Am I Required to Heat or Cool My Concrete Floors?

If you’re thinking about adding concrete flooring to your home or business, you might wonder whether you need to include a heating element. As you may know, concrete can be extremely cold in the winter, yet retain a lot of heat in the summertime. Do you need to heat or cool your concrete in order to stay comfortable?

Here’s a guide to the heating or cooling of concrete to help you know what to do.

Concrete has a high thermal mass

Concrete has a high thermal mass, which means that it can absorb heat from the environment and hold on to it longer. Conversely, your concrete floor can be quite cold to the touch in the cooler months, since the sun won’t be shining directly on your indoor floors. Area rugs can make it more comfortable, but the bottom line is that it’s just not fun to wake up and set your feet on an icy floor.

Radiant heating and cooling

Radiant heating and cooling under your floors can solve a number of problems. In the cooler months, you’ll guarantee that your floors are comfortable to walk on and won’t absorb too much heat from the ambient surroundings.

Installing radiant heat underneath your floors is a smart solution. Not only will you have the benefits of a fireplace, traditional heater or radiator, but your floors will stay a lot warmer, too. That means you can enjoy the minimalist industrial look of polished concrete, without wearing socks and slippers year-round.

Cooling, on the other hand, probably isn’t as necessary. Concrete tends to stay cool in the shade, so as long as the sun isn’t beating down on your floors, they shouldn’t affect your home or business’s indoor temperature as severely.

Typically, radiant floor heating only needs to heat up to 85°F. Traditional radiators have to be heated to levels between 124°F and 167°F. Not only will you save energy on radiant floor heating, but it will contribute to your home’s overall ambient temperature. Better yet, you’ll avoid those annoying cold spots in your home and on the floor.

Radiant floor heating requires virtually no maintenance and can go a long way toward keeping your home comfortable and warm during the summer. If you’re thinking about installing polished concrete floors, consider making it possible to heat those floors all year long.

Get the concrete you need

Whether you’re working indoors, outdoors or a combination of the two, concrete is one of the world’s most versatile building materials. Kwiatkowski Construction Co., Inc. specializes in concrete. Call on us to lay concrete foundations, floors, patios, driveways, walkways and more. We can also provide decorative stamped concrete, fire pits, retaining walls and other landscaping needs.

If you have questions about the heating or cooling of concrete, whether to spring for polished concrete floors or any other questions, give our team a call today. We’ll be glad to help you decide what you want and need for your home or business—and provide on-site estimates, too.

Categorised in: Concrete Flooring

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