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You do not have a warm floor, but you want to make one? I have collected the 15 most common mistakes that are made when installing a water heated floor. Because of these errors, thousands of people get non-working heating systems and many myths about underfloor heating arise.
Mistakes when installing a water heated floor. Myths.
The most common myth is that it is impossible to heat a building with underfloor heating only - radiators must be installed. Because warm floors are not able to warm the building.
Mistake number 1.
In my opinion, the most gross mistake during the installation of any heating system is the lack of calculation of the heat loss of the building. When heat losses are not considered, it can be said that the heating system is done by eye.
Radiators are selected by eye, usually they are selected according to the size of the window or at the rate of 1 section per 10 square meters, if sectional radiators are used. Heated floors are made by eye. Or they mold radiators in rooms with warm floors “just in case”.
If you communicate with such an installer, drive him in the neck. As a result, you will either get a non-working system, or spend extra money on the construction of a heating system. Because the installer insured for your money and stuffed extra heating appliances.
Or vice versa - installed low-power thermal appliances. Either way, it's a loss.
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How was my heating done?
With me there was such a case. Before I became a heating specialist, my house was being renovated. The installer who was supposed to do the heating arrived. We walk around the house. And I ask him: “How many radiators should be installed and which ones?”
He replied: “As much as you say, so much we will set.”
This answer confused me. I thought that he should know better than me how many and which ones.
I say, "I like the breakouts."
He: "Well, let's breakout."
Me: "How much?"
He: "Well, let's go under each window?"
Me: "How many sections?"
He: "Well, let's do four."
Me: “Four isn’t enough?”
He: "Come on five."
Me: “Why five?”
He: “So they put it everywhere.”
I also thought: “Strange fitter. Doesn't know how to select radiators. We then somehow decided how much and where to put.
And in the first winter after the repair, my family and I were safely freezing in our house. Then I changed some radiators for more powerful ones, and increased others. In general, due to the incompetence of the installer, he solved a lot of headaches with heating.
Heated floors also had to be redone.
If you think that this is just such an inept fitter I got caught - you are mistaken. There are a lot of such "masters". And each of you runs the risk of working with this.
Read also:The first thing to do BEFORE installing the heating system is to calculate the heat loss. Such a calculation will show whether the power of underfloor heating is enough to heat the building or not; how much is not enough, what power additional thermal devices are needed.
The calculation of heat losses will help to avoid many mistakes in the construction of the heating system.
Mistake number 2: incorrect pipe pitch.
The step of the underfloor heating pipe is done as the installers are used to. Someone does 20 cm. Someone does 25. There are times when they make a pipe step of both 30 and 40 cm.
And this is the second common mistake that follows from the first mistake. There are no calculations of heat losses, so it is not clear what power needs to be compensated. Therefore, often installers do whatever they want.
The design of the warm floor, the pipe pitch are the calculated parameters. Making a pipe step of more than 20 cm is a big risk, you can get a temperature zebra. This is when the floor surface heats up unevenly, forming stripes.
Mistake number 3.
The third mistake: poor insulation under the floor heating pipes or no insulation at all. Unfortunate installers explain this by the fact that the heat rises, so the pipe can be laid without insulation: directly on concrete or on the ground. You can't do that.
A concrete screed has a thermal conductivity of thirty! times more than air. Therefore, thermal energy will, like everything in nature, strive to move to where there is the least resistance. Therefore, if you make underfloor heating without insulation, most of the heat will be dissipated in the structure or into the ground.
Mistake number 4.
Fourth mistake. Absence of compensation gaps - dampers. You know that materials expand when heated. And the screed, in which the pipes of the water-heated floor are mounted, will also expand when heated. And if it has nowhere to expand, it will begin to burst. The floor covering also begins to deform.
Mistake number 5.
Fifth mistake: long contours of floor heating pipes. Long circuits create a large hydraulic resistance, which entails a deterioration in the circulation of the coolant in the pipes of the underfloor heating.
Often this leads to the installation of more powerful circulation pumps. And this is pipe wear, high costs for the purchase of a pump, increased energy overruns. Or a broken system.
Mistake number 6.
Sixth mistake: a large number of circuits per collector group. According to building regulations, it is allowed to use a distribution manifold up to 8 circuits, according to European standards up to 12 circuits. It is better not to make underfloor heating zones with more than 12 circuits. There is a high risk of getting a non-working system.
Mistake number 7.
Seventh mistake: the circulation pump is incorrectly selected. A weak pump will not ensure the normal circulation of the coolant in the system. Which will lead to the lack of heating of part of the warm floor or the entire system. A powerful pump is expensive and wastes energy.
Mistake number 8.
Eighth mistake: regulation is incorrectly implemented, there are no mixing units, regulators. In this case, the warm one will overheat. Often, inexperienced installers mount the system without regulators, connecting the warm floor directly to the high-temperature system.
