RPM mats and WarmWire

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DougB

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I've used Warmly Yours mats on several projects. But I needed to flatten this wood floor in my master bath. I found these RPM mats. They are about 22 x 44. You glue them down with vinyl adhesive and then staple. Over concrete you use a different adhesive. To fit them, score with a shop knife and snap. Here I'm installing the mats:

LayingRPM.jpg

They want you to wait over night till the Roberts 2001 adhesive sets. It never really sets, and it's a little bit of a sticky mess - any that leaks out of the seams.

It's nice that the wire is below the surface, so you can walk on the floor while you lay the wire. I used WarmWire. By luck, it was a good choice, since the jacket of the wire is sorta soft and sticky - It stays put when wrapped around the 'hubs' on the RPM mat. I think If you had wire with a hard jacket - it would be more problematic. They sell grommets (rubber washers) that will hold the wire in place. But they don't work well with the 1/4" mat - too high.

The one negative about the WarmWire is that it has a twist. As you spool it out of the box, I found is necessary to twist the box a couple of times, so the wire didn't have a twist.

WarmWire.jpg

I reccomend you get a little less wire than what you need (like 5 sq/ft less) - considering keeping it 2" from the wall. Have a space where you 'dump' a couple of feet of wire at the end.

Layout.jpg

You need to hot gule the splice and the temp sensors (I installed one extra). I used a 9/16' spade drill to make a trough for the splice:

SensorWire.jpg

Here are the tools you need for the next step before pouring the SLC:

ToolsReq.jpg

I used a cheap HD sprayer to apply the SLC Primer. They say to make sure the wire and the sides of the hubs are coated. The problem is the primer is the consistancy of milk - it simply pools around the hubs because of surface tension. After about an hour, I used a brush (kneel on a piece of cardboard) to push around the primer. It pretty much dried tacky in 2 hts. Used less than a quart for 55 sq/ft.

I'll finish in the next post.
 

DougB

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I found that you can buy ES (extended set) SLC. HD won't order it (even though the stock the RS). I was going to use Ardex Liquid Backer Board. I called Ardex tech support and they sounded offended that I would even think of using their product with RPM mats. The guy was almost rude, and didn't even give the slightest reason. Anyway this ES gives you 30 minutes of working time.

Extended Set.jpg

I measured out three buckets of 6 1/2 qts of water. And opened all the bags (so they were ready to go). I mixed and poured one bag at a time. It took me about 45 minutes for all three bags. The great thing about the hubs is that the SLC pretty much stays where you pour it. A used a soft foam squeege to screed the SLC at the top of the hubs.

PartialPour.jpg

I used 150 lbs of SLC for 55 sq/ft. Here's the final floor:

Finished Floor.jpg

As a DIY'er, working alone, this gave a great result.
 

Nukeman

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Just an FYI. I was able to order ES though HD. I picked up 12 bags that way. What I have found when ordering thing through HD is you have to hold their hand and feed them every bit of info that you can. If it is a small order, they just don't want to deal with it and they will tell you that they can't get it. You have to tell them why they can get it.

For instance, I wanted to get some Roxul insulation (a bunch of it). Even if I called around (to places that are supposed to be dealers), they would just have no idea what I was talking about. The only insulation that they knew about was the "pink stuff". HD is supposed to be able to get Roxul. You talk to them and they look at you like to have two heads or something. :) Luckily, I think Roxul has dealt with this crap a bunch of times as they have a sheet somewhere on their site that lists everything needed for HD to order (vendor, SKU, vendor part number, etc.). I printed out all that, took it to HD, and got them to order it.
 
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