A Step-by-Step Guide to Heated Luxury Vinyl Floors

All right, I think we are all set.

Can everybody see me? I can see you.

Awesome.

I can see you.

Okay.

I can.

I think we are all set.

All right.

Let me just get this all figured out here.

Slideshow.

All right.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much everybody for joining us.

My name is Lynn.

I'm a Customer Service Rep here at WarmlyYours.

I am joined today by the ever wonderful.

Scott, and thank you for joining us everybody.

Absolutely.

So today we're going to be going over really a step-by-step guide to heating luxury vinyl floors.

So if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to type them either in the chat or there's going to ask a question module or feature usually near the bottom of the screen.

So just type them in there.

If we don't see your questions right away, we'll definitely get to them by the end of the presentation.

So today we're going to be going over just kind of some general information about our floor heating products.

And then we're going to be taking a look at an actual example project.

We're going to talk about the FlexRoll product that was used in this project, go over the installation process and steps, and then at the end we're going to look at the cost as well.

So LVT is obviously becoming incredibly popular.

And I think as it just gains popularity, people are really interested in heating underneath it.

Scott, can you tell us what the draw is to LVT and why someone would want to add heat to that space? I think because every store you walk into is just loaded with LVT.

Things have definitely changed.

It's a shiny new object.

And I guess it's a combination of durability and cost, the ease of installation.

It's easier to install LVT than it is laminate because of the tools involved.

And that sort of thing.

So it's just taking over the marketplace.

And because of that, it has special requirements that you need to follow when you're installing it.

And we're going to be going over those today, things you need to look for, things you need to ask because it's a great product, but it does have installation requirements and limitations.

So you just have to watch out for that.

So even though it's scuff-stain and scratch-resistant, just like it says here on the slide, you do have to take special note of things that you need to look at and work on when you're doing the installation.

And they warm up nicely.

You know, it's nice to walk on a warm floor when it's cold outside.

So LVT looks great.

It's easy to install.

And the cost is attractive, and it's a good-looking product.

Absolutely.

So looking at the different types of floor heating products on the market, really, there is one that tends to be the best when paired with LVT, and that's our TempZone systems.

So, Scott, can you kind of tell us why that's the case or why TempZone is what you should be looking for? Well, a lot of people, I'll give you this bit of advice.

When people come to our website, and our website's kind of broken down by, do you want to do a tile or some sort of floor that you're going to install with Thinset, or do you want to do, like, a floating floor, like a laminate? Well, people go, well, the LVT that I'm going to be buying is going to be a floating.

So I'm going to choose the Environ because that's the product that you use for floating floors.

Well, the Environ FlexRoll is used for floating laminate floors and for stretch-in carpet if you're in the United States.

So just because, don't look for the word floating because floating is going to send you down the wrong path if you're talking about LVT.

And we're going to be talking about that here in a little while.

What makes it different to laminate? Why does it install differently than laminate? Those are the things you have to look out for.

So that's why we're going to be doing this today and why the TempZone FlexRoll or the TempZone Cable is the product to use when you're doing an LVT installation.

It's the product to use when you're doing an LVT install and not the product that we made specifically for floating floors.

So very, very important to take note why there are differences because just like you know, Lynn, every single day we get a call saying, I want to use Environ with LVT because my LVT is going to float.

And it's not going to be the product you want.

So that's why we're here today.

Yes, that is what we're doing.

And I think this is a really great way to really get an idea of how you'll be putting heat in the floor and really the steps of that.

So if we're going over a concrete slab, Scott, can you kind of tell us what this underlayment is and why it comes into play? Concrete sub floors love to pull the heat down.

That's why you never, ever install the floor heating cable directly on the concrete because the heat will go down into the concrete slab before it goes up to your feet.

And you are going to the trouble of installing this product because you want your feet warm.

You don't want your slab warm under three or four layers.

So what we do is we isolate the wire from the slab, makes the heat go up, not down, and it goes into the room, not into your concrete slab.

So the thermal sheet underlayment is a synthetic cork.

And notice how we don't use cork here.

We use synthetic cork because cork will absorb some water.

And if cork absorbs the water, it's going to go like that.

And you don't want that under your floor.

So the thermal sheet does not expand when it gets wet.

So it's the perfect product to attach to the concrete sub floor.

And what you use is just regular modified thinset to attach it to the sub floor.

Then you put on top of the thermal sheet, you put the TempZone product, either the cable or the FlexRoll.

It doesn't really matter which one.

And then what you do is the TempZone or the cables have to be affixed to the thermal sheet really, really well, or they will float to the top.

Self-leveling cement is very, very dense.