In rooms with such "warm floors" it is constantly hot and stuffy. Water heated floors are a low-temperature system in which the surface temperature should not exceed 35 degrees. This is achieved by using regulators, special valves and assemblies.
Mistake number 9.
Ninth mistake: too thin or too thick screed was made over the pipes of the water-heated floor. With a thin screed, the warm floor will heat unevenly, with a thick screed, the warm floor will heat up and cool down for a very long time. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable.
With heating, it’s understandable, I turned it on in the fall - half a day passed, and the floor warmed up.
Now imagine, on the street during the day +20, at night 0, the boiler is set to +22 in the room. In the morning the sun shines through the windows, quickly heating your floor, the boiler is turned off, and the heat from the screed will enter the room for several more hours.
And your floor will go from warm to hot. And in the evening or at night, the reverse process occurs: the house began to cool down, the boiler turned on, only the floor would warm up for several hours. And so every day.
Mistake number 10.
Tenth position in our chart. Wrong floor covering. I won’t comment on anything here, I think many people understand that the higher the thermal conductivity of the coating, the better.
But warm ones regularly turn out to be not very suitable materials: wood or carpets. When calculating heat loss and the system, again, flooring materials must be taken into account, which is often overlooked.
Mistake number 11.
Eleventh error: there are no air valves on the distribution manifolds. Air is the main enemy of any hydraulic heating system. Air must escape from the system, and if it is not possible to release it, sooner or later air plugs will appear that will block the circulation of the coolant in the system. The result: a poorly functioning or non-working system.
In this article, we will talk about 16 common mistakes that are most often made when installing a water heated floor. As a result, we get additional costs for equipment of higher power, energy costs, re-installation of underfloor heating and heating system, uncomfortable room temperature, uneven floor heating and deformation of the floor covering. And we do it all with our own hands
This is the worst mistake in (and any other heating system). When installing radiators of a heating system, one should not be guided by the same standards that are considered generally accepted in a house without underfloor heating. You should not install sectional batteries according to the number of windows in the room and based on the calculation of the area of the room. This can lead to a non-functioning system or increase unnecessary costs for installing a heating system.
If you install thermal appliances of less power than required, then the heating will eventually have to be completely redone: install additional radiators or increase the number of sections in the already installed ones.
According to the rules, the installer himself is obliged to calculate the number and power of radiators and underfloor heating. If a specialist suggests that you put radiators under each window opening, and the number of sections is determined by your desire or budget, then it is better to refuse immediately. In this case, there is a possibility that you will freeze in winter. As a result, you will have to change radiators to more powerful ones, or increase existing ones. Taking into account the cost of installation and dismantling of heating, an impressive amount is obtained. In addition, you may have to redo the heated floors themselves.
The first thing to do before installing a warm floor is to calculate the heat loss. Such a calculation will show whether the power of underfloor heating is enough to heat the building or not. It will allow you to determine the required power of additional thermal devices. This calculation avoids many errors.
The calculation takes into account such positions as the pitch of the underfloor heating pipe, the wall thickness and inner diameter of the pipe, the thickness of the reinforcing mesh, the total thickness of the screed, the offset from the bearing wall, the thickness of the insulation, the thickness of the screed above the pipe, the thickness and type of flooring, the thickness of the substrate or a layer of tile adhesive.
Incorrect pitch of the underfloor heating pipe
The pitch of the underfloor heating pipe in most cases is calculated by installers arbitrarily. It can be 20 cm, or maybe 25 cm. Sometimes they even make a pipe step of 30 and even 40 cm.
This is the second most common mistake for installing a warm floor with your own hands. It occurs due to the lack of calculation of heat loss. However, in the design of a warm floor, the pipe pitch has an exact value. By increasing the pipe pitch by more than 20 cm, you can get a temperature zebra when the floor surface warms up in stripes.
Poor or no insulation between underfloor heating pipes
Laying thermal insulation for underfloor heating
Often water floor heating installation produced without insulation.
Installers believe that the heat goes up and in connection with this they lay the pipe directly on concrete or on the ground. This approach is unacceptable. The fact is that the thermal conductivity of a concrete screed is 30 or more times greater than that of air. In this regard, thermal energy, according to the laws of physics, will be dissipated throughout the structure and go into the ground.
You will have high heating costs and it is unlikely that you will be warm
No damper
Materials tend to expand when heated. The screed, in which the floor heating pipes are mounted, will also expand when heated. This can lead to the fact that the pipe will simply burst. As a result, the floor covering is deformed. In this regard, special damper tapes must be installed around the perimeter of the underfloor heating installation. If the area of one zone of the warm floor is more than 40 m 2, it is advisable to divide it into parts. Therefore, there must be compensation gaps.
