Your partner got up in the middle of the night and right away those cold toes are attacking your territory with the persistence of a heat-seeking projectile. Fortuitous for you, the new home will have radiant floor heat – a dependable remedy for encounters with icy feet at 2 in the morning or a midwinter chill that touches your bone marrow.

Under-floor heat has been in use since the Roman Empire when it was in its heyday in public buildings and the villas of the well-to-do. Hot air was distributed under tile or brick, providing a radiant warmth – energy that transferred heat through the flooring and along to cooler objects like Roman recumbant chairs, statues, marble-topped tables and frosty centurions.

With the coming of flexible PEX piping in the United States in the 1980s, its use has jumped as more products have been created for the construction industry – among which have been hydronic arrangements to furnish radiant floor heating. Unlike forced-air furnaces, up-to-date hydro floor systems utilizing PEX plumbing products offer more consistent warmth to a room, are less drying, more capable and a whole lot quieter than older furnaces or metal steam pipes.

PEX tubing is constructed of cross-linked polyethylene, which gives these high tech pipes durability, chemical resistance, superior mobility, a cost-effective installment profile and better temperature adaptability. This polyethylene tubing can be used with water as high as 200° Fahrenheit in heat arrangements.

There are various methods of installing radiant floor heat. Some use electrical line voltage systems, but easy-to-use PEX piping products have made hydronic under-floor heat fashionable with both home builders and house owners. Because the piping is so resilient, its rolls can be applied in a continual distance, getting rid of the requirement for multiple junctions and fittings.

Numerous radiant floor heating systems use oxygen-barrier PEX radiant piping employed in gypsum concrete. Others comprise low-mass underlay – wood panels with recessed niches for flexible piping.

Every reconstruction or new-construction project is best accommodated by one method or another, so look into your hydronic floor heat options fully. Do your preparation!