Anchoring a wall to a floor with radiant heat

[fish6942]

The slab in my garage is 4" thick and has radiant heat loops running throughout. I'm putting up a new wall and am looking for options to attach the bottom plate to the to the floor. The floor is painted so I'm not convinced that adhesive alone will suffice. I can use concrete screws but how deep can I safely go? In other words, how far below the surface of the slab are the heating tubes?

Any other suggestions?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I would think 1" screws or nails would be ok. Did you see them when they poured the floor? Do you know if they set the tubing in the center of the pad or was it towards the top. I would use adhesive also in addition to what ever you use.

 

[jimmysisson]

What's the wall for? If there's not too much lateral pressure on it, and the paint film is in good condition, construction adhesive spread out before laying down the plate will hold a lot. If the paint is poor, not good. I'd skip the fasteners unless you know exactly where the pipes are.
If you're going to be hanging a lot of weight on one side, or running into the wall with wheelers, etc., you might have to figure out how to locate the tubing. I wonder if a remote thermometer would spot the differences on startup? You'd have to see a pattern to be convinced...
Jim

 

[BeezFun]

Rough up the concrete in a few spots with a chisel and put the adhesive there. The adhesive doesn't need to bond to concrete, it just needs to resist shear. Kind of like the channel you put in a footing before you pour the foundation.

 

[grsthegreat]

see if your rental yard has a radient heat camera you can rent....

Infrared Cameras Identify Radiant Heat Tube Locations


i once also heard (but never confirmed) that yo can spread alcahol on the floor and the hotter areas will evaporate faster..... again, never tried this.

 

[crazyal]

I've never tried it but I've been told that if you let your floor get cold then wet it down then turn on the heat. Where the pipes are will dry out first.

 

[CurlyDave]

I would remove the paint with paint stripper and a wire brush, and then use epoxy to put down a PT mud sill.

It doesn't have to be a hand-held wire brush. One of the ones that goes on a 4 1/2 inch grinder would work admirably.

 

[SPIKER]

I put in my own tubes and took a lot of photos, but none were handy when I was putting in 2 walls. I used concrete nails and PL400/200? construction adhesive and also added in a drill and hammer in REDHEAD fastener. Thick floor and I know mine is 3" plus down so didnt worry much (ok some). The adhesive was to bare concrete the treated plate/sill was put down and then the stud walls hammered in tight squeezed out a lot of the glue I had down so it should hold well. I came back after getting the walls in and put in the concrete hammer in hardened cut nails with the grain they only penetrated about 3/4" and are only to resist shear and the REDHEAD bolt was at a door opening where it will be closing against that wall opening so I added it and several extra nails at the Jamb...

I like the Heat Gun for working on cars and furnaces ect not sure if it will be sensitive enough to pick up the tubes but would be worth a try. The Infra-Red one would also work maybe better?

Mark

 

[MillWeld]

I agree with Curly Dave. Get rid of the paint in the strip where the wall(s) will go.
Bob

 

[dex3361]

The thermal imaging camera would work great on locating the loops in the concrete. You may have to let it cool and then fire up the heat to define more clearly where the tubes are. You may be able to use a IR gun would possibly work too. As far as how deep to drill it may be a bit of a gamble. But if you locate the tubes you can avoid them. No issue with adhesive.:thumbsup: