Heat your bathroom floor

There is a tendency among most people to expect a warm hospitable bathroom. They say that the pervading warmth under the feet in the bathroom tile or stone flooring gives a great start to the day. It is certainly not difficult to achieve this as all it requires is to have radiant heat in the bathroom floor and the redeeming news is it is quite inexpensive and affordable.

Glass, ceramic, porcelain, stone, marble, granite and slate floors make good choices for bathroom heated floors because they are great conductors of heat. Even stone as thick as three quarters of an inch transfers heat without a problem.

Many bathrooms invariably have tiled flooring and it is to be expected that the tiled bathroom floor is cold under the feet and can at times be rather uncomfortable. People who find bathroom tiled floor too cold can remedy the situation by installing radiant floor heat.

Many home owners may be interested to know about some of the features and benefits of radiant heat. For a small sized bathroom of size 200 square feet, an electric mat under the tile floor is the most economical heating method.
You can ask the contractor to initially draw a template of the bathroom floor on a piece of paper and send it to the manufacturer, who will make and send the customized electric mat to the required size. Once the mat is received, summon an electrician to install the electric mat. For providing electrical current, you usually need a 20-amp GFCI dedicated circuit with 110 volts.

There are two types of radiant heat you can choose from for installing under your bathroom floors. Electric is perhaps the more economical type of radiant heat as it merely means placing electric coils under the floor. These can be bought and come in patches and any professional electrician will be able to install.

The ready to install kit from the manufacturer usually includes a thermostat and a timer. With the timer, one can set t it to heat the floor during pre-determined hours. This flexibility of hours is especially necessary as bathrooms do not need heated floors when not in use. 

The second type of radiant heat floors is hydronic heat which entails putting pipes underneath the bathroom floor. The pipe has warm water passing through it, which in turn heats the floor. The inherent risk with pipes is the running water may leak leading to some major complications. Radiant heat with hydronic tubing is certainly not cost-effective for small bathrooms because of the expense of the boiler or hot water heater, it can be considered for large-sized bathrooms.

You must certainly be aware that the value of your home will increase with radiant heat bathroom floors. Providing radiant heat bathroom floors will make the home easier to sell when the time comes. Homes that are equipped with radiant heat bathroom floors today enjoy a distinct advantage. Building professionals opine that heated bathroom floors keep the floors warmer than any forced-air heating system.

Whatever method of heating one ultimately choose, it is worth having floors with radiant heat, at least in the bathroom. Having heated floors in the bathroom may initially appear as a luxury, but you will ever be able to enjoy the comfort and once you have installed it.

Heated floors are quite economical to maintain as they consume negligible electricity. Many contractors estimate the cost of operating electically heated floors at a mere ten cents per day.