ᐅ Inspection of underfloor heating using a thermal imaging camera—insulation needed?

ypg schrieb:
....My concern was only about a freestanding island, since it has to be firmly anchored to the floor.
....

That’s not entirely correct. The island is stable enough due to its own weight. For a depth of 60cm (24 inches), it can be considered. Even with underfloor heating, it’s not a problem because the legs are then glued down. I use adjustable raised floor supports and keep the plastic feet for fixing the toe kicks.

To make underfloor heating visible, I use thermal foil if it’s absolutely necessary to screw something into the floor. So far, everything has worked well.

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Regards, Sigi

Neige schrieb:
That’s not entirely correct. The insulation layer easily supports itself due to its own weight. At a depth of 60cm (24 inches), you might want to reconsider. But even then, underfloor heating is not a problem because the feet are glued in place. For that, I use raised floor supports and keep the plastic feet for attaching the baseboards.

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Regards, Sigi

That’s EXACTLY how they did it – I believe – in our case. However, the kitchen plan required the recess; maybe it’s because we only have pull-out drawers over a length of 180cm (71 inches)?

The underfloor heating system can be thermographically inspected at any time of the year. The thermography is performed during the warm-up phase. This means: turn off the underfloor heating one day in advance. On the following day, turn it on again and carry out the thermography. After about 20 minutes, the first heating circuits become visible.

The drawers have nothing to do with this, unless you loaded each one with 50kg (110 lbs) and had them all open at the same time while the island is only 60cm (24 inches) deep. They probably wanted to mount it earthquake-proof.

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Regards, Sigi

To return to the original question, I once took some images with a thermal imaging camera myself. Normally, you won’t be able to see the individual heating pipes or how closely they are spaced, because the screed and floor covering heat up and distribute the warmth evenly. However, if there is, for example, no pipe installed under a kitchen unit or similar, you will clearly see or even feel this with the camera, and also when walking barefoot in winter.

I also installed heating pipes under the kitchen island because the new kitchen might have a different size at some point. However, since it took five people to carry just the countertop, I’m not really worried about moving it.