The length of the contour of the pipes of the warm floor
If you are going to do do-it-yourself underfloor heating installation, it should be taken into account that they create a large hydraulic resistance. As a result, the coolant in the pipes begins to circulate poorly. In this regard, when laying pipes with a diameter of 16 mm, it is recommended to make contours no more than 100 m long so as not to buy a more expensive powerful circulation pump. As a result of installing such a pump:
- Pipe wear is increasing.
- A larger pump costs more.
- The power consumption is increasing.
- Noises appear in the floor pipes.
All this can lead to the fact that such a system will not work.
Watch the video about the length of the installation of the underfloor heating pipe:
A large number of circuits per manifold group
According to building regulations, it is allowed to use no more than 8 circuits in one collector. European standards allow the installation of 12 circuits. With an increase in the contours, the chances for adequate operation of the system decrease.
Incorrectly selected circulation pump
Buying a pump that is more powerful than required can weaken your budget due to unnecessary energy overruns. Installing a weak pump often leads to the fact that part of the underfloor heating, and sometimes the entire system as a whole, does not warm up. As a result, you can get a warm floor in parts or a non-working system.
Incorrect regulation of warm floors
On the collector of the warm floor, adjustment is most often made
Often, inexperienced installers install a water-heated floor at homeby connecting the collectors directly. This leads to an increase in the temperature in the room. As a result, you will be either hot or stuffy. It must be remembered that the surface temperature of the floors should not exceed 35 0 C. This cannot be achieved without properly installed mixing units and regulators.
Too thin or too thick screed
Too thin screed can prevent uniform heating of the warm floor. A thick screed can significantly increase the heating and cooling time of a warm floor. It is very uncomfortable. Especially there are problems with cooling. When the house warms up to the desired temperature, the boiler will automatically turn off, and the floors will continue to give off heat to the room. As a result, the flooring will become very hot by the evening. At night, when the room temperature drops and the boiler turns on, the floor will remain cold until morning.
Wrong floor covering
Even the correct installation of a warm floor may not guarantee you comfort. Most often, the temperature of a warm floor depends on the floor covering. The higher the thermal conductivity of the coating, the better. On warm floors very often there are not very suitable materials made of wood or carpets. When calculating the heat loss of the system, it is necessary to take into account what materials are used in the floor coverings. This point is often overlooked.
Lack of air vents in distribution manifolds
Air vent example
Air is the enemy of any hydraulic heating system. Air must be purged from the system periodically. If it is not possible to release it, sooner or later an air lock appears, which will block the circulation of the coolant in the system. As a result, you end up with a poorly performing or non-performing system. In this regard, either Mayevsky cranes or air vents are installed on the collectors.
Incorrect order of connecting circuits to the manifold
Installing a warm floor with your own hands often leads to this most typical mistake. It occurs when the circuit itself and the return of the circuit are placed on the same collector. As a result, this circuit does not work. It looks like this. On top is the supply manifold. The pipe from it goes to the water supply to the system and returns to the same collector, to another outlet. The result is a dead loop.
Sometimes during installation they violate the sequence of connecting the circuits to the collectors. When installing the collector, it is desirable that each circuit is connected to the collector in order, that is, the supply of this circuit must coincide with the same connection point on the return collector. The next circuit is the second valve on the supply and the second valve on the return manifold. Due to the change of order by the installers, difficulties may arise with the regulation of the circuit, which can lead to an inoperative circuit or an entire zone. Such a floor heating system can be very difficult to set up.
Damage or clogging of pipes during work
It can be:
- Pipe creases during the installation of a warm floor.
- Pipe compression during screed installation.
- Drilling or all kinds of punctures.
- Clogging of the pipe with sand or cement mortars during construction work.
In general, this includes everything that will interfere with the normal circulation of the coolant.
According to our statistics, pipes are often punctured. Then someone for some reason will drill the floors, or make some kind of strobes. This is also possible with subsequent repair work around the house. Then some painter or electrician will put scaffolds on the pipes of the warm floor before they make the screed. This needs to be monitored.
Incorrect connection of floor heating pipes and radiators
It must be remembered that radiator pipes and floor heating pipes have different temperature conditions.
Installation of a water heated floor requires additional installation of collectors. Connecting a warm floor with your own hands and a heating system to one collector will make it difficult to balance the system in the future. This is due to the fact that the coolant in the radiators should warm up to 60 0 C - 80 0 C, and the temperature of the warm floor should not exceed 35 0 C.
Therefore, these systems should not be combined in one collector node.
Use of poor quality materials
In this case, you should always remember that savings must be reasonable. So, by installing low-quality components or valves, you are guaranteed to get a flood after a while. By saving on the quality of cement used to screed the floor or on its quantity, you risk installing the entire system from scratch.
