Pouring new floor in brick garage

[RJAM95]

My brother and I share a brick garage on our family's property in Pennsylvania that has a 1970s concrete floor. We were thinking of tearing it out and putting in radiant heat so it's more usable in winter. If we go 10 inches down for insulation and tubing, it drops us below the foundation line. I'm trying to keep the cost down by doing as much of the work ourselves as possible but I don't want to end up with a cracked wall. What's the lowest safe depth you would recommend without undercutting the footing?

 

[exit clove]

I had the same problem fixing up my dad's old workshop in New York. We wanted heated floors too, but the base was pretty shallow. A builder told us to stay at least 2-3 inches above the bottom so the wall wouldn't crack. We used strong foam and thinner pipes to keep it from going too deep. It worked well, no cracks yet!

 

[RJAM95]

I had the same problem fixing up my dad's old workshop in New York. We wanted heated floors too, but the base was pretty shallow. A builder told us to stay at least 2-3 inches above the bottom so the wall wouldn't crack. We used strong foam and thinner pipes to keep it from going too deep. It worked well, no cracks yet!

Thanks for sharing what worked in your dad's shop. We were thinking about going with 2-inch foam too, so it's good to hear that held up. I hadn't considered thinner tubing but that might help us stay above the footing line. Did you pour directly over the foam or use a vapor barrier in between? We're hoping to start demo next month once we finish clearing out the garage.

 

[bear pickles]

Standard is 2-3 inches. I agree with the others. Too bad you have to tear down part of the house but I guess making it more functional is acceptable.

 

[Alan]

Agree with everyone... 2-3 in is good. So did you go for the work?