Almost anything that it pours over wants to float to the top.

It wants to escape.

So what happens is you have to hold the TempZone down.

And the thing to do that is with hot glue.

Hot glue is the best thing to attach it to the thermal sheet.

It'll glue it down.

Also, people ask every single day, do I attach this mat with the wires facing up or do I attach it with the wires facing down? What you want is the wires facing down because if the wires, if you take a look at the three white pieces of tape there on each side, that holds the cable to the mesh.

If you turn the mesh over and the cable is sitting on top, what happens is the cable wants to go up.

So the ends, the loops at the end go up to the top.

So that's why you have to put it under because then you can use the mesh to hold it all down.

So that's very, very important to install it cable side down.

If you're using our TempZone FlexRoll, cover it with a half inch of self-leveling.

That's going to give you a nice flat surface.

And we're going to talk about why it's so important to be flat later.

And then you put the luxury vinyl tile or the planks or whatever you want, whatever the term is for the product that you have and lay that on the flat surface.

All right, and here is the slide we've promised talking about really why you want to embed that heat in that self-leveling cement.

And I think this is a really great picture illustrating what we call drape or kind of it's the issue with laminate that makes it different than, or I should say issue with vinyl that makes it different than laminate, correct? That is correct.

It starts to conform to whatever's under it.

So if you've ever walked into an old business that had those square vinyl tiles and then you see somebody put a new vinyl tile floor on top of it, over a year or two, you'll start to see the lines of the old tiles working their way through the top of the tiles.

So that's what happens is that the vinyl drapes over whatever's below it.

So if you put our Environ product, which is wire and reinforced mesh, eventually that is going to sink and sink and it's going to conform to that.

And you'll start to see the lines in the flooring and you don't want that.

So, and you're going to feel the lumps.

So that's the big difference between laminate and LVT is the drape.

And you can see what happens over time.

This is a picture that we actually just did ourselves over the span of a day and you can see what happens.

And that's the difference between laminate and LVT.

Yes, I think that's a really good illustration and definitely gets the point across.

And then when you're looking at heating beneath LVT, you obviously want to be talking to your LVT manufacturer.

We've talked about this a little bit already.

There's a lot of things you want to be looking for specifically.

Can you kind of walk us through what you want when you're picking out LVT for over floor heating? Yeah, you don't want, if you're going to the trouble of installing a heated floor, you don't want to put something on top that has a high R value.

That's going to block the heat from getting up to the floor.

So what we're looking for is whether it's cork or whether it's rubber or whatever the other product is, you're looking for an R value of that plank of less than one.

One or less is what you're looking for because that's going to let the heat pass through and get into the room itself.

So we had a question from, let's see here, from Connie.

Connie asks, what's the best backing for the LVP when installing a heated floor? The answer to that is, whichever one has the least amount of R value.

So a lot of times slab rubber is, slab rubber conducts more heat than cork does or that those blue foams or those other foams, you don't want to put something between the LVT and the heat.

Also, a lot of people ask, okay, I've got this LVT and I've got the heated subfloor, what pad do I put in between there? The best thing is no pad.

Best thing is just to use the backing on your plank because the more stuff you put on top of the heat, the more it keeps it in the subfloor and not coming up to the flooring itself.

So you also have to ask them, this is where I think we might as well do it here.

These are the questions you have to ask and then we'll talk about it later because it's so important.

The questions you have to ask the manufacturer is, does this LVT or LVP or whatever it is, is it okay to use with radiant heat? Most of them are now.

You just have to check the warranty card or you have to go into the installation instructions.

It's also going to tell you what the maximum temperature is that they allow.

Is it 82? Is it 83? Is it 80? Is it 87? That'll be in the installation instructions.

So Pam had sent us a question, what brands or product lines by company allow this? It changes every day, Pam, so I can't even begin to tell you, but I can tell you that if you find the product you like and you go on their website and download the installation instructions, usually in the first page, in the first paragraph, you do a search for radiant and nine times out of 10, it'll say it's okay.

It'll just say that it has to be embedded or it needs to be separated from the heat by half an inch.

That's telling you, that's why we're talking about the self-leveling.

That half inch of self-leveling is going to help with two requirements that they have.

The flatness requirement, you'll see that in the installation instructions also.

And it also deals with the product must be separated from the heat by half an inch.

Those two reasons are the reason why we do this installation this way.

And that's why Environ won't work because first of all, it's not flat.

And second of all, it's touching the LVT planks.

So those are the reasons why, and Pam and Connie, thank you so much for sending those questions because it's, and these are the questions we get every single day.