Lack of hydraulic testing of the system after its installation
This is the most common mistake. The heating system during the installation process with your own hands several times. When installing a new heating system in a house or during a major overhaul, pressure testing should be done several times. The first time it is made at the moment when the system was just mounted. The second time pressure testing should be done after installing drywall in the same room where we install underfloor heating. The third crimping occurs after the completion of rough finishing work. It is advisable to complete it before laying tiles, wallpapering, installing skirting boards.
The process of laying a warm floor, especially for a non-professional, has many nuances that are better to know. Below we will consider the main mistakes when installing a warm electric floor.
- Incorrect calculation of materials. When calculating either the size of the mats, you need to use only the free area of \u200b\u200bthe room, which will not be cluttered with furniture, appliances and other objects. If you install a warm floor under large-sized objects, the system will overheat in these places, due to which it will fail.
- Incorrect calculation of the power of the warm floor. The desire to save money by deliberately choosing less power than necessary leads to insufficient heating. Such a floor will heat up extremely slowly and will bring you one disappointment. It is necessary to correctly calculate the power for heating the room, taking into account heat losses.
- Buying a Shorter Cable and laying it out with a big step. Leads to the same consequences as the previous point.
- Incorrectly calculated heating cable lay-out system without observing the distances between adjacent lines (10-12 cm) will create a "zebra effect". When heating the TP, tangible zones of a more heated and less heated floor are formed.
- Shortening the heating cable. Some craftsmen believe that if a cable that is too long has been chosen, then the cable can be shortened without problems. However, the heating cables must not be cut! leads to an increase in resistance, an increase in its power, overheating and failure! If you still have a cable, you need to reduce the laying step (minimum laying step is 6 cm) or increase the heated area.
- Crossing and excessive convergence of heating cable threads. Resistive heating cable should not have points of contact and intersection and close proximity of lines. The minimum distance is usually 6-7 cm, depending on the power of the heating cable. Violation of this requirement leads to overheating and failure of the heating cable.
- Not respecting the bending radius of the heating cable. The minimum bend radius is usually 5 to 10 cable diameters.
- Connection to the thermostat of underfloor heating sections, whose total power will exceed the power of the thermostat.
Can only be done throughcontactor.
- Close (less than 10 cm) location to heating systems.
- Before pouring the floor with concrete, it is recommended to put wooden bars between the cable loops, on which boards are then laid. These bridges will help not to damage the cable when pouring concrete.
- Tacking the cable with gypsum plaster.
- Use of shallow sockets for mounting.
- Use of metal spatulas. When laying tiles on the surface of the mats, make sure that the masters use only rubber spatulas. Very often, tile laying masters ignore this issue.
- Storage on a cable not filled with a screed, tools, materials, installation of a ladder.
- Uneven screed thickness and exceeding the recommended screed thickness. The thickness of the cement-sand screed (DSP) must be at least 30 millimeters. Thermal insulation must be installed, for example, on balconies. Moreover, in this case, it is necessary to lay not 3-5 mm, but not less than 50 mm of heat-insulating material and 40 mm DSP on top.
- Lack of thermal insulation. If you will use or when laying the heating cable in cold rooms, it is necessary to lay thermal insulation
- Lack of a scheme for laying a warm floor. Don't forget to draw the layout of the underfloor heating! When doing this, indicate the distance to walls and other objects, the location of the end sleeves and couplings, and the location of the sensor. The diagram will always come in handy when you subsequently need to drill the floor to install doors with a threshold, plumbing and door strikers.
- Turning on the underfloor heating ahead of time. Do not turn on the warm floor so that the “screed dries faster”! It is necessary to wait several weeks depending on the thickness and type of mortar used. SNiPs standardize the period of 28 days. If you turn on the floor before the due date, it may fail.
- Walking on the heating cable in hard shoes. This can damage the conductors and insulation. Try to bypass the coils of the heating element. If you really need to walk on it, do it with caution, in shoes with soft soles. Exclude the presence of unauthorized workers and other people in the room where the heated floor is being installed.
- Errors when laying the floor temperature sensor. A corrugated tube with a cable laid in it with an end must be laid in a strobe below the cable laying level and the sensor must fall exactly in the middle between adjacent turns of the cable. Or if the sensor is laid at floor level, the tube with the sensor runs parallel to adjacent cable lines and is up to 50 cm away from the wall. the entire floor, which leads to energy overruns.
- The underfloor heating sensor is installed in the screed without a corrugated tube, which leads to the impossibility of a simple replacement of the temperature sensor when it fails.
- The end of the corrugation must be airtight so that the solution does not get on the sensor.
- Sharp bend or turn of the corrugated tube for the floor temperature sensor. If the half-wall transition is not smooth, then it will also be impossible to change the temperature sensor in the future
- Using regular tile adhesive or cement-sand screed without the addition of plasticizers. The use of mixtures not designed to work with underfloor heating leads to the destruction of the screed or tile. You can read more about choosing tile adhesive.
