How To Heat Marble Tile Floors

If you’ve recently built or bought a home with marble tile floors, you might be wondering what steps to take to ensure your feet are always warm and toasty even in the cold winter months. Marble, while a great choice for floors and counter-tops, can get really cold and uncomfortable. The good news is that there are steps you can take to ensure that your love for all things marble doesn’t interfere with your comfort. Floor warming is probably your best choice when it comes to ensuring your floor remains at comfortable temperatures throughout.

TOE KICK HEATERS

Toe kick heater and in-floor heating are the two main options that you have when it comes to heating your beautiful marble floors. In terms of pricing, the two options cost roughly the same. The total amount you spend will be contingent mainly on the total square foot area of the space you want to heat. In order to properly install radiant heating, it is important to measure the area of the floor and plot this on a graph paper while carefully noting which fixtures are in the room you want heated. This is necessary so that you know how many mats or toe kick heaters you will require in total.

The best thing about toe kick heaters is that they require less work because they are not installed underneath the marble tiles. If you have a small bathroom that has a vanity, toe kick heaters are a good choice since you simply have to install the unit at the base of the vanity sink cabinet. The downside of toe kick heaters is that there is usually a lot of electrical work required to get them installed. Usually the heaters are 120-volt, so tapping into an existing circuit might be sufficient. However, it is best to involve a licensed electrician to do the electrical work.

UNDERFLOOR HEATING FOR MARBLE FLOORS

Underfloor heating is a popular choice among homeowners today. The best thing is that it can be installed on new or existing floors. Tile and stone floors are perfect for use with underfloor heating systems. This is because they heat up really fast and retain most of the heat too. They thus cause the system to be more efficient.

• Underfloor Heating for Marble Floors

Although marble is mostly used in bathroom and kitchen floors, the material is durable and easy to clean and can be used in other areas like laundry rooms and corridors. Because of their low thermal resistance and high thermal mass, marble floor types are ideal for conservatories and areas that are susceptible to high heat loss. What is even better is the fact that marble floors can be heated more than 84 degrees F. This allows for the use of heaters with a heat output of 20W per square foot. Marble floors are perfect for use with any underfloor heating cable. At Heavenly Heat Inc. we have a wide selection of products for you to pick from.

• Electric Systems for Marble Floors

The marble floors are ideal for use with both hydronic and electric underfloor heating systems. It is, however, important to note that the electric under floor heating mats are more popular with marble floors. Our heating mats at Heavenly Heat Inc. are perfect for regular shaped rooms whereas our heating cables are ideal for the irregular rooms with numerous fixtures. The right system for your room is, however, dependent on the shape and size of your room, the subfloor type as well as the nature of the project.

• High Thermal Conductivity

Marble floors make the most efficient and functional type of flooring to use with underfloor heating. Marble has a high thermal conductivity. This simply means it transfers heat quite efficiently from the heating cable to the surface of the floor. Marble also retains a significant amount of heat which leads to more efficiency. It is a perfect choice because it heats up fast and retains most of the heat. This leads to significant energy efficiency.

• Ideal for Bathrooms and Kitchens

There is nothing worse than stepping out of the shower or bathtub onto a cold floor. It is for this reason that underfloor heating under marble floors is desired in bathrooms and kitchens. It is also chosen for the high heat loss area because marble retains most of the heat which means the heating system will not have to work overtime to maintain the desired heat. What’s more, marble floors can be heated to a temperature of up to 84 degrees F which offers optimal control as well as comfort in any living space.

There are so many benefits that come with underfloor heating especially when you have marble floors. The heating will take out the chill of your marble floors and keep your home warm. The thermostat will help maintain the desired temperature throughout.

• In-floor Heating

This type of heating is best done before you install your marble tile floor. As such, it is a good option for a homeowner who is looking to remodel their bathroom or who is building a new bathroom. For existing bathrooms, installing this heating might be a lot of work and expensive as well. For the installation, you simply have to gently secure the heating mats in place underneath the tiles. You can use glue, staples or double-sided tape for this. The heating mats are interconnected to form a complete circuit in order to ensure that the heat is evenly distributed to the floor.

Heated floors are becoming increasingly popular among homeowners because of several reasons. For starters, no one likes to live in a cold house. Secondly, no one wants to spend a fortune heating their home when they could do it for less. Heated flooring solves this problem by ensuring that your home stays warm and toasty and your heating bills are much lower than they would be if you relied solely on HVAC. Lastly, heated flooring has been shown to increase the home value, ensuring you fetch a good price should you decide to re-sell your home.