Joist Trak, Heatlink, or homemade "sandwich" style radiant heating?

We have a narrow brownstone we purchased which doesn’t have any heat at all and all of the walls, subfloors and joist are exposed. We are on a tight budget and trying to decide on the best type of radiant heat panel type system for our money. We already have pre existing subfloors. After reading as much as I can on this topic, I know warmboard is the best but way out of our budget. We also priced Quik Trak which isn’t much cheaper and I have read mixed reviews on the product due to smaller PEX tubing when our plumber is suggesting 1/2 inch PEX. To keep cost down on our system (which is a 4 story 3 family) my contractors plumber suggest “making” a sandwich system or using Heatlink. After doing a search online, I have not come up with much info on the product. We have decided to defiantly go the radiant heat route for the space saving alone, so while I do know cast iron will be suggested here, we have taken it out of consideration. I also know a half A$$ radiant heating system isn’t the best idea either. Many people have been successful making their own systems. Should i be weary about this? What about the Joist Trak product? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

stuyheights

in Heating 10 years and 10 months ago

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stuyheights | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Hi Midwoodflyer- I actually ended up going a completely different route. After careful thought and consideration, I decided to go with a much different system. Radiant is amazing but it is costly to put in. Thermofin was nice but they took a very long time to get back to me, and it was about 1400 bucks or so just to design the system, plus big bucks for shipping. It came to about 12 grand or so for my 4 floors and after thinking about it, it really didn’t accomplish what I was looking to do. Since we had a full gut going on, all the walls were open, and we were doing AC anyway, I decided to incorporate heat and AC into one unit. This saved me a small fortune. I didn’t need a boiler- and I really wanted everyone to pay their own utilities. After speaking with many owners of multi family properties, they said that is the biggest regret they had. If I put everyone on their own dime, I would need 3 boilers, even if I only did radiant in the duplex. My chimney couldn’t handle that much BTUs I saved over 20 grand doing it this way and with so much else going on, we really couldn’t afford to do it any other way. Everyone pays their own utilities. All I will have to pay is water. I don’t think this would work in anything but a gut reno, but I decided to do the mitsubishi units on the top floors (rental units) and I did a 98% efficient furnace with central air in our duplex with no ducts or soffits. All floor grills coming up from the cellar. It made sense to do it this way, and I think we will be happy with that decision.

midwoodflyer | 10 years and 9 months ago

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How did you make out with ThermoFin? Did you decide on what product/method for your radiant floors?

stuyheights | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you for the replies. I have contacted Thermofin and sent them the plans and im waiting for a quote.

edificerex | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Thermofin is a much better system than Quik Trak. QT is not worth the price. Most emission plates are very thin. Thermofin is much thicker and more effective at transferring heat Thermofin is DIY friendly and can be used above or below the floor. Above is more effective. I prefer 1/2′ pex because you have longer loops but 3/8 works fine if you keep it short. With 1/2″ be sure to keep the loops well less than 300 Ft and roughly the same lengths with shorter loops at exterior walls. Also be sure to insulate below the tubing. If you have a poorly insulated house or rooms with a very high heat loss radiant may not put out enough heat without excessively hot water. You need to do a load calculation if this is your only source of heat.

arch007 | 10 years and 9 months ago

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It can be done sandwich, I have seen it. They used 3/8″ PEX with 1/2″ plywood strips. Not sure what the reflective material was if any. 3/8″ can make a tighter radius so the lines can be closer together. This has been in place for 3 years and no complaints. Ripping the plywood strips goes very fast. They use a block of wood to standardize the spacing. This gives you flexibility in where the lines go. Also the flooring installer would not guarantee anything but an engineered floor. http://nyc-dob.com

snowman2 | 10 years and 9 months ago

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I used Thermofin to heat a 2 story addition to the back of my brownstone. It was easy to install between the joists and easy to snap the pex into the channel. It was a 2 person job. The most complicated part was the education and planning – it was a diy project. It’s been 10 years of comfortable heat. The extruded aluminum fits tightly against the subfloor and the pex fits tightly in the track channel so it is very effective at transferring the heat. Be sure to insulate well between floors. You didn’t ask but my finish floor is strip oak – maybe 3 1/2″. I would not do a homemade method which I decided would be labor intensive and much less effective. I’m not familiar with the other methods you mentioned except for Warmboard. Yes, it is expensive and it is also very inflexible. Positioning the Thermofin where it needed to be after the ply subfloor was installed was much easier than trying to get the floor installers to get the Warmboard in the right configuration. Ex, in the kitchen I did not install it under appliances or under the island. I think that would be even more critical in a small space. To my mind Warmboard is designed for a sprawling suburban place.

stuyheights | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you Dave. So i have been told. I don’t believe the Quik Trak comes in that size, so im in search for the best panel system to install it, without breaking the bank. Ive read the Joist Trak is very good as well, but its more labor intensive to install. Catch 22

daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Do not use PEX smaller than 1/2″. Totally inefficient