One of the nicest features you can have in your home is an underfloor heating system. This is nice in bathrooms, dens and other rooms you may be walking around in barefoot so you can always have warm flooring and never have to put up with a freezing cold floor. You could hire a professional company to do the work for you, but if you would rather take the job on yourself and save some money, it is not impossible. This is not a simple project, but as long as you have a few friends there to help you out you can get it done no problem.

You can take on DIY electric underfloor heating systems yourself if you take the time to learn more about it and have the right materials. First you need to take up the existing flooring. The heating coils go underneath the subflooring so this all has to be pulled up. If you are renovating the whole room anyway, this really will not matter much because you will need to redo the floors anyway. This would actually be to your benefit because then you wouldn’t need to be so careful when pulling the floors up, which means you can get it done a lot faster.

The next step is designing a plan for the heating coils. They should be placed under the floor in an “S” shape, as this helps keep space in between the coils so heat can move through them and not have any blockage.

You can purchase an underfloor heating kit that comes included with everything you need to get started. Once you have the heating coils set you can put the flooring back down on top and you will never see the heating system at all. It is a completely invisible system and you simply use the control panel to turn the heat in the floor higher and lower as you please.

Getting a leg up on power bills is a huge concern to most homeowners today, and having older less efficient central heating systems, or oil burning furnaces really run up the monthly bills in the winter season. Since most people change out their flooring about every ten to fifteen years in their home, you should really look into adding an underfloor heating system before your new Travertine tile is installed. You will not only realize lower electric heating bills in the near future, but you will also have a new comfort level that you would never think was possible before.  But exactly what is underfloor heating?  A good question.

This project will be a lot easier than you think, as the flooring company you will purchase your tiles from probably already installs these heating systems as well. If not they will have a close relationship with a contractor that is well versed in installing the webbed matting before the floors being put into place.  Be sure and check out the different systems to see which will be an affordable match for your home, and family’s comfort. This will be a win-win situation as when people do this sort of project and want to retain their current floor it will actually cost more for them, then having the floor replaced due to the extra time involved in removing the current floor without damaging the materials.

By adding extra sub floor insulation before the new appliance is installed you will reap even more cost cutting benefits in the future since the insulated material will help direct the heat source in a more upward flow than heating the underside or foundation of your home. A combination of cork matting and some spray on foam insulating material will seal up the area to guarantee the heat flow will be aimed at you and not the earth.

By installing thermostats in each zone or room,  the settings can be tweaked to accommodate the heating requirements of different family members, and also for rooms that are do not share an exterior wall in your home, they can be usually set lower, as they do not have to fight the cold weather outside as much as the other rooms. Once the tiles are heated to your requirements it doesn’t take as much electricity to main those levels, and this will cost considerably less than having your central unit having turn on and off more than usual. The setting on the forced air system will be able to be lowered after the electric underfloor heating system is in place, so you may not even see an increase at all in the next month’s power bill after project is completed.