Warming the boards (Day 22 of 273)

Warmboard, that is. Its an expensive but eloquent radiant floor product (http://warmboard.com). They take 1 1/8" thick, high quality plywood sheets (4' x 8') and route a series of parallel 5/8" channels in it. Then, they place an aluminum sheet with adhesive on the plywood and push the aluminum into all the channels. The result is a giant lego-like radiant heating panel that goes down as a rigid subfloor (see photo below). The sheets have tonque and groove on the narrow ends and get laid out in a hop scotch pattern. The company does the design work ($300 refunded on purchase) for the architect and builder (us). The panels come in three forms: Straight, single-end returns, and double-end returns. We've ordered 64 panels (110 pounds each. ouch!) to be shipped by flatbed truck from Portland: they are about 2/3rd straight and 1/3rd return type.

Yesterday we finalized the heating plan for the Warmboard. We're using Sunshine Propane (http://www.sunshinepropane.com/index.htm), and specifically Levi Ross, because he has done several similar projects in this area. In fact, he just finished up a large home on the bluff above the Port Townsend marina. In addition, we're following the path of Tom & Dinese Christopher's house (see tomanddinesehouse.blogspot.com). They started construction about 3 months in front of us. Their house was designed by Richard Berg (http://richardbergarchitects.com/) and they used the same concrete guy (Don McNees, K&D), and framer (Gary Ellis, Ellis Construction), all by coincidence but encouraging.

We're using a 50 gal Polaris stainless-steel, high-efficiency hot water heater (propane, natural gas isn't available here). This will supply both domestic hot water and radiant hot water. The plan is to have 7 loops (300 ft maximum length) in two, thermostatically controlled zones. There are manifolds that distribute and collect the water and pumps to move it around. One thing I like about Levi's philosophy is to design as simple a system as possible to solve the problem. After being flummoxed for 3 weeks by the security system in our rental house, I'm taking the Warren Buffet approach -- if we don't understand how it works, then we're not going to buy and install it (and eventually fix it).

The piping is 1/2" (ID) Wisbo Aquapex, which is what we'll also use for the domestic hot (red pipe) and cold (blue pipe) water. This way, you'll always know what PEX you've accidentally cut through with the sawsall or punctured with the nail gun.

Levi is doing most of the heating and manifold installation, but encouraging us to take on anything within our skills. That means laying and caulking the PEX in place, doing the custom routering (about a dozen places), and doing some venting, construction, and wiring. Overall, if we do our job we'll save about $2500 (1/2 of the labor) and will be better prepared to tackle the PEX plumbing in a couple of months. Looks like I'll have to buy a few tools--no pain, no gain.