Project "Kitchen Installation"

When my husband Greg, who works as a Sales Manager for WarmlyYours, told me he wanted to install new tile and radiant floor heating in our kitchen, I was both excited and a bit concerned. My concern was not about getting the new tile or radiant floor heating, but was centered more around Greg doing the installation by himself. Greg's fairly handy, but by no means is he in the same league as a professional flooring installer. In addition, we have busy schedules as the parents of two kids and both of us working full time. I was worried that the disruption to our lives would not be worth it.

The project started out smoothly. We measured our kitchen and received a custom installation plan, as I am told all of WarmlyYours' customers do. With a little help from our friends and family, we cleaned out the kitchen and were ready to remove our old flooring.

Greg took a day or two to remove the old flooring, and the radiant heat rolls installed easily in one morning. Up to this point, things had gone very well. However, just as I expected, things did slow down. Greg got busy with work, the kids got busy with activities, and the tile went in a bit at a time, instead of quickly as Greg had planned. Before I knew it, days had passed and I still did not have a kitchen to use. Approximately two weeks later, the project was done. I vowed to talk Greg into letting a pro do the job next time, and promised myself that we would not be taking on other remodeling projects any time too soon.

We live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and without the floor warming the floor was extremely cold. I wore my slippers whenever I was in the kitchen. After waiting two weeks for the floor to cure, Greg programmed the thermostat and turned the system on. After forty minutes or so, the floor was warm and toasty. Immediately, it was extremely pleasant to walk on, which I expected. Once we lived with a warm floor for a while, I changed my tune about waiting to remodel other rooms, or letting Greg take on another project.

Besides warm feet, there were other benefits to having a warm floor that were totally unexpected. For one, the tile actually felt softer to walk on. I can’t explain this, but warmth somehow diminished the hardness of the tile. The most striking benefit is how much warmth the radiant heating brought to the entire room. I can not believe how much warmer the kitchen is now as compared to the rest of the house. When I spend more than a few minutes in the kitchen, I can actually feel a temperature difference when I walk into another room. The kitchen was always a gathering point in our house, but now it has become my favorite room. Our bulldog loves it too! She would rather lay on the warm kitchen tile than the carpet right next to it.

Even if it takes Greg longer than I would like, I now want WarmlyYours heated floors installed in all of our bathrooms. It's made our kitchen so much more comfortable that I would gladly be willing to put up with the disruption of a remodel.

Greg, I am sure you will read this, so get ready to roll up your sleeves and get started on our next project.