Environ Floor Heating Installation under Floating Wood Laminate

Hi, I'm Scott from WarmlyYours, and today we're going to be installing environ products under an engineered wood floor. So as you look around the room right now, you can see that we've got the product here. We've also installed our CeraZorb if you take a look at the CeraZorb or it isn't attached to the floor, it's attached to each other. So what we've done is we've installed it in a staggered pattern. You don't want the seems to be the same all the way across the floor. So we've installed it like brickwork and it's taped together. So now it will float along with the floating engineered floor. So what we've done is we've got that installed already. We've identified where our thermostat location is going to be. It's going to be right over here on the wall. We've got our stuff here from the shipment. And what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at what's inside the box. We take a look inside the box. We've got our installation plan. We also have the instructions that we need to follow when we're installing the product. And that all comes out. And we also inside here, we have a thermostat. Also inside the box. We have a circuit check that we can use to make sure that the system doesn't get damaged while it's being installed. And we have another part of the order here, and this is our cut And turn product. This is the product we're going to use to fill the smaller spaces inside this room. The idea is that we're going to use the large blanket type product, our easy mats, to cover most of the room because it's very easy to install. Then we're going to use this product to do cuts and turns to fill the areas that need to be filled in. Before any product gets installed, it's always tested with a digital ohmmeter, you never want to install a product that isn't tested first. 

 So what you're going to do is you're going to locate the stickers on the product to find out what the correct Ohms are and to make sure with your ohmmeter that it matches the product actually matches what it says on the label. So we're going to be testing all these rolls. And if test good, we're going to go and install them. Now, take note of these product and their cold leads. The cold lead is the part that doesn't heat up. It's the part that runs across the floor. And then runs up to the thermostat. But if you notice, there's a recurring theme here. We have read and black, red and black. The only difference between these two products is this product has a braided grade, braided ground. I'm sorry, and this one has a green ground, red and black means 240 volts. And if you look at this sticker, it says 240 volt. You always make sure that all of these products are the same voltage. You never install a 120 volt mat with the regular system. That's 240 because it'll damage the 120. So before you start even installing it, please make sure that all of your cold leads are the same color. Now, we took a look at this product and a couple of differences between the cut And turn and the larger easy mats. That's the larger product can be flipped on either side. It doesn't matter which side is up because you always want to make it. So the co-lead has the shortest amount of distance to the junction box or the thermostat. The thing with this product. Is it has to be installed with one side up and one side down. So it kind of limits your cuts and turns and you have to plan for that accordingly on the installation plan that sent to you that is planned for. So the main thing you need to remember when you're installing it is to follow this instruction and keep this side up. 

 OK, we've got our plan out now and the crew is starting to lay these out. And you can see these are big mats. You can Recover 60 square feet in a matter of about 30 seconds with these. That's what's so great about this product. OK, we have the big mats, the easy mats out on the floor, they're just out on the floor. Now going to place them a little bit later. But what we've done is we've routed the cold leads kind of in the area. We want them to go because we'll be having to cut out the cerazorb or to allow the cold leads to flow under the wood without making a teeter totter type thing. So we were going to get them placed here in a minute. But right now, we're going to be Worrying about our cut and turn product. And we're going to be doing our cuts and turns here. If you look on the drawing, we're not going under the bed. One thing is, if you're heating a room like this. And you know the bed is always going to stay in one place, you don't put heat under the bed because it gets trapped. You want to heat the areas where the people walk. So we're going to be doing our cut and turn here in front of the bed. Then also and a little bit, we're going to be moving our mats together to the center of the room, getting them away from the edges of the walls because no one ever stands against the edge of the wall. They want to walk through a room that's heated contiguously. So we're going to start getting our cuts and turns down. Once we get our cuts and turns down, we're going to start moving the larger mats into the center of the room. So we have a nice heated area, not under the bed. Or if we take a look at the plan, our first cut is 6 foot 8 inches. If you look at the Mat the cables every two inches apart here. 