And I'm glad you sent them because it reminds us to talk about it.

So that's what we're talking about.

When you're interested in a floor, talk to the manufacturer or go on their website, look at the installation instructions and do a control F or a command F depends on your Apple or Microsoft and do a search for radiant.

And nine times out of 10, their instructions will say radiant, here's what you need to do.

And we're gonna talk about it a little bit later, but very, very important because we get this question every day.

Yes, we definitely do.

And you had kind of touched on this earlier, Scott.

The temperature limit is something that will be determined by that manufacturer of the flooring.

So again, that's really why we recommend reaching out to them, talking to them, getting the manual, looking through it carefully, making sure that you know of any temperature maximums.

Can you kind of tell us what your options are when setting a temperature limit on a thermostat? Yeah, it's pretty much whatever you wanna set it to.

You can do custom there at the bottom and you can set it to 81 or 83 or whatever it is.

If the laminate people, or the laminate, if the LVT people say 82, then you just check on laminate because it'll be 82.

And that'll mean no matter what temperature you try to get it in the room, I wanna set it to 99, it'll get to 82 and stop.

That way it won't overheat your LVT.

And also one of the questions that you wanna ask the manufacturer is, do they allow setbacks? And setbacks are what a programmable thermostat will allow you to set back the temperature or lower the temperature when no one's home and raise the temperature when people are going to be walking on it.

So a lot of times during the day you turn it down and then at night when no one's walking on it, overnight you turn it down.

Well, some companies say you only have a deviation of two or three degrees per day.

So if that's the case, you can buy a programmable, you can buy a programmable thermostat but you can't use it to program it because you can't set it any, if it says 82, that means it has to be either 79 or within that amount.

That's all you can do.

So that's another thing you wanna look for is setback.

Setback is the temperature you can lower it to when no one's around.

If they say two to three degree differential per day, that's it, then you can't set it back.

Yes, good information to have.

And then we're looking at the example project.

I think this is one of our really most beautiful projects that we've done in a while.

It's a really great example of a Tamsen flexural heating system that's going over a concrete slab on a subfloor.

And this is a bedroom slash office space in a basement that was up in Toronto, Ontario.

And you can see this is the smart plan that started the whole thing.

This is the layout plan and kind of giving you a good game plan going into the installation.

So can you kind of tell us what we're looking at when we're looking at a smart plan? Yeah, the first thing that screams to me is it tells us what size of products being installed.

There in the lower left-hand corner, you can see roll number one.

It's a one with a circle around it.

That matches up with the one with a circle on it over there where the triangle is.

That triangle is the start point.

And then in the upper left-hand corner is the end point.

That's where the square is.

So also notice on this plan that we don't heat 100% of this area.

There's a one foot perimeter pretty much around the entire space.

And that is because most people don't stand right up against the wall.

The idea here is to get the heat where people's feet hit.

So heat your feet, but don't bother heating the parts that don't touch your feet.

And keep in mind that heat only travels laterally, side to side, about an inch and a half.

So that's why you don't put a warm strip down the middle and expect it to spread out.

It doesn't do that.

The heat travels an inch and a half, and then it stops.

So you will see, like in the center, that may say 82 there in the center, and it may say 72 on the edges of the room.

So that's literally the difference that you can get.

So a perimeter around the room, normally we only heat about 80% of a space, not 100.

That helps you save money on the product, first of all.

Then it helps you save money on the operational costs, which we're going to talk about in a little bit.

Yeah, you don't need to be heating the entire space and spending that money if you're not utilizing it.

Or, I mean, it is a basement.

I guess you could go all the way to the wall.

Maybe someone's doing like a Blair Witch thing.

Just a thought.

So looking at this project overview, again, you can actually see in these dimensions how you had mentioned, Scott, generally you're going to be heating about 80% of the space.

So the total area of that room was 164 square feet, and we heated about 129 square feet of that area.

And then we'll also look at the power requirements.

That will be listed on that smart plan for you as well.

So you can see exactly what the required breakers will be and what the amperage and wattage will be for your system.

We'll also tell you what the operating costs will be based on, we will do it either based on your location or on an average of about 10 cents a kilowatt hour.

So for this system, we were looking at just about 8 cents an hour to heat the room, which means if you were using it eight hours a day, about 67 cents.

Yeah, could you go back to the plan? Just real quick, back one.

The cost of this plan is zero, costing nothing to get this plan done.

And this plan is usually done the next day.

Depends on holidays and stuff like that, or weekends, that kind of stuff.

But if you get this plan to, like if you send us a sketch on a napkin today, you'll probably have it tomorrow.

So you don't have to wait a long time.

