Radiant Floor Leak Concrete Slab

If enough water seeps into the concrete floor it can also cause discoloration.

Radiant floor leak concrete slab.

A slab leak can also affect your garage flooring. The system works via pex pipe a small pump a water heater and a thermostat. Many homes today in various parts of the country are built with concrete and in floor radiant heating in concrete slabs and homes dating back to the 1950s as. Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided.

This series article discusses the suitability of various tubing materials for radiant heated concrete floor slabs and choices of heat conducting fluids for radiant floors. The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab. This is about installing hydronic radiant floor heating in a slab floor system. 5 8 barrier pex can be used for larger projects where high btu load is present due to lack of proper insulation larger than normal slab thickness or special project considerations.

This article explains how to avoid some fatal mistakes when installing radiant heat in a concrete floor slab by describing an incompetent radiant heat floor installation along with an explanation of why things went wrong and how to avoid these errors. Pipe leaks within concrete i e slab leaks are identifiable with a thermal imaging camera but due to a variety of influential factors they aren t always identifiable unless you know what to look for and have the right tools. If you can operate the system an infrared camera is helpful in finding the leaks. They are usullally found in places where the tubing was not pulled up during the pour or at the manifold locations.

Radiant heat can be an electrical heating element embedded into a very thin concrete overlay then tiled carpeted or have wood flooring installed over it. The leaks are usually not in the pex encased in concrete. What causes leaks in tubing or piping used for radiant heat in floor slabs and what repair options make sense when the radiant heat system is leaking. Quite simply concrete floor radiant heat is a system of pex tubes that carry hot water throughout a concrete floor or slab.

A drop in water pressure. For concrete floor radiant heating systems the warm water tubing or electric heating elements can either be embedded within the slab on grade anywhere from the bottom of the slab to within 2 inches of the surface depending on the design and installation technique or fastened to the top of a concrete subfloor and then covered with an overlay. This size is adequate for all small to medium size jobs both in residential and commercial projects. 1 2 oxygen barrier pex is the most popular size used for radiant floor heating in both thick and thin slabs.

The floors inside your house aren t the only property susceptible to water damage.