How to Cut 2"D X 1W" Wide Channel in Concrete?

Off the top of my head I would say to use a commercial concrete saw, set to 1" depth, and make a few passes then chisel away. You could use an electric or air chisel for that part. Just be sure to chisel the trough smooth to avoid damage to the water lines.

From the Floor,

Hang on Chi Town. If all you need to do is lay in radiant heat over a concrete floor it is very easy. Call Watts radiant (formerly Heatways) in Springfield MO. I have simple laid out their product, pour lite weight concrete over it and let it set-up. After it has set lay your new floor down and forget about it. Best way to get help from Watts is to contact Mike Childs at 800-276-2419. They will design the system and provide everything you need for installation.

Say high to Mike for me.

Mike

agreed...if you don't mind your floor being an inch or so higher than before. These auto-leveling products are quite good and would cut down on the labour and tool costs (especially saw blades if you are going to do a large surface with lots of pipes).

http://www.nortonclipper.com

http://www.sunbeltrentals.com

http://www.protoolsexpress.com/mk-diamond-concrete-saws.html

http://www.mk-diamond-saws.com/concrete.htm

The above sites should give you some choices. Try to see if you can mount two or three blades next to each other. That would eliminate multiple passes for your heater pipe. Good luck.

Inletting the tubing into the slab will be a disaster. Mike the boiler guy is on the right track. Either go with a floating system like you have already seen, do an overlay slab like Mike suggests or consider an electric radiant heat wire w/ tile overlay system. Any of these would be better than trying to patch in a cobbled up system like you are contemplating.

If you cut 1" deep into the slab, you may be reducing the strength of the slab at critical locations (maybe not but it is a possibility that you are weakening the slab beyond its original design strength) and also reducing the cover to the reinforcment allowing corrosion to set in. You may even be biting into the reinforcement if it is only 3/4" cover.

There is another system out there which uses thin cables which go into the glue layer for tiling or under parquet.

google "underfloor heating cables" for some firms in your region.

The slab is very thick.. close to 10" thick in most locations and even thicker in some places.. It was built like bomb shelter.

Losing another inch isn't desirable, and pouring something that's auto leveling would be tough since the floor isn't the same level everywhere. There is an inch+ or so in variation across the main room, as it was built to drain in the event it was wet.

electric heating cables were my first choice too, but the desire is to build a system that is gas heated rather than electric.

How about putting the radiant heat tubing in the walls or the ceiling? This is an option that is used if the wall and or ceiling surface can be removed, tubing installed and then the ceiling or wall surface reinstalled. Metal reflectors may be installed behind the tubing to direct the heat down if the tubing is put in the ceiling. Pex tubing is one of the common varieties of tubing used. Good Luck!

There is a tool that I only know by the name of 'crack chaser', no joke. It is simply a large router mounted on wheels with either a carbide or diamond cylinder-shaped bit. It is typically used to 'chase cracks' in concrete slabs, primarily highway pavements, to allow for the application of rubberized crack sealants. The ones I have used in the past had a 5/8" bit, but I would guess that you could find a 1" bit as well. I know that these tools are still in use because I often see them on interstate highways being used for what I just described.

I don't know what equipment rental resources you have in your area, but you could call them and find out if they have or know of a source. Years ago, when I called a rental house in Cleveland, Ohio, and asked the man on the other end of the phone whether he had any crack chasers, his response was "Yeah, I've got eleven of 'em, which one do you want?", leaving me feeling like a fool, even though it was funny.

The home is already heated. cozy toes are the reason for the trouble. so radiant wall heat won't heal this issue.

a crack chaser with a 5/8 blade MIGHT do the trick with the smaller tubing.

I've seen them.. bigish.. but doable.. me thinks

One of the sites I sent you had "crack chasers" on it.

Hello JE,

Here an idea I saw recently on a job that was being built. The main slab was laid then the heating system was installed on top there were wooden nailer strips look like about 4" wide about 1" thick laid out in strips from one end to the other of the area at about 6" apart with cross spacing through them for the tubbing to cross back and forth. The space between the nailer strips the tubing was place and attached to the concrete floor.

After the tubing was installed then a morter mix was used to cover the tubing and then leveled to the top of the nailer boards. This then allowed a wood floor to be nailed down over the concrete into the nailer's strips. Of course the floor ran at a 90 drg angle to the strips.

I hope this is clear enough to under stand.

Good luck in your choice.

metalSmith's