My brother leaves in Fargo, North Dakota. I was with him last winter and it was brutal, especially for a guy coming from Miami, FL. Although they have pretty good heating systems, it was always uncomfortable to step out of the shower and put your feet on a cold ceramic tile. So, after discussing it with my brother we decided to install a heated ceramic floor on his bathroom. I am sure you can find somebody in your town that will install a heated ceramic floor but besides the good amount of money you will have to shed for this project you will never be sure that the job was well done. That it is why I always like to do certain things myself. Installing a heated ceramic floor is an easy task today even for the person which is new to the whole do-it-yourself thing. As a matter of fact, neither of my brother or me had experience installing a heated ceramic floor before. All we have done in and around the house is painting. In the source section of this article you will find some web sites we looked for information on heated ceramic floor systems.
Installing a heated ceramic floor is not a difficult project. You will not need special tools besides the ones needed to install tiles. Of course you will need tiles, cement for tiles and the specially designed materials for the heating system, which is basically a meshed material. The one we used were fiberglass meshed rolls.
Since we already had tile in the bathroom we had to remove them which was not difficult. A hammer and some noise, work and dust did the job. Then, we cleaned good the floor and removed all the old tile cement the best we could. Cleaned again and the surface was ready to install the new heated ceramic floor.
To install the heating system we rolled out the fiberglass meshed rolls all over the cleaned floor. Then we cut the fibreglass meshed material to make them fit around pipes. (Be careful not to cut the electrical heating element which is pretty visible). We then glued the material to the cement floor and let it dry overnight.
The next day we placed a thin layer of tile cement over the heating meshed material and let it dry for half a day. Then we started to install the new tiles as you will do it anywhere. You put some more tile cement over the dry surface, level, and press down the tiles.
Then it was time for the electricity installation. At this point we decide to call a friend who did a nice job installing the electrical unit of the heated ceramic floor. I recommend you do not try to do it yourself unless you know about electricity. We were fortunate this guy did it for almost free since he is a good friend of the family but you can find reputable electricians in your area that will do the job fast and easy. We used a dedicated thermostat only for the heated ceramic floor. (WARNING: Do not wire the heated ceramic floor to the primary heating unit)
I have to say that installing a heated ceramic floor is an easy project that can be done in a couple of days for a small bathroom. A kitchen probably will need some more planning and time but it was wonderful to step out of the shower and put your feet on a warm heated ceramic floor.
Sources:
Delta-Therm (www.Delta-therm.com)
WarmUp (www.Warmup.com)
