We are thinking about building a house, and this idea was floated by the builders. Never owned one that did not have a crawl space, so naturally we are curious if folks think it is a negative. If you were house shopping, would you buy a house on a slab with in-floor radiant heat? I am NOT interested in hearing how energy efficient these systems are (because they are supposed to be pretty efficient). What I would like to hear if you would ever consider such a home and why or why not. We are in the greater Seattle area, FWIW. Thanks for your opinions.
Yes, in fact we did, in Anchorage. The basement had in-floor radiant heat…the cats loved it!
My sil has raidiant floor heat in her walk out basement, which I assume is on a slab. It feels really nice and warm and cozy there. The only problem is that when they are away it takes a day to warm up. But now they installed a nest thermostat which solves that problem. She hasn’t had any problems with it.
That’s my only experience with that.
We have in-floor radiant heat in our daylight basement, too. We like it a lot. We use a wood boiler for heat when it’s really cold, so it doesn’t cost any extra to warm up the slab.
I’m not seeing the downside.
We have one room that has radiant heat. It used to be the breezeway between the house and garage but the previous owner walled it in and made it a room – hence, it’s on a slab. I don’t care for the radiant heat, but that may be because I haven’t figured out how to get the room to remain at a relatively consistent temperature. It’s usually either too hot or too cold in that room, so I keep turning the heat on and off.
My house stands on a huge natural rock, and has a walkout basement with high-end finishes. It has radiant floor heat, but it’s used rarely because the main heat comes from return piping for our steam boiler (which heats the main living areas). Last year we also installed a new AC system with a heat pump, so now we have three alternative sources of heat. As mentioned by @deb922 , it may take a very long time to warm up a room with radiant heat, so you may need a portable heater for short-term use. I have a spare bedroom in the basement, and, whenever I expect guests, I have to remember to turn on radiant heat in advance. And, as mentioned by VH, It may be difficult to adjust the setting to the desired temperature - the same thermostat setting may feel different depending on season, humidity, time of the day etc.
Where is the plumbing? We own several rentals with slab foundations. When there is a leak we have had to jack hammer the foundation. It can be difficult to find the leak. The repair process is long as you must repair the leak, lay new foundation, allow it to dry and replace the flooring. As a builder my H built many houses with slab flooring, when it came time to build our own house he went with a raised foundation.
No experience with radiant heat.
Oh, wait. I think that I didn’t understand. Is the in-floor radiant heating the only heating? I thought it was supplemental, like seat warmers in cars.
I grew up in SoCal and all the house’s were slab, it was no big deal, there. That said, it may be a regional thing. I wish I had radiant heat in my bathroom floors! I did have radiant heat in a PNW rental once, multi story, so not all slab and I recall it as fine, no rush of hot air from the vent to feel, but fine.
It did have thermostats in each room and I liked that.
I considered radiant floor heat in a bathroom, and I am glad that we did not do this. My GC friend explained that if I ever need to repair or upgrade the system, I would need to tear the floor apart, and if I ever wanted to replace broken or stained floor tile, it would damage the heating system. Instead, I use towel warmers to warm up the bathroom, and also have a ceiling thermostat on a timer for quick result.
My brother is a contractor and installed radiant heat in the floor of one room in my parents’ house. That room was on a slab. The floor was some kind of stone. It was heavenly in the winter. But it was surrounded by rooms that had conventional heat. He put it in his own house too.
Thank you, all!
“Oh, wait. I think that I didn’t understand. Is the in-floor radiant heating the only heating? I thought it was supplemental, like seat warmers in cars.”
Yes. The entire first floor would be heated this way. There would be a mini-split for heating/cooling the second story.
In-floor radiant heat is standard (and traditional) here in Korea. It’s awesome. And if you have cats, they’ll thank you haha.
I think it is great. I think when ppl come in and feel it is warm, they won’t be turned off when buying at all!
Not as common here. We have so much sun that heats the room ,that by the time the floor heats the room it is too much. Also, when we built our home 16 years ago we did not want it due to ripping out the floor if a problem. We have bedrooms on the second floor and if the floor was ripped out the ceiling and the whole house would have been involved. We went with baseboard water heat and evaporative coolers.
You could do radiant upstairs too if you wanted…not that difficult.
I was thinking of installing radiant heat which has been popular here in the last ten years. I changed my mind when I visited a friend who had it on at her house. It felt nice having warm floors, but if I have to do it day in and day out walking on heated floor I wouldn’t like it.
A contractor I spoke to installed it in his house but after a bit he also installed a regular heating system because it took too long to increase or decrease temperature in the house.
After having a broken pipe in our slab foundation, I wouldn’t buy another house on a slab if I had a choice. Unfortunately here in the South, they are what 95% of homes have.
“You could do radiant upstairs too if you wanted…not that difficult.”
The idea is that mini-splits can provide cooling in addition to heating.