You don't have to pay for it.

And the best thing is it tells you what product goes in, how many watts it is, how many amps it is, how many breakers you'll need.

That's all free.

It doesn't cost you anything.

So it's a great tool.

We suggest that everybody gets that because then what you really have to do when you look at this plan is verify your dimensions.

Because if you don't verify your dimensions, if you buy too much and you start cutting it and turning it and that sort of stuff, you can't cut the heating cable.

You can't shorten the roll.

You can't remove heating wire from the system.

Otherwise it will overheat and fail.

So that's why you have to make sure you get the correct size.

You don't buy just a big giant roll, roll it out into the room and then cut it off when you're done.

You can't do that.

It won't work.

So you would be amazed at the number of calls we get every week from people that go, yeah, my dimension, see that dimension on top says 15 feet? Really it's 12.

Well, if you change a dimension by three feet, this product's not going to fit in there anymore.

So that's why it's so important to verify the dimensions ahead of time before you start cutting and turning because then we can send you the correct size and we can redo the drawing for you.

And that way we make sure that you have the right size product because you cannot heat.

I mean, you cannot cut the heating wire.

And we'll work with you as much as needed to get this smart plant how you want it.

So if you receive it and you want it, you know, to have more coverage or less coverage or the dimensions have changed, we'll work with you on that.

We'll get that updated again, all for free and as quickly as we can.

Yeah, especially that T in a circle there at the bottom, that's the thermostat.

That's the location of the thermostat.

And notice how the thermostat is right near the beginning of role number one.

That's because it has to be in that general vicinity.

If you move your thermostat up to the right corner or over to the left corner, you're going to have, we're going to redo that plan for you so you can start it in the different location.

So that's very important to do too is to note the location of the thermostat, where your power is available.

Absolutely.

And then the system is going to be obviously embedded in self-leveling concrete.

So you want to make sure that you're installing a working system since it will be basically a permanent feature in that home.

So can you kind of tell us how to make sure that the system that you're putting in is working properly? Yeah, you need to get a digital ohmmeter.

The ohmmeter that you see in this picture was under $20 at a big box store.

Many people own them.

I have like four or five of them at home because I put them down and I forget where they are.

So, oh, it's 20 bucks.

I'll go to Brand X and buy one there.

And now I've just got a collection of these.

I'm old enough to, I hate to show my age here, but I'm old enough to remember when digital ohmmeters like this would cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars when they first came out.

It's not the case any longer that you can get them for under 20 bucks.

Please don't use the old fashioned one that we all had back when we were kids with the two probes and the needle on the front that goes back and forth.

That's, just say no.

Just say no to the needle because you don't want that analog meter because it's going to cause you nothing but pain and misery.

Get one of these digital meters.

And the idea with this digital meter is you want to be able to set the value on the front.

You say, oh, I'm gonna go out and buy a nice $300 auto-ranging meter.

You don't want an auto-ranging meter because they're very difficult to use because you have to have one setting for the heating product, which is usually around 200 ohms.

And then the thermostat tests at 20,000 ohms, which is 20K.

So your self-ranging meter may work when you're measuring the product, but when you're going to test your floor sensor, it won't see it.

That's the idea.

So what you want to do is you want to have a knob that you can turn to 200 to do your test on your floor heaters.

And then you want to be able to set that knob to 20A, which is 20,000.

So then you can test your sensor to make sure that it's good because you wouldn't believe the number of people that get these self-ranging meters.

They call us and go, yeah, my product tests good, but I can't get any reading from my thermostat sensor.

It's because they have an auto-ranging meter.

Go out and buy an inexpensive one where you can change the values on the knob, just like that one right there.

So the idea is to test it the day you get it also.

Don't wait until install it.

Like if you ordered this three months in advance, don't wait until installation day to test it.

Test it when you get it.

Make sure that it's good.

And then that way, if it is good, you can go, okay, everything's cool.

I'm going to sit on this until installation day.

When installation day comes along, you test it again, make sure everything is still good.

Fido didn't get in there and chew it all up or a rat didn't find it as its dining experience one night or anything like that where you can have damage.

And then you test it, make sure it's good.

Then you can lay the product out.

But the problem is you can't test it and lay the product out at the same time because you just don't have enough hands to do both.

So what you do is you test it, make sure it's good.

Then you take the circuit check, you put it on the wires and the circuit check does two things.

It tests for an open circuit and it tests for shorts.

So if you take your trowel and you skin the cable completely up, but don't create a short and don't create an open circuit, it won't scream at you.

You'll have to visually go, oops, I just made a boo-boo there and I'm going to need to call somebody.

