Team Breton – Installing Under Floor Heating

Heating the old Breton houses can be quite a challenge and the choice is often dictated by the cost of initial installation as opposed to the benefits long term. I have recently been helping a neighbour to prepare his Breton longhouse for the installation of under floor heating and it has been quite a learning curve for me in terms of the local methodology, the size of farmer’s midday meals, language immersion and the incredible ‘all for one’ culture of the Breton people

 

My neighbour, Jean-Paul’s house already had oil fired central heating but ensuring a consistent heat throughout is always a challenge in these stone built houses. Despite the fact that most of them have had internal insulating walls built to retain the heat, high ceilings and open stairwells mean heat loss is still a problem. Open fires are often used to supplement the background heat provided by central heating; such is the case in my neighbours house.

 

So after much planning it was decide to commence the installation of under floor heating throughout the ground floor. Phase one of the plan was to excavate the existing floor down to a depth of 45 cm which involved removing the existing floor tiles, the concrete base and then whatever we found under that. So large Kango Hammers were duly hired and battle commenced.

 

It was as we started this initial phase that I started to appreciate just how things are done in rural Breton communities, as if from nowhere people started arriving with shovels and wheelbarrows to remove Jean-Paul’s floor. You have heard of Barn-raising well this was ‘floor raising’ Breton style. At midday it was down tools and everyone gathered around the trestle table for the traditional farming three course meal with home made cider of course.

 

This routine continued for the next three days until the smell of fresh earth flowed through the ground floor. I have to admit that at this stage I would have been a bit concerned as we had by now exposed a considerable amount of stone wall below the old floor level. The internal insulating walls were hanging in midair held in place by the minimum of support. But as I have now discovered such “apparently minor problems” do not faze the DIY Breton.

 

In addition to installing the under floor heating Jean-Paul had also decide this was an ideal time to try and resolve the lack of Radon extraction in the ancient longhouse. Those readers who live in Brittany will already know that the Granite lying just below the surface of the majority of the region gives off low levels of Radon which can result in a build-up of gas within enclosed spaces. Continued exposure to this gas is said to be harmful to health therefore all new houses built in the region have cross ventilation installed under the floor to allow evacuation of the gas.

 

Having never believed it was possible to install something similar in one of the Breton longhouses I was suitably impressed by the way the team of friends approached the problem. First a cloth mesh was laid on the soil base and then plastic pipes with slits cut in them at regular intervals (for those that have installed septic tank runoffs they are the same pipes) across the floor space at regular intervals, terminating at each side in hollow concrete blocks laid on their sides. Holes were made through the stone walls each side of the house connecting with the assembled floor network. The whole network was then covered in road-stone levelled off just above the top of the pipes.

 

A few days later another team of friends was assembled for the first insulation laying. In the UK I would have just phoned up the concrete suppliers and told them I wanted 3 loads of insulating concrete mix and awaited delivery. To my amazement the team were going to mix it themselves and lay it all in one day, impossible I thought! Two farmers arrived with industrial size cement mixers on the back of their tractors driven from the power takeoff. What followed can only be described as a military exercise.

 

Insulating granules were mixed with the cement and water by one team, once ready the first tractor would proceed to the house and I would barrow the cement into the house where another team would level and spread the mixture. Within 2 hours half the house insulating layer had been finished and as one of the farmers had to seed six hectares after lunch it was all systems go until the work was completed at about twelve fifteen.

 

It was at this stage that the communal task was completed and the remaining insulation, pipe work, sealer layer and tiling left for the local heating engineer.

 

I am looking forward to our next community DIY project having been convinced that nothing is beyond the ability of my rural Breton friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[lavenderbongo]

Sounds like lots of fun - can you come and fit heating in our house?

[warmyourfloor1]

Exciting article on underfloor heating! I know of a great website which promotes underfloor heating systems. These underfloor heating systems all belong to various brands which are the best in the market. They are all easy to install and safe to use.

[laminate flooring]

What a good article about the installation of flooring!