As I mentioned in my last post, we needed to make some progress on the radiant installation. We’re using in-floor radiant heating for the basement, first, and second floors, with radiators in the attic. The basement has tubing in the concrete slab, but on the first and second floors, this takes the form of plywood panels with aluminum backing. The first step is to design the layout, followed by cutting and fitting the panels to match that layout. The next steps are to apply a bead of caulk and run the pex tubing in the track, perform a pressure test, and then connect the manifold for each floor to the boiler in the basement mechanical room.

Starting layout in the suite bathroom

Sarah and I got started installing the radiant panels on the second floor. Then our nephews, Aaron and David, came down to pitch in. We managed to get all of the panels for the second floor installed, with only a couple small deviations from the plan where measurements were slightly off. We got into a routine where I measured and laid out panels, Aaron cut the needed pieces to length on the chop saw, and David followed us a room behind with collated screw gun.

I was pleased with how smoothly most of this process went, since usually we quickly discover unexpected complications. The trickiest part was where the lines converge at the manifold. the manufacturer recommends putting the converging pex lines into thinset or buying a fancy panel, but instead I used the router to add some additional tracks to the panels. There were also a couple of places where we needed the path needed to bend a bit to fit through a doorway. We have six lines running down the hallway (supply and return from three loops), which didn’t quite fit through the door.

Panels and loops

We also had a couple of moments where we had to re-trace the path of the tubing a couple of times to be sure we had it right. The curved return track pieces can go either direction, so it’s not obvious how things will route with a glance. Sarah even brought up a ball of yarn to lay out in the track to keep things straight.

Squiggly corners, more panels

I’ve started filling in the plywood strips and we’ll get the tubing installed and pressure tested. We’re hoping to knock out the first floor this weekend, and hopefully get the system powered up and heating the house before too long. To do that we still have to reconfigure the core in the mechanical room, which will be a nerve-wracking undertaking, since we’ll lose heat during the process.