In the winter, my house always had ice cold floors. The existing heating system was wood stove and propane forced air. I decided to start checking into heating solutions for our home, and see if I could improve our setup with radiant heated flooring.

Since I was trying to reduce our monthly heating bill as well as make our floors warmer, I decided against electric radiant heat even though it would be easier to install. Solar water heating would most likely not be able to cut it in our northern climate, so I researched a diy hydronic floor heating system that uses an outdoor wood fired boiler to supply hot water.

Right away I decided to get my plan down on paper and figure out exactly what parts I would need to get started. I ordered my supplies by phone and went down to the hardware to pick them up as soon as they called to let me know they were in. Time to start installing.

By far the method that would require the most work seemed to be placing my PEX tubing on top of the underlay, after removing all of the laminate flooring. Not only would the height of the floor increase, but all of the trim and doorways would require altering.

That left applying the PEX tubing from the underside of the floor. This meant I was gong to spend hours on my back in the crawlspace, drilling holes and placing tubing. Easy work compared to refinishing all of my floor covering!

The insulated hot water and return lines for the boiler were buried eight feet down to keep them thawed out all winter. They entered the house at the utility room from underneath. I installed the holding tank and pump in this room as well, with barely any room to spare.

A DIY radiant heat system is a lot of work and a little bit of a frustration too. It will pay for itself in lower monthly heating costs though. And now, I never get cold feet standing in the bathroom or the kitchen.