But what it will do is say if you dropped a tile and all of a sudden you hear, you know, go off like that, it means that you smashed the ground into one of the wires that heats up and you created a short.

Or if you take and you drop your trowel and you cut it, which I've come very close to doing more than once, if you do that and you cut the wire, it'll scream at you too.

So what it does is you can't keep your hands on the meter the whole time.

So you test it, put the circuit check on.

Then when you're done laying the product out, take the circuit check off, test it again because the last thing you want to do is cover that non-working system with self-leveling.

So test it, make sure it's good.

Put the circuit check back on for the self-leveling.

Then at the end, do your test again and write those ohm numbers in your installation manual.

That's your record of a good install.

So get the meter, get a digital meter, get one that you can set with the DAB on the front and also do a circuit check.

That way you're going to have a good installation.

Yes, that's some of the, really the most basic stuff.

I think people are usually, that's where they try to cut corners.

And this is something where just get the right stuff, get it tested, make sure you're doing it the right way and you're going to be set.

So looking at the actual installation process, again, this was a Tempstone FlexRoll that's going underneath LVT and it's going over a concrete subfloor.

So first we start with preparing the subfloor.

We want to make sure this is going over something that's going to not be all cracked and dirty.

You want to make sure that it is level and you want to make sure that it's clean.

Right, Scott? Yeah, and the toughest thing on a job site is to get it clean because it's just dust and dirt and everything everywhere.

But you really have to get it clean.

You have to degrease it, especially if you're going over concrete.

You have to make sure that the concrete will accept a coverage, meaning it's not too wet still, that it will accept thinset over the top of it.

Also, one thing that it's a difference between a basement and like the second floor of an old house.

So if you've ever been in an old house, you know, you may or may not be aware that usually in the middle of the room it sags.

And the older it is, the more it sags.

So what happens is we've had people take that sagging floor and put the heating cable right on the floor and then cover it with self-leveling.

Well, the center of the room can have three inches of self-leveling and the outer edges can be an inch or three quarters of an inch or whatever.

And then people will say, hey, you know what? The edges of my room are really nice and warm, but in the center it's cold.

That's because the cable is sitting way down here in the center as opposed up to here on the edges.

So that's why you have to level the floor first because the cable or the heating product should be the same height from the top of the surface all the way across the floor.

So very, very important to get your subfloor flattened or leveled first before you install the system.

Yes, and then once that is done, we'll move on to putting down the thermal sheet underlayment.

So generally speaking, we recommend dry fitting this first, just laying it out, making sure that you have enough and that you have the right coverage, you know kind of what you're going to be doing before getting anything set involved.

And then Scott, can you kind of tell us what some tips and tricks are for, I know the thermal sheets specifically, you want to make sure that you're kind of laying it out in a certain pattern, correct? Like a brick, yeah.

You just don't want seams going, every single seam being the same.

You want to set it up like brickwork so the seam runs into a T as much as possible so you don't have cracks going all the way down there.

But the thing is, when it comes to making this type of floor, people will pour the self-leveling and if they don't get it mixed exactly correctly, you may see feather cracks, you may see slight crack, cracking, that sort of thing.

That's usually not a big deal at all.

It usually is a result of not the heat being in it, but it was either mixed with too much water or too little water, usually a little bit too much water was used and made it too thin, and then it shrinks and cracks.

Watch out for that.

Also, the thermal sheet needs to be adhered to the subfloor very well, and you can see the picture here.

It's done with modified thinset.

So polymer modified, it used to be called latex modified, but then they've gotten more in-depth and more fancy with that thinset now.

So any modified thinset you can use there, you lay it down and then you roller it, 30 or 50 pound roller, something like that, and that will get it to push down.

Then once you, every once in a while, lift up on it, make sure that you've got good adhesion underneath there, put it back down and then continue on.

So we've got videos actually on our website of, I think of when I put some in somebody's house nearby here.

So if you have any questions on how to put things, put the system down, feel free to check that out.

Yeah, definitely check that one out.

So from there, once that is all laid out and you have that good underlayments, kind of starting out the system on the right foot, you're going to actually begin laying out the flex roll.

And again, you're going to want to follow that smart plan as closely as possible.

One thing to really make sure that you're thinking about and taking into consideration is exactly how far from the wall you're going to be starting and cutting and turning the mat, making sure that you are, you know, cutting and turning at the right length.

Because as you said, Scott, this really can't be, you know, shortened or changed in any way.

Right, and if you look here in this picture, you can see that the cable is facing down.

So you've got the cable down, glued down to the subfloor.