- Air voids around the heating cable. This is especially true when laying the so-called. “thin” heating cable or mats in tile adhesive. Failure to comply with this requirement in order to save the solution or simply out of ignorance will lead to overheating and failure of the cables. It is necessary to completely cover the heating cable with a layer of tile adhesive or cement-sand screed
- Use one heating cable/mat for heating different rooms. Since the built-in or remote sensor controls the temperature in the specific room where it is installed, and turns the heating of the cable/mat on and off when the desired comfortable temperature is reached. The same heating time of another room will lead to overheating or underheating of rooms that differ in volume.
- Neglect of measurements of the resistance of a warm floor and insulation resistance before and after laying, check the results obtained with the numbers indicated in the product passport (taking into account the indicated error), their coincidence means that the cable is intact. Write down the measurements in the passport with the date of installation.
- It is forbidden to turn on the cable to check the functionality until the moment when it is laid (especially in the bay) and the mortar is completely dry! Plugging in the cable under such conditions may damage it.
- Do not lay the heating cable on a dirty or dusty surface.. During installation, make sure that the warm floor does not lie on construction debris, otherwise, after pouring the screed under mechanical stress, it will quickly fail. To clean the floor, use an industrial vacuum cleaner and treat the surface with a primer
At first glance, it is very simple to install water-type underfloor heating. It is very important to do everything correctly and with the greatest efficiency of its work. Often, novice builders are faced with such problems when a warm water floor does not heat up. There can be a large number of reasons here, and each of them lies in the technology itself and the sequence of execution of each layer. If you give up on one point of the whole process, then in the end you will not be able to get anything positive.
Correct Foundation
Prior to the start, all measures should be taken to carry out preparatory activities. The base should be cleaned of debris and dust, as all this will adversely affect the operation of the system. If the surface is uneven, then many will find that everything can be smoothed out by subsequent pouring of a concrete screed along the contour. Such installation errors of a warm water floor are often found among those who first start laying the contour.
For a warm water floor, there must be a very flat surface at the base. All irregularities can only damage the pipeline. In addition, in the future, the concrete screed will not have an equal thickness over the contour. Therefore, you can not think about uniform heating of the floor in the room.
In addition, the walls in the room must also be brought to a normal state. That is, they happen, if necessary, they are plastered, cut off in certain places. If this is not done, then the damper tape will no longer adjoin the walls tightly, and sag in some areas. They will no longer be able to show their main function.
Material calculation
For the full functioning of the underfloor heating system, it is necessary to correctly calculate the underfloor heating, or rather the amount of materials for installation. Mats for underfloor heating as insulation, as well as the length of the pipeline is calculated based not on the total area of \u200b\u200bthe room, but on its useful volume. That is, not the entire base of the floor will be covered by the outline. Areas with located furniture, plumbing fixtures, etc., are circled, since they will not let heat into the room, overheating of a separate section of the laid pipes may occur. 
These errors in the installation of a warm water floor lead to subsequent work on the dismantling of the floor covering, concrete screed, and the identification of a problem area of the underfloor heating circuit. All this takes not only time, but also finances. The calculation technology includes all the subtleties and allows you to get accurate results.
Heat shrink tape
When, measures are taken for a quality device on the wall of a tape that compensates for the thermal expansion of the concrete screed. 
As mentioned earlier, before fixing it, you should prepare the walls, align them. In addition to this, all electrical wires and communications should be bypassed with a damper tape so that it fits snugly against the wall.
If you mount the tape just like, in the future you will not have to rely on high-quality pouring of the concrete screed. A solution will penetrate through it from the side of the wall, which in the future during operation will not allow the tape to show all its qualities. Problems will begin with the floor surface, damage to the floor covering.
Thermal insulation device
The lower sections of the damper tape are best pressed with a layer where polystyrene is most often used. But it is worth remembering that he will not be able to compensate for those irregularities that may be on the basis of the subfloor. Prior to its installation, all garbage collection activities should also be carried out.
If the work is performed by specialists for a fee, then it is best to control this process. After all, they can lay polystyrene very quickly, and you will no longer know what the foundation was there. Sometimes even when passing through this layer, you can feel defects from under the bottom.
"Pie" underfloor heating When the water does not heat, the reasons can be completely different. But to a greater extent, they start from the very base, from the insulation layer. Even manufacturers recommend arranging a thickness of 100 mm. Especially when it comes to the presence of a basement without heating. If you spend less money on the purchase of material, that is, save money, then the layer will turn out to be about 30-50 mm. But during the period of warming up the room from, part of the heat will be spent on heating the lower section, from the basement side. Heating costs will rise and the room will not be warm enough.
Reflective film
To improve the quality of heat transfer exactly inside the house, it will not be superfluous to lay a special reflective tape on the polystyrene. 
