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nujak
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:59 pm Post subject: thermal mass and gypsum cement flooring |
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I was hoping some of you could give me some insight. I am making decisions on a floor system for a house I am designing. My system thus far is as follows: 2" gypsum cement on radiant floor on plywood on wood I-joists. I have a large glass wall facing south. Allthough the home is in the Northwest united states, I still would like to believe I could take advantage of the sun(that which we get in the northwest in thw rainy winter) and the concrete floor to trap heat during the day and radiant it at night. My concern is this....1.Does the gypsum concrete floor system have enough mass to trap the heat? 2.Am I dreaming to think this will work in the cloudy Northwest winters?
Could a slab on grade system help this? cracking?
thanks to anyone who can "shed sunlight" on this subject for me |
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navinr
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 7
Location: west l a
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| Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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Oh Boy! Gyp-crete!
I'm an architect and a g.c. (18 yrs.) and I've had terrible luck with gyp-crete. I personally will never use it again except maybe over a concrete floor. If you put it over a wood structure, you must be sure the wood structure is very, very strong, very well connected, and very rigid. All plywood edges need to be securely blocked. Then you need to think about how the structure moves due to temperature fluctuations and how that connects with your "rigid" wood structure that's supporting the gyp-crete.
Any flex at all in the plywood (which is normal in most plywood on wood framing structures) will likely cause the gyp-crete to crack. This in my experience very quickly leads to a total failure of the gyp-crete, it just crumbles, leading to a very complicated and expensive fix.
Just my experience! Someone else's might be totally different,
-navin r |
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jlxarchitect
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:04 am Post subject: |
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| navinr wrote: | Oh Boy! Gyp-crete!
I'm an architect and a g.c. (18 yrs.) and I've had terrible luck with gyp-crete. I personally will never use it again except maybe over a concrete floor. If you put it over a wood structure, you must be sure the wood structure is very, very strong, very well connected, and very rigid. All plywood edges need to be securely blocked. Then you need to think about how the structure moves due to temperature fluctuations and how that connects with your "rigid" wood structure that's supporting the gyp-crete.
Any flex at all in the plywood (which is normal in most plywood on wood framing structures) will likely cause the gyp-crete to crack. This in my experience very quickly leads to a total failure of the gyp-crete, it just crumbles, leading to a very complicated and expensive fix.
Just my experience! Someone else's might be totally different,
-navin r |
Then what is a good material to cover the wood floor? |
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