Barefoot through the cold season

Sum­mer just flew by and soon autumn will be knock­ing at the door accom­pan­ied by cool­er tem­per­at­ures. Leav­ing the warmth of your bed in the morn­ing and step­ping bare­foot on the freez­ing cold bed­room or bath­room floor is not a good start to the day. But it does­n’t have to be that way. Under­floor heat­ing sys­tems offer cosy warmth and com­fort that allows res­id­ents to walk around bare­foot in all sea­sons. Even the ancient Romans appre­ci­ated the bene­fits of a “hypo­caust” or heated floor. In Ger­many, under­floor heat­ing has become increas­ingly pop­u­lar since the 1970s.

Cosy warmth is by no means the only advant­age of under­floor heat­ing. Without radi­at­ors on the walls, the interi­or of the room can be designed and fur­nished much more freely. At the same time, the room requires less heat­ing since the heat is radi­ated evenly from below and reflec­ted by walls and ceil­ings. At around 35 degrees Celsi­us, the flow tem­per­at­ure of under­floor heat­ing sys­tems is also lower than that of clas­sic radi­at­ors. This saves energy and thus heat­ing costs.

The floor­ing mater­i­als of choice on under­floor heat­ing are ceram­ic tiles and nat­ur­al stone. They fea­ture excel­lent heat stor­age capa­city and thermal con­duct­iv­ity. With par­quet floors, the right choice of wood is import­ant: oak and wal­nut are best suited for con­duct­ing heat. How­ever, small par­quet strips are recom­men­ded since wood expands under the influ­ence of heat and tends to form joints. Fin­ished par­quet is there­fore best suited. But also car­pet, PVC, lam­in­ate and cork can be installed on top of under­floor heat­ing sys­tems if this use has been approved by the respect­ive man­u­fac­turer. It is advis­able to have the floor cov­er­ing bon­ded over its entire sur­face by a pro­fes­sion­al floorer instead of choos­ing loose lay or float­ing install­a­tion. In the case of full-bond install­a­tion, no sep­ar­at­ing air lay­er can form between floor­ing and sub­strate. This not only allows the heat to enter the room more quickly and effi­ciently, but also sig­ni­fic­antly reduces the foot­fall sound.

A fur­ther plus: The absence of radi­at­ors means that no dust is whirled up. The dry floor heat inhib­its the growth of house dust mites and also pre­vents the form­a­tion of mold. Floor heat­ing sys­tems are there­fore more hygien­ic. Two thirds of the emit­ted heat is radi­ant heat – this also improves the indoor air qual­ity. The res­ult: Even more com­fort and a bet­ter cli­mate – espe­cially for allergy suf­fer­ers.