Heated Tiles In Bathroom - Do They Work?

OK, have a bit of a dilemma.

I'm going to renovate our bathroom and create an ensuite and a family bathroom out of the one big bathroom.

The thing is I like baseless showers with just a tiled floor BUT I hate to walk into a bathroom with a tiled floor because they're so damn cold. I thought perhaps I was being silly but I just went away for the weekend and that just confirmed to me how much I hate tiled floors.

So, if I'm going to have a baseless shower then I guess my other option is to have underfloor heating - does anyone have this and does it actually work?

I've had it before - it works - just takes a while to heat up and costs a fortune to run....

My in laws had it in their house and it was great especially on a cold morning, kept your feet warm.
BIL has it in their house also but if you do do it I think solar is much cheaper.
We went to a caravan park a few years back and they had floor heating in the shower area, wonderful.
Cost could be a factor of having it.

If you're building you can get really green underfloor heating by using solar and so on but in a renovation that might be a bit harder.
It does work, I love underfloor heating - it takes the bite out of winter.

My grandparents put it in when they built... we lived with them for a few months and I have to say i never felt the cold (where they lived regularly hit sub zero temps).

Tiles don't bother me too much, especially if you buy jumbo sized bath mats. What are the other options for bathrooms? Cork? Moisture rules out carpets... is slate any better?

We have it - and I loooove it. *hmm is there a drool emoticon?*

We have ours on a timer so that I can set the temperature to different levels throughout the day and have it off when we are asleep or not at home.

It is heavenly. (did I already mention that?? ;))

My parents have their house fully slab heated and it's awesome :D

It is costly but they don't have any gas where they are so by the time I'd add up my gas and power bill and compare it to their power bill it's not that much more.

Our house was built in 1977 with hydronic in-floor heating. The heated water gets pushed around the pipes which are embedded in the concrete slab. Given the choice I would not have any other type of heating than in-floor. It is devine.

We have tiles near the entry way and in the bathrooms. It's just gorgeous. So much so that when we do further renovations I would like to increase the tiled area in the house.

I'm with Jackrose, if there was a drool emoticon I'd be using it. Visiting my parents house in winter I never feel quite as warm or comfortable.

I grew up in the Dandenong ranges (so freezing ;)), and our house had wall to wall slab heating. Devine is the right word for it! We never knew it was cold until we stepped out the door. But yes, it is very costly to run, and from memory could take awhile to heat the house up if it had been off for awhile (we had an open fire too, so that always got us over that hurdle). But I don't know, maybe the systems have been improved so that is no longer an issue.

I too know someone who had it, they loved it also used to just put their towles on the floor when finished to dry them!! ( obviously untidy though haha). My mum and dad used carpet in their bathroom it was special for bathrooms, it took a while to get used to but really warm :)

We had carpet in the bathrooms growing up - I am pretty sure it was designed for wet areas but you just learned to dry yourself in the bath/shower and not splash (for fear of mum's wrath ...LOL)

we have it in our bathroom cost about 600 bucks hubby installed it himself very simple.
and we havent noticed a huge rise in our electricity bill.

we keep our floor at about 21 degrees and its on all day every day it keeps the chill off the bathroom aswell and is lovely to get out of a nice warm shower onto warm floor and your feet dont get cold at 2 in teh morning when you have to wee lol

oh forgot to mention make sure the tiles you use will be ok and conduct the heat properly we found teh cheaper porcelin i think ones wouldnt transfer the heat as well but the nice slate ones we got od it very nicely and insulate unbder the heating you dont want your heat going under the house. lol

The newer designs are very energy efficient and can cost a lot less than an IXL heating light or even ducted heating. There are a few different types and of course the more efficient they are the more costly they are.

it was sooo cold this winter that we're thinking of getting one installed for next winter ...

:think:

it's just the cost of running them longterm that concerns us ... would be good to get some firm figures on this?


- Charli