Your better half got up in the middle of the night and now those cold toes are occupying your personal space with the perseverance of a heat-seeking missile. Fortuitous for you, the new house will have radiant floor heating - a sure remedy for meetings with frozen feet at 2 a.m. or a midwinter chill that gets to your bone marrow.

Under-floor heat has been employed since the Roman Empire when it was in its prime in state-supported buildings and the villas of the wealthy. Hot air was dispersed under tile or brick, offering a radiant warmth - energy that transmitted warmth through the floor and on to colder objects like Roman recumbant chairs, statues, marble-topped desks and chilly centurions.

With the advent of elastic PEX pipe in the United States in the 80’s, its use has rocketed as new products have been created for the construction industry - among those have been hydronic arrangements to supply radiant floor heat. Unlike forced-air furnaces, modern-day hydro floor schemes utilising PEX plumbing products provide more homogenous warmth to a room, are less drying, more cost-effective and a whole lot quieter than aging furnaces or metal steam pipes.

PEX tubing is made of cross-linked polyethylene, which yields these high tech tubes endurance, chemical resistance, high mobility, a cost-efficient installation profile and greater temperature adaptability. This polyethylene tubing can be utilised for water as hot as 200° Fahrenheit in heating systems.

There are different methods of installing radiant floor heating. Some use electric line voltage systems, but easy-to-use PEX piping products have made hydronic under-floor heat fashionable with both house builders and house owners. Because the hosing is so elastic, its rolls can be used in a continuous length, doing away with the need for multiple joints and fittings.

Several radiant floor heat arrangements employ oxygen-barrier PEX radiant tubing applied in gypsum concrete. Others contain low-mass underlay - wood boards with recessed niches for flexible piping.

Every remodeling or new-construction project is best accommodated by one application or another, so look into your hydronic floor heating options fully. Do your due dilligence!