Slab floor / Discussions

...slab on grade floor, would be a heated floor. here is out page all about different under floor radiant heating systems. Cooling is a different matter, some people put in air-to-air heat pumps cooling, and radiant cooling is something of a contentious topic but can work, as long as you don't 'over' cool the floor to the...

...slab on grade foundation starts with building it on a suitable base that won't heave and that has sufficient drainage. First I would read this page - How to build a slab on grade foundation: the Ecohome step by step guide We can advise you on the best practices for building a slab on grade, but you would still need a d...

...floor designed to harness thermal mass advantages. Slab Foundation: This concrete floor is not intended as a structural slab foundation. Should I directly design it as a traditional slab foundation? In this case, the thickness would be around 4-to-6 inches. Floor Sandwich Structure: I'd like to understand how the layer...

...floor is almost back alley level, it has retention wall,  and inside about 6 inches height from the slab. We like to raise it at least 4 inches! Is it possible?  If so, how?  Thank you in advance.  That would be a very tricky and expensive undertaking, have you considered pouring an additional concrete floor on top to ...

...floor, and means loss of interior space as well as the cost of building stairs. Basically its like this – complexity costs money. The more simple you design it the cheaper it will be, and slabs are  more simple than basements.  Personally you couldn’t really talk me into building a basement unless there was really no o...

...slab EPS foam insulation is nothing compared to the labor required to switch to an entirely different method of insulating. I would first point you to this page -  Slab on grade technical guide We have other pages on slab construction as well that are worth looking at, you can find them if you enter slab on grade in th...

...floor system for a new build in Quebec. The contractor will build a floating slab with footings. The contractor is suggesting 2 inches of insulation and 3 inches of concrete, which seems too little base on what I have read. What do you recommend the thickness to be for the insulation and the concrete for the slab and r...

...slab and subfloor above.  On top of the slab will be a wood subfloor web-truss system where the electric & plumbing & hydronic floor heating panels w/ PEX tubing will be located - as these will not be buried in the concrete (subfloor space height around 18" from top of slab up to bottom of flooring). Here's my ...

...slab on grade so that there is no shifting with frost. Is this not the case anymore. Is a slab on grade the best practice? An engineered slab on grade that has been designed for it's climate is as reliable at preventing frost heave as a foundation and footing. We are creatures of habit, and we have always *known* that ...

...slab on grade house and pour a new slab under it, unless of course I’m missing something here. The raft slab insulated slab on grade kit with the air heated radiant floors is intended for new home construction, though you could raise a house and build a basement with one.  So – on the off chance you have a crawlspace a...

...slab on grade home. I definitely want a hydronic in floor heat system, along with a heat pump. With the absence of central ductwork, where do I put the ERV? Would it make sense to run a house wide plenum for the ERV alone? And if that's the case, would it be more efficient to hook the heat pump in to the ducting, rathe...

...floor, below is a link to an installation video as well as a few other resources on slabs. Legalett Solar Air Heated Slab on Grade installation video Slab on Grade Prefabricated Insulation Form Kit  Air heated floor Thickened-edge slab-on-grade technical guide

...slab to ensure durability: The AFI (air freeze index), how much insulation encases the slab, the soil conditions, and whether or not the slab will be heated. The best way to ensure that a FPSF (Frost-protected shallow foundation or slab-on-grade) doesn’t heave would be to have it modelled for your specific climate by a...

...Slabs also tend to be closer to the ground that a standard foundation, so I would inspect the bottom of the siding to see if there is moisture damage.  I would also ask for any building details that may be available; and if it has a radiant floor I would personally want to see the utility bills to know what a winters w...

...slab hasn’t been decided on yet, check back with us soon as we will be starting construction on our next demo house in about 3 weeks (September, 2018), which will have solar-heated air panels feeding air tubes in the slab floor. Solar air heating panels are a lot less hassle and risk than solar water heating panels, an...

...floor heating. Since the slab need to be insulated all around, a builder told me he would not recommend that due to the entire weight of the building resting on the insulation sandwiched between the ground and the slab. What do you think?  A Slab on Grade needs to be built correctly, but no, Insulation under a slab flo...