[Cob] Pex

[Amanda Peck]

Unless they are very organized I'll bet a lot of people have this 
problem--it sounds like one of those things where everything has to be 
completed before anything can be done.

Hot water system probably should be in place--solar hot water needs a 
storage tank (even if your backup is a demand heater), normally on the floor 
in the house somewhere--before you put in your floor, water pressure/pump 
has to be available, and so on.

I do own a portable (propane with a wimpy battery pump) hot water heater, 
but it's possible that heating water on a turkey fryer and ladling it into a 
funnel that is connected to your tubing, with the funnel higher than the 
drain to outside at the other end might work at least as well.  And, 
separately, pressure test the system.

There's at least one manufacturer of radiant heat tubing that loves to work 
with DIY people in solar instalations.  IIRC from a discussion on another 
list, Pex proper and a good many of the other companies want their system 
(including sizing and routing and how many loops--zones--of tubing you need) 
professionally installed.  Not at all sure I have the information on the 
first company handy.  Somebody else knows it.

The Building with Awareness guy used a concrete floor which nicely bypassed 
(at least part of) the problem.  At the cost of a concrete floor.  I think 
somebody else just put an earthen top layer on their--otherwise 
concrete--floor.



............
Judith asked about putting in radiant heat tubing months or years before 
actually getting radiant heat.