And that way, when we pour self-leveling over it, it will not lift up.

So that's where you're going to get, there's like two sizes of hot glue guns.

There's like the little, there's a small craft one and then there's the larger like industrial one.

Get the larger industrial one.

It's worth the extra four or five bucks that they cost or whatever it is.

And use that because they come with bigger glue sticks.

So you can work faster with that.

So those are a couple of things, a couple of hints when you're laying the product out.

Make sure that when you're doing your cuts and turns, that you're not cutting the wire.

When we say cut and turn, we mean cut the mesh and then turn it with the cable still attached.

All right, and then from there, once that's all laid out, you'll begin installing your floor sensor.

So generally, these will be attached to the floor sensor to the roll when you receive it.

It also comes with the, in the thermostat box.

So you'll definitely be getting one, if not two sensors for each roll that you have.

And really Scott, only one or two needs to be installed technically, correct? You can install as many as you want to.

The thing is, you could, three dozen of them.

If you want, because every, like if you have a large installation, you may have six or seven rolls.

You'll have six or seven sensors with them.

And you can go and install them.

It doesn't hurt to have redundancy.

I've said it once, I've said it a million times, I hate being redundant.

But what you do is when you put these in, make sure that you don't run over the heating wire like you see there in this picture.

Notice how it's going through an open loop.

And the sensor wires, and this is another problem that we see repeatedly, is people putting the sensor wires in the same conduit as the non-heating leads.

And then they say their system doesn't work.

The conduit that you're using for the non-heating leads is great.

Put the non-heating leads in there.

Do not put the low voltage sensor signal wire in that same conduit.

First of all, it'll ruin your readings.

And second of all, it's probably against your local electrical code to put a line voltage wire and a low voltage wire in the same conduit.

So don't do that.

Always use separate conduits.

And it doesn't hurt to run two sensors up the wall.

Some places say it's okay to run it in the wall.

Some places say, hey, we want low voltage wires in conduit two.

Whatever your local code says you have to do.

But the thing is you run both those wires up to the back of the thermostat, you leave one balled up and one connected.

Because if you hook both of them up, your system will not work.

So you have to only hook up one.

That's why I said you could install a dozen.

You just need to make sure that you only wire one to your thermostat.

Yes, definitely something to keep in mind.

I think we probably get a call a day about something like that.

And then from here, you'll lay out that self-leveling cement.

So this is the stage where you're really making it permanent.

And again, because of that, you want to make sure that you're testing that system before putting out any self-leveling.

So make sure that you use that ohmmeter.

And Scott, can you kind of tell us how much self-leveling cement you might need? One half inch layer.

That's what we're looking for.

And the thing is, as soon as you say, hey, Joe Smith, I want you to come over here and install my product with self-leveling.

They're going to bring over their gauge rake, which is a metal rake that has pins that stick down to help them make sure that it's the same thickness all the way across.

And they're also going to bring spike shoes.

Because somebody told me I need to do self-leveling, so I brought my spike shoes.

Well, first of all, never, ever use a gauge rake when you're doing floor heating.

And never, ever wear those spike shoes.

Because you will, we had somebody last fall that said, oh, self-leveling, spike shoes, and wore spike shoes and completely destroyed the floor.

Because each one of those little things, as he walked around, cut a hole in the wire.

So that's why you don't use gauge rakes.

You use a large squeegee to set up the right depth.

Because on this slide, which I think we might be having trouble pulling this slide up, I'm not sure.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening here.

Bear with me.

That's all right.

But another thing that was mentioned on that slide is not only the thickness, but the flatness.

You want to make sure it's nice and flat.

You want to get that half-inch layer all the way across.

And that's going to give you the flatness that you require for the warranty.

Because once again, the warranty is two parts.

The maximum, the warranty is going to be about the floor flatness and the minimum amount of space between the flooring and the electric.

Lynn, do you need me to try to share the screen? There we are, very good.

There we go.

All right, you can see it now.

Yes, I can see it.

All right, I'm sorry.

I don't know what I clicked.

It was like one button and everything changed.

Yeah, up one more, up another one, there you go.

And also what you need to do is think about the self-leveling, is the self-leveling is not so much always the most important thing.

You need to acclimatize your LVT to make sure it's the right, you don't leave it outdoors in a shack and then bring it in the day you install it, right? You're going to let it get, bring it into the house for the amount of time that the manufacturer says.

And then you're going to, if the manufacturer says you need to turn the heat down to a certain temperature to put the product in, then raise it slowly.

Pay attention to those instructions because they'll tell you those two things.

So this is a very, very good slide.

I'm glad we were able to retrieve it.