 So what we're going to do is we're going to measure six feet, eight inches and there is our loop. Here is what we need to make sure that we're at this side, because if we're here, we can't turn this direction. Our directional turn is going to be this direction. So we're going to cut it here. And this whole roll is going to flip this way. And go back the other direction. OK, here we can see our loop. We can see our cable underneath. You can see the difference between these two products, this product over here, you never, ever cut it at all. You do not touch a blade to this type of mat here for the cut and turn product. You lift the edges. And that allows you to get your scissors in there to cut the mesh. You never ever cut the wire on these type of installations. Do not cut this wire. You cut the mesh across. And that will allow you to turn this product over and go the opposite direction. So now that we have our mark at 6 foot 8 inches, we can go ahead and cut this material. Now, if you notice, I'm being very careful because my blade is going to be here. The wires out of the way. I make my cut, and that allows me to do my turn once again, it's not going to be touching the other product. Then sometimes it might be good if you have a real tight space to stagger the rolls, so the tips of the wires don't touch each other, you can see here, here's where the loop is. Here's where this loop is. It's better to do this than it is to do that. That's too close. So just move it over like that. And we're ready to do our next turn. Here we can see we've got our mats place just about where we want them, when we get the final determination of where that is, we'll put tape over them to hold them in place. That way, it'll stay in place on the CeraZorb while the flooring is going over the top. So we're going to do a couple of things here. We have to take notice of this area here. And this is where the line cord comes in. And this is going to have to be allowed for because otherwise, it's going to teeter totter here. So we're going to need to pull this back and we're going to need to cut a trench into the CeraZorb to allow this wire to pass through it. We're also going to have to trench. This CeraZorb over to the wall to allow it to run along the baseboard and that's going to eliminate that teeter tottering over the top. So doing a large room like this, you're going to have a lot of mats and with a lot of mats come a lot of cold leads. 

 Now, remember, this wire does not heat up. It's just getting the electricity from the thermostat down to the floor. The one thing about this is you can trim this wire. So it is the right length. You can cut this to the right length. So what we're doing is, since we have so many wires, we can't get them all up to the thermostat. So we're going to we've installed a junction box here where all six of them are going to go, and then we're going to make a determination there. And then run them up to the back of the thermostat here. Now we're going to do is going to take our thermostat sensor wire, and we're going to run it right in here in between two of the heating wires. And you want it in about 6 to 8 inches into the mat. That will be the perfect placement for you. You don't need to run it all the way out into the middle of the floor. We're just going to run it through here. We're going to put it underneath. And we'll be all set with that. All right, the floor is installed, the base board is put down they'll probably come in and do some shoe trim around the perimeter of the room, but now we have all this extra cold lead that we need to get rid of because we're going to be making our connection of all the mats together down in the junction box at the lower part of the wall. And then we're going to run power from the thermostat here down to that junction box. So there's going to be instead of six wires coming up to this, there's going to be one pair of wires going down to meet the six mats that are joining in the junction box. So now what we're doing is we're cutting all the cold lengths to comply with code. Your local code will say how much cable needs to be sticking out of the box to make your connections. So whatever that distance is, you want to make sure you follow your local code and do it correctly. And then what we're going to do is once we get the lengths correct, we're going to start stripping it back. So we can get the red, the black and the ground wires liberated. So we can start tying all the Reds together, all the blacks together, and then all the grounds together, all the grounds are going to get terminated in the box because this particular system, the boxes are all grounds, provide a good ground because there's pipe throughout the entire house. And then what we're going to do is we're going to grounded into that box. And then we're going to tie all the Reds, all the blacks to the wires coming down from the thermostat. And now what we're going to do is we're going to test every one of the mats to make sure that it has the same reading as it did. When we put it in. We're going to write the numbers down. We're going to put it on the warranty card. And we're going to hand that warranty card to the homeowner. So they have record of what the ohms readings are. So if they ever have a problem with the floor, they can just give us a call and say, hey, you know, I've got these ohms and here's what they are now. So make sure you always test them before you put them all together to make sure they're all good and they match the numbers that were on them. When you got them, as we talked about before, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be taking all the red wires from all the mats and putting them together and all the black wires from all the mats and putting them together. And that's going to be connected, then with the wire going up to the thermostat. Now, you are going to connect those wires in the way that is permissible by your local code. Your code may allow them to use the twist connectors or the wire nuts, as some people call them. And your local code may require that it's a barrier strip that's done, a terminal strip of some sort that's done to tie all those together. So when you're tying these all together, just make sure you do it according to code. So once we have these all tied together, then all we have to worry about are the grounds. And all the grounds are going to be tied together and grounded to the box. That's in the wall. 

 OK, now we've got our connections all made and it's back inside the box. This box is actually a 4 by 4 by 4 box. A square box gives us a lot of room to put all those wires. All that's left. Now is to put a cover over that. And then we'll talk about installing the thermostat. We have our walls painted now. We have our connection made in the junction box of all the mats coming into the junction box. And now we're going to hook it up to the set of wires coming from the junction box up to this 4 by 4 square box. So we're going to go and pull the wires out here. We're going to start making our connections to the thermostat. Well, you can take a look around this room and see that it looks fantastic. And the best addition to this room is actually underfloor heat. So this room will always be nice and toasty in the winter time we put our environ product under this, click together hardwood floor feels great. We have the thermostat installed. It's working like a charm. If you'd like to learn more about installing this type of product in your home. Feel free to check us out at www.WarmlyYours.com We'll see you soon.