radiant tubes in a concrete slab-dumb question

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If you saw how much (quality) pex tubing can be deformed without failing, you would not be concerned about that.
 
[quote author="deerefanatic" date="1249057996"]The way our shop was done was a totally different animal......

According to the previous owners, they ran the bex in a 6" thick bed of sand below the concrete, so if the concrete ever cracked, it wouldn't break the pipes...

I've never actually been able to heat this shop, but this winter should change that......


I've only seen that one time. It was a DIY house and the guy put pex in the basement floor. 1-1/2" foam underneath the basement floor which was l shaped. I went to look at the job to get measurements for him and do a heat loss. The house was built in what amounted to a clay pit and I advised him to take the basement grade down another 6" and fill with sand to get it nice and level and provide some stability under the foam but he didn't want to go to the "extra" expense and time. The basement floor was done in two pours and over the next 3-4 years, the short side of the L settled about an inch. Being that all the tube ran through a door width opening from one part to the other, all the tubes for the short side ran through that. When the slab moved the tube went with it and given the amount of movement, he's had 2 of the 4 loops fail.

When we go from one pour to another on a slab we always sleeve the tube through the form (PITA) or dive underneath the form board and come back up into the slab. Cold seams are not the best but sometimes can't be avoided.
 
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