Yes, I am as well.

So, and then at this point you're installing your LVT and you're actually getting to do the actual fun part of the project, in my opinion.

So again, making sure that you're following all of the requirements, the acclimatizing requirements, any kind of installation instructions, just kind of making sure that everything is to the book, right, Scott? Yeah, and don't try to outsmart yourself by going, you know what, I'm going to try to save on a bag of self-leveling.

I'm going to mix it up just a little bit thinner.

Don't deviate from the instructions on the bag.

And also, if the bag says that it needs to be used with a primer, then use the type of primer that it says.

So what you want to do is you want to put the primer on the thermal sheet first before you lay the product on top of it and attach it to it.

So very, very important to do that.

Use a primer if the bag says, and it will tell you right on the bag when you buy it, it'll tell you how to mix it, and it'll tell you if a primer is required, and if it is, it'll tell you which brand is required.

So pay very, very close attention to those bags.

Yes, this is not something to kind of not pay attention to.

You want to make sure that all those little details are followed to make sure that the system is going to be installed properly.

And then at this point, you'll begin the wiring.

So we had kind of touched on it earlier.

We want to make sure that all of the local electrical and building codes are followed.

And generally, this means that you may be required to have a licensed electrician do the wiring.

It's definitely something we always recommend.

Always good to have the professionals do any kind of electric work.

Exactly, and conduits always follow the local rules.

Some local rules say you have to, some don't.

The National Electric Code says to put your low-voltage wires and your line-voltage wires in conduit, so you want to look out for that.

And, but never ever put them in the same one.

Now, Lynn, could you go back to the screen that has the digital ohmmeter on it? Because Anastasia is asking a question.

She says, my floor was working well, but all of a sudden it isn't warm.

Whenever that's the case, it's going to be either the floor or it's going to be the thermostat.

So the first thing to do, the easiest thing is to not mess around with high voltage.

The easiest thing is to take, to turn your circuit breaker off, pull the thermostat out of the wall.

And this goes for every troubleshoot.

This is always the first step when troubleshooting electric floor heat.

So even if it doesn't match our thing here, it's still something that everybody should take away from this.

And that is do ohms readings.

So you take the thermostat out of the wall, you disconnect the, well, people say, how do I test the floor? It's all covered up.

Well, the non-heating lead goes up the wall and comes and attaches to the back of the thermostat.

Take those connections off.

You've already killed the breaker and do your test with your red and black probe for ohms.

You're going to test across the two heating wires.

Then you're going to test from one heating wire to ground and then the other heating wire to ground.

And we have a diagram that can show you how to do that.

We have videos at WyrmlyEars.com that show you how to do those tests.

But whenever you have a problem with your floor and all of a sudden it doesn't heat up, test for ohms.

And we'll be glad to show you how to do that.

So hopefully that answers your question, Anastasia.

Thank you so much for asking that.

Let's get back to the show.

All right, and then we had kind of also touched on this earlier, talking about the thermostat options.

Again, you want to make sure that you're aware of any temperature limits or maximums from that manufacturer.

And you also, again, want to be talking to them about setback temperatures and what's allowed and what isn't because I think you had kind of mentioned this earlier.

If your setback temperature is only two or three degrees, there's really no point in getting a programmable thermostat and programming it to just change a degree or two throughout the day.

But if that's something that you do plan to be utilizing and kind of changing the temperatures or using that programming and that scheduling, a programmable thermostat's a really good option for you.

Yeah, the thing is, if it doesn't allow you to do any setbacks, if it has to be 82 all the time, the Entrust in the lower right corner is the unit to use.

It's the least expensive thermostat.

It's the easiest thermostat because there's no programming.

You just set it to the temperature you want it and it stays there forever until you change it.

So that's a very, very good one.

So if you are going to be doing a programmable thermostat, get the Inspire Touch, either the Wi-Fi or the regular one.

And if you can't do any setbacks, get the Entrust.

All right, and then again, this is a beautiful project once it's finished, that kind of basement, bedroom slash office area.

And again, it just looks beautiful and it's going to add a little bit of extra comfort, a little bit of extra warmth to basements, which are obviously known to not be especially comfortable or warm.

Yeah, and the good thing about this is if they decide, you know, 10 years from now something is new and shiny that everybody's using, what they can do is they can lift this LVT up and what's left behind is a heated subfloor.

So you can put anything on top of that that you want to.

If you say, hey, let's make this a tile floor, well, all you do is you lift up the LVT and now you have self-leveling there that you can tile by back fluttering the tile, putting a thinset down and pushing the tile in and all of a sudden you have a tile floor.

