thickness of 50 to 100 mm, which will facilitate the uniform distribution of heat and willpowerful accumulator tank.Naturally, the pipe during the filling and during the period set tie strength, and then, in the course of operation will withstand heavy static and dynamic loads.To protect circuits from damage, it should provide an elastic substrate - it is also one of the functions of the mats for a "warm floor".

This, by the way, and imposes certain requirements on the design itself mats - material for their manufacture must combine high-quality thermal insulation with sufficient mechanical strength in compression.

• use many special mats greatly simplifies circuit layout process of "warm floor" and secure the pipe at a predetermined position.
• using special mats, property owner does not only warms the floor, but also creates an additional effective acoustic barrier - this is especially important for residents of high-rise buildings.
• Creating a "warm floor" with a water circuit certainly has specific requirements for reliable waterproofing overlap.Many of today's mat and are able to perform such a task.Furthermore, if the mats are waterproof layer, they will be able to defend itself against the material of manufacture fairly aggressive chemical environment of the cement slurry.

In short, the acquisition and use of such expensive mats on time decides several very important tasks.

main types of mats for the water "warm floor»

Round foil substrate

These materials are not fully called mats for water "warm floor", but under certain conditions and they can be used forunit thermal insulation and reflective substrates for laying pipe circuit.

This situation is acceptable if the same "warm floor" is not to be used as the main heating system - it will only create a higher comfort zoneof certain areas or even in some areas floor.Of course, the base at the same time it has to have a certain degree of warming, or be located above the heated room.

When the device surface of the water heating on the ground floor - in a high-rise building of the unheated basement or in a private building with ground floors, insulating qualities of such materials is clearly not enough.However, they may be used in combination with other heaters - this will be discussed below.

At the heart of such web materials is typically polyethylene foam thickness from 2 and up to 10 mm.The front side (stacked in the room side) has a reflective coating of aluminum foil or aluminized plastic film.This layer not only contributes to the direction of heat flow in the right direction, but becomes a reliable vapor barrier and waterproofing.

disadvantage of the use of such mats for pickup tube circuits can be considered as something that necessarily need to install any additional elements.This may be the mounting bracket with the cells for the desired pipe diameter or reinforcing mesh, to the bars which are bound with plastic pipe clamps.

However, in circumstances where the foundation already has a certain insulation, and the height of the room is that we have to fight literally for every centimeter of such substrates willthe optimal solution.

such products produces a lot of manufacturers.Some types of foil insulation based on polyethylene foam are shown in Table:

Material name	"Penofol"	"Ekofol"	"Isoflex"	"Izolon"
Thumbnail
Thermal conductivity, W / m × ° C	0,049	0,049	0,036	0.040
density kg / m³	35	33	35 ÷ 45	27 ÷ 33
heat-reflecting ability	not less than 90%	not less than 80%	not less than 90%	to 95 ÷ 97%
operating temperature range	from-60 ° to + 100 ° C	from -60 ° to + 90 ° C	from -60 ° to + 80 ° C	from -80 ° to + 80 ° C
Water vapor permeability material mg /m × h × Pa	no more than 0,001	no more than 0,001	no more than 0,001	no more than 0,001
Product form	thickness of 2, 4, 5 mm with a layer of foil 14 microns - rolls 1.2× 30 m; thickness of 8 mm and 10 mm - rolls 1,2 × 15 m	rolls of a width of 1200 mm, insulation thickness 2, 3, 5, 8 and 10 mm, length 25 and 15 m	Rolls 1200 mm wide, insulation thickness 2., 3, 5, 8 or 10 mm, length 25 and 15 m thickness foiling -. 10 microns.	fabric width - 1.5 m, thickness 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 mm. length of the roll, respectively, 200, 170, 130, 100, 80 and 50 m. may acquire the individual webs 15 mm thickness, size 1500 × 2000 mm

webs such foil heater usually decomposed butt-oneto another.To ensure the integrity of the created reflecting and waterproofing the surface of the joints is recommended to glue waterproof foiled tape.

usual slabs of Styrofoam

as mats for laying of floor heating circuits is quite possible to use conventional plates Styrofoam - Styrofoam, or better and more lasting - extruded.This insulation can be used for floor heating company, even on the cold ground.

foam captivates low price.But it is important not to make mistakes - do not buy low-density material (less than 35 kg / m³), ​​as its strength properties will be insufficient for the construction of a "warm floor".If we decided to go this route (not to say, optimum), it is recommended to purchase the material of the brand PSB-S-50 - with maximum density.

