How To Make An Electric Heated Bathroom Floor With Your Own Hands

Step-by-step installation of a warm floor

Planning

Following the time-tested wisdom, it is necessary to measure seven times before proceeding to decisive actions for installing a warm floor. At the planning stage, it should be taken into account that the heating foil should be laid on those areas of the floor that will not be covered by furniture or household appliances. If the configuration of such a space presents a complex shape, it would be nice to display the future installation plan on paper.

Here is an installation plan for our bathroom.

1 - bath; 2 - curbstone; 3 - IR film

From the picture it becomes clear that to organize a warm floor, three strips of film are needed, each about 650–700 mm long. Based on this, we purchase 2 meters of infrared film, 500 mm wide.

Training

Tool:

1. A breadboard knife will be needed to cut the insulating material.
2. Scissors are required to cut the infrared film to the desired length.
3. A screwdriver with a voltage indicator will come in handy at the stage of electrical installation.
4. Pliers will be needed to clamp the cable in the contacts of the film to be mounted.

Materials:

1. Heat-reflecting substrate (preferably, the square of the substrate matches the square of the room). A special film based on foamed rubber can act as thermal insulation, but in most cases, foam insulation is sufficient.
2. Mounting kit (the number of mounting kits must correspond to the number of mounting tapes). The installation kit includes lugs for connecting the power cable and pieces of bitumen insulating tape.
3. Adhesive tape for attaching strips of film to each other and to the thermal insulation layer.
4. Assembly wire. It is advisable to use PVC-insulated stranded copper conductor. The cross-section of the conductors in our case should be 1.5 mm ².
5. Temperature regulator. This electronic device is designed to automatically maintain a preset temperature using a sensor that comes with it. The regulator can be purchased in the same place where you decided to purchase the heating foil.
6. You will need a plastic wrap to waterproof the heating elements. Its area corresponds to the square of the room.
7. Reinforcing mesh will be used as a base for laying tiles.
8. Hammer-in dowels (for attaching a reinforcing mesh).

After preparing the necessary tools and materials, you should clean the floor surface from dust and debris, dry it and then level it if there are significant irregularities.

Laying the thermal insulation layer

Performing this operation, it is necessary to lay the thermal insulation on the surface and connect the strips of the thermal insulator with adhesive tape to each other. A temperature sensor must be placed in the joint between the thermal insulation strips, which must also be secured with tape.

The sensor wire must be brought along a strobe or box to the place where the regulator is installed.

Heating foil installation and wiring

The film is laid at a distance of at least 20 cm from the wall with an interval of 3–5 cm between strips.

From the side of installation (usually closer to the place of installation of the thermostat), we attach the terminals for connecting the supply wire to the copper strips of the heating film, insert the wire into them and firmly clamp it in the tip with pliers.

Each connection point is insulated with two pieces of bituminous tape (one is placed under the contact and the other on top). Reliable insulation is a guarantee of trouble-free operation of the warm floor.

The strips should be connected in parallel. The reverse sides of the copper busbars, to which the conductors were not connected, should also be insulated with bitumen insulating tape.

Installing and checking the thermostat

After the installation has been completed, the wires coming from the infrared films should be connected to the thermostat, as well as the temperature sensor. After the final check of the correctness of the connection, you can apply voltage and test the operation of the warm floor.

Completing the installation

After making sure that the system is operational and the correct response to a change in the set temperature, you can proceed to the final part of the installation. The entire system is covered with plastic wrap and reinforcing mesh, which are fixed to the floor in the spaces between the infrared foil with hammer-in dowels. The surface is then ready for tiling. Underfloor heating manufacturers recommend gluing the tiles to a 10-15 mm glue layer.

A few words about further operation

The advantage of underfloor heating is that almost no maintenance is required after installation. The only element that needs to be serviced or replaced is the thermostat. But we hope that it will serve you for a long time and reliably.