It additionally has markings with a division of 50 mm for better fixation in the subsequent pipeline. According to the rules, it must be mounted strictly exactly without deviations and at the same time refuel for. This can only be done when the polystyrene is pressed tightly against the walls of the room through a damper tape. These are also common mistakes in laying a water-heated floor. Some generally simply cut the film around the perimeter of the location of the edges of the polystyrene along the walls, glue it with adhesive tape to fix it. It is impossible to use such material as adhesive tape, since it is used exclusively for packaging, and it is harmful to human health.
When the film is mounted on the base, you can start laying the reinforcing layer in the form of a metal mesh. It will not be a mistake to lay a water-heated floor with a reinforcement device on top of the pipeline before pouring the screed. It's like two alternatives.
Errors when installing pipes
When the reflective film is laid, you can proceed with the installation of a warm floor. At the same time, it is important to choose its diameter, dimensions, total length, height and other characteristics for the correct calculation of a warm floor. It is worth remembering that you still need to choose a pipeline laying scheme, and not experiment with your desires. 
The standard version of pipes for underfloor heating in diameter is 16 mm. Some use 20 mm, but in this case, the installation process will take longer and become somewhat more complicated. In addition, the consumption of water supplied through the system pipeline will increase. An exception is if you want to warm up a large area of \u200b\u200bthe room. In all other cases, it is better to spend more money on the device in order to eliminate heat loss.
A very small number of performers carry out the following activities, which are very important in order to eliminate errors in the installation of a water-heated floor:
If all this is done and reflected in a schematic plan, then it will be possible to see areas in the room with problems, as well as possible difficulties in the installation process. must be drawn before actual execution. Some simply believe that even without it, everyone knows for themselves how best to do it. No one wants to waste time on such seemingly trifles.
Without an organized scheme, laying a pipeline is a complete chaos that will not lead to any positive result. At any stage, the installation of a warm water floor requires a competent calculation and careful approach.
It should also be remembered that some places based on gender require more attention from the performers. This applies primarily to the outer walls from the side of the street. They require more insulation. Some make mistakes and run only one pipe directly against the wall. Throughout the rest of the perimeter, everything is evenly spaced. To achieve uniform heating, the laying of the pipeline is carried out with a smaller step near such walls.
The indentation at the walls is carried out for the subsequent installation of the plinth after the floor covering, as well as possible engineering low-current systems. There will definitely be no order here.
pipe bending
Frequent mistakes are made when bending the pipe to arrange a certain angle of the system. This is where skill comes in handy. 
It is easier to work with metal-plastic pipes than from. For such actions, there are improvised means in the form of springs, but everything is still carried out mainly by hand, which is more efficient. In addition, when using an external spring and creating an angle of 90 degrees, it simply clamps. You will have to spend a lot of effort to pull it out of the resulting bend, stretch it along the entire pipeline to the next section. Not only the back will begin to suffer, but also the knees.
On the network you can find a large number of videos that allow you to bend yourself and without any extra effort. You do not have to buy various pipe benders and advertised funds, spend money on them.
If you do not comply with elementary requirements, everything will turn out crooked and oblique. This can be said not so much as errors in the installation of a water-heated floor, but shortcomings that lead to disastrous consequences and poor heating of the floor base around the entire perimeter of the room.
Pipe bending rules Choice of laying step
When marking is done on the basis for laying the pipeline, not always even specialists can place everything correctly. The pitch must be maintained throughout the entire contour. And it turns out a spread of up to 100 mm. The exception here is the reduction of the step in certain areas, such as, for example, at the outer walls.
The choice of step will depend on the power of the circuit. The higher it is, the smaller the step should be. In addition, the distance from the wall to the pipeline must be maintained, which is usually 30 cm. The maximum length of one circuit is 90 m. This is done in order not to lose heat throughout the pipeline.
Some may say that under the floor screed, no defects in the location of the pipeline, compliance with the laying step, will be visible. But only people who do not understand the operation of the system can say this. As a result, the base of the floor will receive heat unevenly over the entire plane, there will be areas with a cold surface, and there will be no efficiency from the operation of a warm floor.
Furniture arrangement
It should not be located in those areas where massive furniture will subsequently stand. Under it there is no point in warming up. True, in the future, difficulties may arise if you want to make a permutation. After all, there may be places where the floor will not receive heat.
To avoid mistakes in laying the water heater, you should pay special attention to built-in furniture, monolithic shelving, kitchens, wardrobes, etc. All of them will definitely not require high-quality heating. Under them, you can forget about laying the pipeline.
When a warm floor is mounted under household appliances such as a refrigerator or a washing machine, the circuit may fail, there will be overheating of individual sections.
Danger in violations
Not everyone knows what problems can be encountered if errors are made in the installation of a warm water floor. When they heat poorly, you should think about possible shortcomings in the installation process.