So it will really let you or change colors.

You just lift up the old LVT, put down new LVT, whatever you want to do to match the color of the room because you've created a heated subfloor and that's very important to take away.

Yes, absolutely.

All right, and then last but not least, looking at the cost for this specific project.

It's $2,517 MSRP.

So we had the TempZone FlexRoll, the 240 volts, 43 foot length mat.

We had the Inspire Touch, a circuit check and that thermal sheet again.

So that's the MSRP price.

And often we have discounts and things like that that you can usually take advantage of as well.

And one thing, can you go back there, Lynn? I'm sorry to make you go back and forth, but what's the difference? What happens when people don't choose thermal sheet? Let's say, hey, you know what? I'm going to go to Home Depot.

Ooh, and I found this big roll of cork.

Well, first of all, you can't use the cork because you're going to be pouring self-leveling over it.

So you never, ever want to use cork there.

And another thing to keep in mind when you're going to shop for, like let's say that you're just doing a tile job that's going to be using thinset.

Some people go, I'm going to go, I can get cork for less expensive than that.

Well, what they're usually buying is the cork that you use for bulletin boards, which first of all, isn't even rated as a subfloor because it's very thin, very bouncy.

So if you're going to go out and buy cork, more power to you.

Just make sure that you're not using self-leveling over the top of it and make sure that you're buying the cork that is rated as a subfloor material and is not bulletin board material because that's a common mistake that we see and we're just trying to save you pain and misery.

And another thing, if you decide, hey, you know what? I'm not going to do thermal sheet or cork or anything.

You can expect when you have a floor that you're putting electric heating cables on directly on a concrete slab, that floor may only get into the lower 70s as a finish for temperature, which means you're going to have a floor that isn't cold.

Well, do you want to go to all that trouble to have a floor that isn't cold or do you want to have a floor that gets into the 80 degrees that actually feels warm? Which one do you want to choose? Because people go $768 for thermal sheet.

I think I'm going to skip that.

Well, if you skip that, you're going to go from temperatures in the 80s down to temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

So just keep that in mind.

And Pam reached out, oh, Olivia already answered, asking what the square footage was.

So just to kind of reiterate again, the whole room was 164 square feet and the thermal sheet covers all of that area.

And then the actual heated space was 129 square feet.

All right.

And are there any other questions? I'm not seeing anything just yet pop up.

Anything that I'm missing, Scott? No, but whenever you come to these things, we always send out an email saying, send us your questions.

So that way we make sure that we answer them.

So thank you to Connie and thank you to Pam who sent us questions ahead of time that we answered there and hopefully to your satisfaction.

Yes, absolutely.

And then just a little bit of housekeeping.

Our next webinar is going to be Thursday, June 13th, again, right here on Zoom.

We're going to be talking about doing snow-free driveways while using our snow melting systems.

And then we also do daily trainings, again, right here on Zoom, often hosted by me, often hosted by Scott.

These are usually five, 10 minute trainings.

So you can usually just pop in if you have any questions, ask them and just learn a little bit more about our products.

Yeah, and the thing is, if we're talking about a subject that may not pertain to you that day, if you have a question, you can always pop in and ask a question about anything.

So we'll always be glad.

We're not really good at horse racing, that sort of stuff.

I'm terrible at that.

No lottery numbers either.

Obviously, that's why I'm still here.

But if it comes to floor heat, just let us know.

Yes, that we can usually handle, or snow melting.

Yeah.

And then, like I said, we do have a monthly promotion for May 10% off of our Tempstone floor heating products.

So be sure to check that out on our website.

We will be sending out an email once this is over asking about your experience during today's webinar, if you have any comments, suggestions, if you have any ideas for topics for future webinars that you'd be interested in seeing, definitely let us know.

We want to make sure we're talking about something you care about and actually want to spend time learning about.

And last but not least, reach out.

Any questions, any smart plan requests, any concerns, give us a call, shoot us an email, or visit our website.

We have tons of videos on that website that we had kind of talked about earlier, some installation videos.

So some really good information available there.

24-7, so be sure to check that out.

And again, just reach out if we can have any information, or we can get you any information.

Yeah, and the thing is, with our videos, some people say, hey, I can't find them.

You need to go to, along the top, if you're at warmlyours.com, it'll say Resources.

And under Resources, you can click Videos.

And that's where all these installation videos are.

So you can also see all old webinars that we talked about, too.

So very, very important to check us out at warmlyours.com.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that is all we have today.

Thank you for helping out, Scott.

We always appreciate your technical expertise.

Until next time, as always, stay warm.

And be radiant.

Thanks, everybody..