RADIANT FLOOR

It's probably time to discuss HVAC, or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, to the uninitiated.  My wife and design partner, Amy, hates air conditioning, and I'm ambivalent.  It does make me feel clammy indoors and then overwhelmed when I go back outside.  Our climate is a gray area.  It does get hot in the summer - up to 100 degrees in the extreme - but we're at the foot of the mountains, so each night a cool wash of air comes straight down the valley and drops the nighttime lows into the 60's.  Our cooling system, therefore, is fairly simple:  a whole house fan for nighttime ventilation and circulating cool creek water through the slab, just down to the dew point.  Amy does like heat, however, so this system is a bit more complicated.  Our primary heat source will be a wood-fired masonry heater.  It's essentially a wood stove made of brick, and I'll share more about this decision later.  Our second system is the radiant floor, powered primarily by a wood-fired, exterior boiler.  This will serve the first floor topping slab only, and will be supplemented by radiators on the second floor. 

The radiant floor piping layout, with plywood walk-boards to keep from squashing the radiant pipe.  All pipes originate from and return to the mechanical area to the left.

The beginning of the topping slab.  We're pouring a 3" 'topping slab' over the original 4" rough slab.  We wanted a finished concrete floor and were concerned - in hindsight, justifiably - with building over the finished floor, so we framed over the rough slab and then poured the finished floor on top.

The topping slab begins to spread...

 

The first area is leveled with a vibratory screed and allowed to begin to set.

The topping slab is complete, and finishing has begun.

And this is the completed, troweled slab.  Next is a final buffing the next day and a coat of sealer.