When arranging uneven layers of the entire "pie" of the warm floor, the bending angle of the pipeline will be different. Therefore, the uniformity of heating the base of the floor cannot be achieved. Large costs await those who do not want to carry out preliminary calculations of the underfloor heating system. To do this, it is enough to schematically display the entire contour on a piece of paper on a scale. 
It often happens that after working properly for one or two seasons, the electric underfloor heating suddenly stops heating. If he played the role of additional heating for you, then you can still somehow postpone this.
Call a specialist, wait for repairs. But when, this is the only and main source of heating in the house, is it possible to find the cause of the breakdown with your own hands and eliminate it yourself?
In most cases it is possible, but a lot depends on the location of the damage and the cause. Here are the main three:
Mounting errors
If your warm floor still heats up, but badly, turns off too often without reaching the desired temperature, the problem may initially lie in the incorrect location of the temperature sensor. 
It turns out that even at the installation stage, you placed it too close to the heating cable. Or it has shifted at the time of laying the flooring.
When the sensor is placed in the corrugation according to the instructions, you can try to solve the problem by pushing it in or pulling it out of the corrugated tube by 5 cm. 
If such problems with insufficient warming up appeared recently, remember where this indicator is located. It is quite possible that it was on him that someone moved and placed some furniture or laid a rug.
Because of this, the sensor began to warm up the floor in this place faster, and, accordingly, turn off earlier than usual. 
Another weak warm-up can be caused by low voltage in the network in your apartment. Take measurements with a voltmeter. 
Failure of the thermostat
When the electric underfloor heating does not turn on at all, troubleshooting should begin with the thermostat. First, pull it out of the seat so that all the terminals are visible. 
If you have an electronic type, when dismantling it, never press your fingers on the screen, otherwise it may crack. 
First of all, check with a multimeter if 220V comes to the thermostat at all? Maybe it's not the floor, but all the problems in the power cable.
Use a multimeter or voltmeter, and not a simple indicator that simply shows the presence of a phase. The phase may come, but there will be no zero - hence the failure of the entire system. 
On most thermostats, manufacturers sign and mark all terminals:
To do this, it is enough to disassemble the regulator and then you will see that zero is fed directly through the track to the heating cable. The phase is broken through the relay. For example, this is exactly what is done in the RTC 70.26 model. 
That is, if you mix up the "polarity", then the phase will always be on duty on your warm floor. Even when the built-in switch is turned off! Be careful.
Of course, there may be another designation of the terminals:
If there is voltage at the power terminals and it is normal, then be sure to double-check the reliability of the contacts in the remaining clamps.
It happens that over time, the contact is weakened and the thin wiring simply falls out and stops contacting. As a result, the underfloor heating software gives this as an error - “Accident. Breakage of the underfloor heating sensor.” 
It seems that they touched the thermostat or turned on and off the general machine and it all worked. You start looking for a problem somewhere deep, and it is on the surface - bad contact in the terminal block.
Damage and check of the temperature sensor
When there are no problems with the contacts, you need to check the performance of the regulator itself and the sensor. How to do it without breaking the floor?
To do this, connect an ordinary light bulb with a cartridge to those terminals where the underfloor heating cable is connected. Apply voltage and start to unscrew the regulator by changing the temperature. 
If the device is in good condition and a certain (room or lower) temperature is reached, a click will occur and the light will light up. 
Then take a regular hair dryer and start warming up the place on the floor where the temperature sensor is installed. 
If it is really serviceable, then after a couple of minutes (depending on the thickness of the screed), the sensor should work and the light will turn off. This means that the reason is most likely the damage to the heating cable itself and the control equipment has nothing to do with it.
But sometimes the devices themselves are damaged. If, when the underfloor heating is turned on, the indicator starts blinking and goes out, after which the cable naturally does not heat up, then it is possible that the capacitor in your circuit has dried up. 
This often happens during long-term operation of a warm floor from 5 years or more. When the green LED blinks, this may indicate a sensor break. 
The reverse situation also occurs. The floor warms up, but the thermostat does not turn off. That is, the red indicator is constantly on. How to check what is wrong?
Disconnect the thermistor wires from the terminals and measure its resistance with a multimeter, comparing it with the passport data. Moreover, the characteristics of different manufacturers can vary significantly. Starting from 6 kOhm and ending with 100 kOhm and more. 
If it turned out to be very high or infinite resistance, then the sensor is not working. The thermostat thinks that the floor is cold and accordingly heats it to the maximum. The same thing happens when the wires leading to the sensor break.
Many more are afraid that if you increase the length of the wires to the thermostat, then the total resistance will change dramatically, and the device will not work correctly.
Think for yourself - the resistance of such thermistors is several kOhm. And you, having increased a couple of extra meters, add only a few ohms. The error in setting the temperature practically does not change.
