Sales Training 4 - Installation Overview

You two are hard at work already this morning.

No time to waste.

I’m impressed.

Got an early start.

You did. Nice job, you guys.

We want to have some warm feet in the morning.

Yeah, well, this is the easy part, so that’s good. At least you got that done. (laughs) Let me borrow this for one second. Let me show you how this is going to work. Now what we did, we sent in the dimensions of our new space here. And they sent us back this customized plan of how to install it. So that is what these guys are doing right now, the layout. You probably want that back, don’t you?

Thank you.

And this is the warming system. It’s a fiberglass mesh, and inside of it you’ve got the warming unit that’s sewn into it in this serpentine pattern. Kind of cool, but it’s going to be covered up. So what we’ll do is we’ll put our tile right on top of this, and then we’ll have a electrician come in and hook up the programmable thermostat. And that’s it. Super easy.

Besides marking off the fixtures, Tom and Gary also mark the position of the sensor that regulates the programmable thermostat and the areas where we will be turning corners on our mesh panels. It’s all laid out on the plan, so it’s pretty easy.

All right, you guys, so all the lines are down.

Yup, I think we’re good.

All right, so let’s talk about electricity.

All right. (laughter)

So what we’re going to do here is a test on this heating system to make sure there are no shorts in the line, and there was no damage to it while it was transported here. So, what we’re going to base our test on is this sheet right here. They did a test at the factory before they sent it, and they tested the core lines. And it was 30.32 ohms. So the way that you test that is with this; this is an ohmmeter. And what we are going to do is turn this on, and then we will, we want to touch our core line to our core line and check the continuity of it. So the core lines are our white lines, and the other ones are our ground. Okay? So since the number they had was 30.32, it looks like we’re reading 30.3, 30.2, and we need to be plus or minus 15%, so it looks like we’re right on.

And I’m going to need someone to write it down on here, because as we go with the installation with this, we want to take several different tests. Or the same test, but several different times, to make sure we haven’t damaged it as we’re installing it.

Now we’re going to do a dry fit with our panels. At the end of the run, we use a utility knife to cut the mesh, being careful not to clip the wires. Then we flip the mesh and turn the corner.

Gary, this dry fit looks perfect. I think we are ready to glue it down. How are you with a hot glue gun?

I’m pretty good with it. I’ll give it a shot.

The hot glue will tack our panels in place so they don’t move around during the tile installation. The plan also calls for free-from areas. This means we remove the wire from the mesh and fill in the small areas. We hot glue the wire to the floor, and tape it until the glue sets. Once all the panels are in place, it’s time for another test.

Look at that; we look perfect.

Fantastic. Same numbers as it was last time?

Yes, it’s good sign.

Now Gary adds the sensor for the programmable thermostat to regulate the heat for the warming system.

All right, you got the sensor in place?

Yup, just finished.

Good, so the last thing we need to do then is run these lead lines over to the junction box, and the electrician is going to make the final connection. So our work here is pretty much done.

When we come back, setting tiles over floor-warming panels might look intimidating, but stay with us because it’s easier than you think.

We’re going to start setting the time over the warming system, and come back and fill in the rest of the tiles later. The areas without the warming system will need to be built up with extra thin-set.

Again, this is a little more delicate work on top of the mesh here. That’s because we don’t want to damage the new warming system.

We use a half-inch by half-inch u-notch trowel held at a 45-degree angle to apply the thin-set. We are only applying enough thin-set for one tile at a time. We need to use extra thin-set to build up the cement board since there are no warming panels under it. This is the area under the vanity, so there’s no need to heat the space. I’ll back-butter the tail to ensure enough buildup.

She said to do a really angled notch in here, and that looks like enough. How does it look to you?

Yeah, it looks great.

Hard work will really pay off, because once the floor is grouted it’s going to look amazing.