If we use a plate of expanded polystyrene, it is better to buy a higher quality material produced by extrusion technology.The closed cell structure gives it a heater excellent insulation qualities along with enhanced strength characteristics, resistance to stress compressive and flexural strength.

One of their typical examples - all known insulation "Penoplex".There are several varieties of it, but "Penoplex-35" is quite suitable for installation under screed floor heating or, under the new classification, "Penoplex-Comfort".

These boards are convenient by the fact that they have a part of the castle - Special slats on the edges to simplify installation without leaving gaps.

for superior insulation and create a waterproofing layer, Styrofoam plates can be on top lay a thin foiled insulation, as discussed above.At the same time, if you use the material carrying the coordinate markup lines, contour packing process significantly easier.

And to secure the pipe in this case, you can use special harpoon-bracket holders - they are stuck in a layer of expanded polystyrene in the right place.

materials parameters	boards extruded polystyrene "Penoplex-Comfort"	Polyfoam PSB-S-50
Illustration
Thermal conductivity (W / m ° C)	0,028 ÷ 0,034	0,039 ÷ 0,050
Water vapor permeability (mg / m × h × Pa)	0.007	-
Water absorption for 24 hours in% of the volume	0.4	0.6
strength at statistical bending MPa (kg / cm²)	0,4 ÷ 0,7	0,07 ÷ 0,20
compressive strength 10% deformation, not less MPa (kgf /cm²)	0,25 ÷ 0,3 (2.5 ÷ 3)	0,15 ÷ 0,2 (1,5 ÷ 2)
density (kg / m³)	28 ÷ 35	35÷ 50
Operating temperature	-50 to +75
Category of resistance to fire	G1	G4
Standard dimensions:
- length andwidth	600 × 1200	1000 × 1000
-	thickness 20;thirty;40;50;60;80;100	from 20 to 200

And yet - it is still not the best solution for water "warm floor".It is more convenient to use the special mats designed for these purposes.

Foam polystyrene mats film, or (and) foiled coated

Such mats, retaining all the advantages already mentioned polystyrene plates have the advantage that they are, in fact, a complete design - drawing on them with foil and film layer eliminatesthe need to lay on top of "penofol" type substrate.

We can only put these mats on the floor, close to dock them together (this is often provided for locking sipes), and then glue on the joint line.Moreover, some models are already equipped with this protruding edge of the film coating with self-adhesive base, disguised protective substrate.That is, in this case, and do not need a waterproof adhesive tape.

Such mats can be produced in the form of separate panels, as shown in the figure above.A more convenient - to purchase items, consisting of individual fragments of well-matched to each other and connected by a common film-coated foiled, in the form of rolled up the roll, similar to a caterpillar tractor, or folded by the type of children's book.

When rolling out such a mat on the floor surface once locked on a large surface area, and some polystyrene blocks at once the most densely adjoin one another.Very quickly it creates a well-insulated and waterproofed surface for stacking circuits "warm floor".

The top film coating is applied to a grid of lines in increments of 50 ÷ 100 mm - it is extremely useful for unfolding of pipes in accordance with a pre-designed pattern -easily withstand a necessary step paving.

Fixing pipes to the mat can be made such as staples, harpoons, which were discussed above.However, there may be other methods of fixation - with the installation of mounting plates with a tying reinforcing grid, etc.- How convenient wizard.

Options	PS 50125	«Energoflex Energofloor Tacker TA»	«Penoroll - 35" (based on XPS)	«Rehau Rautak»
Illustration
Thermal conductivity, W / m × ° C	0.036	0.034	0.032	0.035
Dynamic strength, kgf / cm²	3,0	5,5	6,0	5,0
sound reduction dB	23	23	27	25
The dimensions, mm:
- width	1000	1000	600	1000
- the length of the roll	5000	2000 (roll or 'book »)	5000	to 12000 (roll or' book»)
- thickness	25	25	20	20 to 70
- grid step	50	50	100	50

Profiled base mat

Similarmats can be safely attributed to the most convenient - they are specially designed just for pipe laying circuits "warm floor".

They are also made from expanded polystyrene, but for gidropellentnoy stamping technology that provides high density and reliable retention of the specified forms.And their main distinguishing feature - the presence on the top plane of the special profile elements - the so-called bosses in the form of cylinders, parallelepipeds or other volumetric shapes.