Short circuit protection
No fuses are usually installed in thermostats, do not look for them inside. In fact, the function of a fuse in electric underfloor heating systems should be performed by an automatic switch + RCD or diff. automatic in your shield. 
In some models of regulators (for example RTC 70), there is a built-in switch. They can manually, without running to the electrical panel, turn off the heated floors. 
Many mistakenly think that it is through it that all the current passes to the heating cable. This is not true. This switch is only responsible for supplying power to the board, hence its low operating current - 6A. 
Setting the operation of a warm floor with a faulty sensor
Electronic models, unlike mechanical ones, should themselves help users in identifying faults. For example, if the temperature sensor breaks down, non-typical values or error E5 should be displayed on their screen. 
- unplug the wires to the sensor
- switch thermostat to timer mode
Some models do this automatically, in other types you need to hold down the up and down buttons at the same time. 
- program number is displayed on the screen
In mechanical brands, such as DeviReg 130, this method is also applicable. Pull out the wires from the sensor and unscrew the adjusting wheel between positions 3-4. 
In this mode, it will be possible to achieve the optimal comfortable temperature of underfloor heating. True, you will always have them turned on.
And if there is no obvious break, and the multimeter even shows some values, how do you know that the thermistor is faulty? It is necessary to compare his passport data with those that are actually determined during measurements.
For example, the thermostat's factory data is 15kΩ at t=25C. 
And here is what the tester shows when measuring: 
Here, of course, you need to take into account the temperature coefficient. If it is negative, then with an increase in t from 25C, the resistance will fall. At lower temperatures, the resistance increases.
That is, it will be higher than 15 kOhm. Here is the result of measuring the same serviceable sensor at t already 20C: 
You can familiarize yourself with high-quality thermostats, temperature sensors and other components from leading companies, as well as current prices for underfloor heating today.
Damage to the heating cable and heating mat
If you checked the sensor, the thermostat, all the contacts and there are no comments on their work, and the floor still does not heat, then it remains to look for damage in the heating cable itself.
A clear short circuit can be diagnosed with a simple multimeter. But to establish its exact place, alas, one cannot do without special expensive devices.
At the beginning of the diagnostics with a tester, check the resistance between the cable cores. It should be within the factory data - from 11 to 700 ohms, depending on the length. 
Therefore, always keep passport documentation for underfloor heating. Paste nameplates from cable products there, record the readings of the initial insulation resistance and core resistance.
Then, if problems arise, it will be easy to determine what kind of cable is laid, its length, factory resistance. It also does not interfere with taking a photo or sketching the styling zones. 
If there is no short circuit between the wires, then the matter is in poor insulation, let's move on. Check the resistance, again with a tester, between the core and the screen.
Here, the readings should tend to infinity - or one is displayed on the left side of the current clamp screen. At zero readings, everything is clear - the vein somewhere is clearly closed to the screen. 
But if the multimeter shows a resistance of several hundred ohms or even kOhm, then connect a 2500V megger and apply increased voltage between the braid and the heating core. 
And if at the same time your insulation resistance drops to zero, then this says that the cable is broken and you need to look for the place of damage. 
Moreover, at a lower voltage of 500V or 1000V, this may not be recognized. 
For new heating cables from quality manufacturers (Devi, Veria, etc.), the resistance must be at least 1 GΩ at a voltage of 2.5 kV. 
For example, manufacturers at the factory test heating mats with a voltage of 3 kV with immersion in water.
Cable burning and signal generator
To find the exact location of the malfunction, you need to have specialized devices, which are:
If you are still at the stage of checking with a multimeter, it showed the closure of two wires to each other, then you don’t need to burn anything here. Immediately connect a generator to them and look for a point.
Breakage of the heating cable core
Well, another common situation is a wire break. This is one of the worst accidents ever. It is impossible to burn the cable, there is no short circuit, and even a thermal imager is useless here. 
Most often, such damage occurs in the couplings - the initial, connecting or terminal. 
There, the heating veins are very thin, and often in this place, for some reason, they manage to make a turn of the route. 
With a clear break, both the multimeter and the megohmmeter will show the resistance between the wires close to infinity. But if some kind of unstable contact still remains, then the tester can show quite good data, for example, 200-300 ohms.
That's just when turned on under a voltage of 220V, there will be no full-fledged heating, and the operating current will be a maximum of several milliamps, instead of the prescribed load of several amperes. 
As a result, the cable will barely warm up, and naturally there can be no talk of any normal heating.
Often even burning is useless here. And all that remains is to disassemble the most suspicious places, first of all, those tiles under which the couplings are installed. 
Theoretically, you can try to apply the methods of finding wiring under the plaster. 
In splices, the cable will not be completely shielded. And by applying voltage to the core, you can try to detect a signal where the phase disappears, i.e. right at the break point. But a lot will depend on the depth of occurrence and the specifics of the damage.
