In order to always have a warm floor under the linoleum, special heating elements of various types are installed on the wooden floor. The most suitable for this is the infrared floor under the linoleum. If you are planning to arrange a heated floor in your apartment or private house, but do not want to remove the wooden flooring, then you need to get acquainted with some of the features of its installation.
How best to make a warm floor under linoleum, on a wooden floor
The installation of electric floor heating under the linoleum must be taken with all responsibility. The fact is that this flooring has a sufficiently low thermal conductivity, which greatly reduces the heating effect. For this reason, you should choose the types of linoleum with a thickness that provides sufficient bandwidth for thermal radiation. It should be understood that too thin coating will be bad to hide all the irregularities of the topography of the floor. Especially if you put a warm floor under the linoleum on a wooden floor.
In addition, any linoleum with a strong heat can emit harmful volatile substances, which prevents the use of special cables as heating elements. The temperature with which the device acts on the surface of linoleum should not exceed 30 degrees. In this regard, for the installation of a heated floor on which it is planned to lay linoleum, it is best to use a heating film with infrared elements. It does not heat up to high temperatures, but at the same time gives off enough heat to create the effect of a warm floor under linoleum. Reviews about it are dominated by positive. In addition, such a device consumes much less electricity.
Linoleum is a very elastic material. This makes the selection of the underlying subfloor very carefully. The best base for linoleum is a concrete screed, since it can be leveled almost perfectly. The same qualities have self-leveling floors. But what to do if the floor is wooden? If in a city apartment it can be dismantled and pour concrete, then in a country house it is not so easy to do it. Sometimes you have to lay the flooring directly on the wooden floor. The warm floor under the linoleum in this case is somewhat more difficult to lay.
Infrared floor under the linoleum is a film that is wound into rolls. Infrared elements are mounted inside the film, which emit infrared rays when an electric current is connected. They are not visible to the human eye, but are felt by the skin as warm. In this case, strong heating does not occur. Infrared rays are capable of heating surrounding objects, including linoleum, which itself will give off heat to the environment, filling them with a room.
This type of warm floor has significant advantages in order to choose it for installation on a wooden floor:
- it is very simple and easy to install;
- due to the absence of strong heating, it has increased fire safety;
- suitable for installation under any type of linoleum;
- has a small thickness (3 mm substrate + 0.4 mm film coating);
- The coating of the film is very durable with copper electrodes and carbon emitters perpendicular to each other. The whole construction is laminated with a polymeric film. It is impossible to damage elements during installation.
Helpful advice! Infrared floors have a maximum power of 220 W / m ?, which is too much for linoleum. Therefore, you need to buy those that give no more than 150 W / m ?. If you purchased a more powerful warm electric floor under linoleum, the floor can get very hot. To limit the power you need to install the thermostat to heat no higher than 30? С.
Let us consider in detail how to lay linoleum on a wooden floor on which we want to arrange heating. For this work we will need:
- rolled infrared floor in the quantity necessary to cover the area we want to warm;
- for each strip of film you need to prepare two clips – these are the clips that hold the contacts;
- in each room one thermostat;
- material with a high coefficient of heat reflection. Isolate, covered with a dielectric film;
- polyethylene film;
- copper wire;
- double sided tape.
In addition, a knife, furniture stapler, adhesive and insulating mastic will be useful. To lay a warm floor under the linoleum, an isolon is laid on the wooden floor, with a reflective surface facing up. It is spread over the entire area of the room and is attached by a stapler for furniture. The joints between the sheets are sealed with tape. The infrared film is spun on the surface of the isolon so that the copper strip is at the bottom. If a film is required to be cut off, this is done between sections, so as not to damage the graphite strips.
Helpful advice! You should not put the film on the place where there will be heavy furniture. At a distance of 50 cm from the walls, it is also not needed. This measure will significantly save on material.
If during the work the insulating film is accidentally damaged, then it should be glued with mastic. After that, on one of the sides of each film strip, bitumen mastic is used to isolate copper electrodes. The other sides of the strips are connected in parallel with clips. The first contact of each clip is placed inside the film on the surface of the electrode, and the second on top of it. The clamp is compressed with the electrode with the help of pliers, ensuring the reliability and strength of the contact.
Then all strips of a warm electric floor under linoleum are fastened with adhesive tape to each other. The bare ends of the electrical wires are inserted into the clamps. Compress them with the help of pliers, and then isolate the contact point of the clip and the thermal film together with the stripped part of the wire. Silver contacts running along the edge of the strip are completely insulated.
Thermal sensor is glued to any of the strips with the help of mastic. It is attached to the carbon thermoelement. The wire from it lead to the nearest wall. In the place where the thermal sensor is attached, as well as where the wires go, grooves and grooves in the isolon are cut out. This is necessary in order for the linoleum to be even afterwards, so that there are no knobs on it. The thermostat is attached to the wall and according to the instructions electrical wires are connected to it.
For electrical protection to be effective, a separate machine is used for a system with a power higher than 2 kW. The value of the thermostat is set to 30? Having included the system in the network, they test by touch the performance of each band. An adhesive tape with a foil coating is then glued diagonally and attached one end to the ground wire.
To reliably arrange a warm floor under linoleum, polyethylene is placed on the wooden floor over the thermal film, onto which plywood or OSB sheets are fastened with self-tapping screws. This should be done very carefully, as there is a possibility of damage to the electrodes.
When the performance of the warm floor is fully tested, and all layers are aligned, you can proceed to laying the coating itself. How to lay linoleum on a wooden floor – everyone knows, but it should be borne in mind that before laying it should be spread around the room and turn on the floor heating system. This will allow the material to heat up and be free to straighten and even out.
Helpful advice! Before the final fastening of linoleum on the floor it should be left for one day in unwound form. This will allow him to lay down and level.
When everything is ready, the linoleum should be cut into strips of the required length and laid on the floor throughout the room. The edges of linoleum are fixed with baseboards. At the exit points of the electric wires in the baseboard cut a small hole. Some types of material require stickers. As an adhesive, a special paste is used. It is applied to the plywood with a thin layer, after which the linoleum is glued, rolling on a flat and sticky surface.
Underfloor heating under linoleum, reviews of which are most often found to be positive, it is not at all difficult to lay on your own. It is only necessary to properly follow the recommendations and do everything neatly and efficiently.
