Home & Garden
How Much It Really Costs To Install Radiant Floor Heating
We can help you get to the bottom of how to avoid cold feet at home and how much it will affect your bottom line.
We can't all be Elsa from "Frozen" — the cold does bother us. And given the choice, we'd much rather step out from a hot shower onto a comfortably warm floor than onto an icy cold one. To do this in the winter months, we rely on radiant floor heating — a type of manmade magic, if you will.
Radiant floor heating comes from tubes running underneath the surface of the floor. In residential systems, two types of radiant heating are used: electric and hydronic. The type of radiant heating you use will affect the price of installation, but a number of other factors will impact your bottom line as well. Here's what you need to know — and how much your project stands to cost.
Find Trusted Home Improvement Pros Near You
Why Install Radiant Heating?
Radiant floor heating has become a popular solution to cold tile and icy hallway floors. The idea is essentially the same concept as a heated driveway, but it's been brought indoors for two main reasons:
1. It's more comfortable. With properly installed radiant floor heating, you should never have to step onto an uncomfortably cold bathroom floor again. The heat that comes up through the floor gets picked up and radiated by objects in the room, too. This keeps the room warm and provides even heating throughout the whole space. Plus, because air isn't being blown around (as it would be with a traditional HVAC system), you won't be breathing in displaced dust and allergens.
2. It's more efficient. Radiant floor heating works 10 to 30 percent more efficiently than do standard HVAC systems — often leading to a noticeable change in your heating bill. According to one study by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), homes with radiant floor heating are generally more comfortable when the temperature is 6 to 8 degrees lower than in a standard air-heated room.
Also, unlike fixed-air systems that concentrate on heating the top half of a room, radiant heating focuses on heating the bottom half. Heat rises, so warm air drifting up from the floor can drift up to you and the objects in the room and only escape out the ceiling after it has warmed you up.
What Flooring Works Well With Radiant Heating?
This type of heating works best when paired with flooring materials that conduct heat well. Because heat is being radiated and not just blown, it's important to consider the pros and cons of different types of flooring.
- Ceramic tiles conduct heat very well, making them the optimal flooring choice to pair with radiant heating.
- Stone will hold the heat for quite a while, but it can take a bit longer to initially reach the desired temperature.
- Wood flooring can work with radiant heating, but the warming of the air can cause the wood to expand and contract over time.
- Linoleum may discolor due to heat or be otherwise incompatible with radiant heating. It's best to reach out to the manufacturer for compatibility information.
- Carpet is already quite insulating, which can prevent the warmth from coming through efficiently. The thicker the carpet, the more insulating it is.
If your floor is held in place with an adhesive, it's important to make sure that the adhesive is also compatible with radiant floor heating.
Types of Radiant Heating
Commercial and industrial settings may have air-heated radiant air floors, in which the air is the heat-carrying medium. According to Energy Saver — a consumer resource provided by the U.S. Department of Energy — radiant air floors are not-cost effective in residential settings and are rarely used. Instead, homeowners use electric and hydronic radiant heating.
Electric: Because electric systems use your electricity to maintain heat, they are more expensive to operate than hydronic systems. That said, because electric systems are essentially just a big heating pad installed beneath thin-set cement, they're significantly less expensive to install. According to a HomeAdvisor's True Cost Guide*, installing an electric system can cost anywhere from $1,760 for a bathroom to around $16,500 for a 1,500-square-foot house.
Hydronic: Hydronic systems use a hot water boiler and a pump to circulate hot water through the tubing beneath your floor. If you're heating a small room, such as a bathroom, you may be able to tie this function into your existing water heater. Larger rooms will likely require their own water heaters. If you do need to install a water heater, be prepared to pay for it: A 50-gallon water heater can cost anywhere from $770 to $1,450. Using a boiler instead of a water heater typically costs between $3,500 and $7,700.
In a typical 2,400-square-foot home, a whole-house radiant hydronic floor system costs $14,000 to $48,000. This is significantly more expensive than the average cost to install an electric system, but operating costs will be lower because water conducts and holds heats very well, so there's less actual operating time.
Other Cost Factors to Consider
The national average cost to install a radiant heating system is $3,800, and most people will pay in the range of $1,770 to $5,900. As previously mentioned, the type of radiant heating system used (electric or hydronic) will impact cost, as will these other factors:
Square footage of flooring: Small projects actually tend to cost more per square foot than larger ones do, simply because larger spaces can be more open and easier to work in.
Current floor status: The best time to install any kind of radiant heating is during new construction or an extensive remodel. This is when the floors are nonexistent, so you won't add to construction costs by having to drill into or remove the existing floor.
Temperature zones: If you're installing a radiant floor heater throughout your whole house, different rooms may require different amounts of heat to be comfortable. In order to achieve this, you'll need a more-complex system, which will likely be costlier to install.
Normal contracting costs: As with any other job, a hired professional may adjust his or her working rates based on the distance to the job site, general workload, local rates and cleanup and disposal costs.
DIY or Hire?
Installing a radiant heating system is an extensive project, and while some homeowners may try and tackle it themselves, we'd recommend at least consulting with a professional first. He or she can assess your current flooring situation and explain the best course of action for your particular home. A trained professional should also be able to give you a rough estimate of what your particular project will cost.
Find a Radiant Heat Installation Contractor in Your Area
* — All pricing estimates in this article are based on HomeAdvisor's True Cost Guide, a searchable database that gives homeowners an idea how much they can expect to pay for home projects in their area.
More Home & Garden:
Home 101: How To Prevent Dryer Fires
How To Reduce Your Heating Bills (And Still Stay Warm)
The Winter Yard Work Checklist
Here's What Frozen Pipes Can Cost You
Sources:
How Much Does Radiant Floor Heating Cost?
Radiant Floor Heating 101
Radiant Floor Heating: How It Works And Its Benefits
