2000 seems low but for that I would do it! Really the only one that makes sense to me is primary bath. Unless you are no shoes in the house people then maybe all make sense?

I will never ever have another house without heated floors in the bath. I didn't put them in this house, but once I got used to them, they are not negotiable. It's one of the best parts of the day, coming home and pulling off shoes on a toasty warm floor.

Thank you. I’m leaning towards having it in ensuite only.
It doesn’t make sense to me to heat mudroom floor or laundry or even powder room, that I’ll only be standing in for moments.
We wear slippers! Which rooms would you recommend heating? Our main living, halls,, Liz and bedrooms are in infested hardwood. The house is a raised bungalo. It’s toasty warm now with the small construction heater alone, we don’t even have the furnace on!

I live in Minnesota…just did the master bath. We wear slippers….

Go for it! The more heat the better!

Thank you Molly, we wear cosy slippers as well. I’m thinking ensuite only. I just don’t want to scrimp on something that the may be deemed essential.

We're heating the floors in the primary ensuite only in the Toronto GTA with electricity. The finished 2,900 sf basement is heated hydronically; the boiler to keep the floors warm also provides heated water.

Hydronic basement heating. Red tubing carries glycol on top of 2" foam insulation. Then all is covered with poured concrete. Tile or stone are the best floor finishes for transmitting the heat.

Hydronically heated front porch.

If we were in the northland we would definitely consider hydronic heating throughout. Depending how far north, summer cooling is barely needed.

Thank you, Tremendous job.

I’m only considering heating the tiled areas such as the mudroom master bathroom guest washroom and powder room. It’s a Raised bungalo, toasty warm. We’re near L. Simcoe.

"The house is in northern Ontario"

I thought it would be a lot closer to Polar Bear Provincial Park.

Lake Simcoe is in southern Ontario.

My former architectural technologist, who was a partner in a major architectural firm, moved from the most chi chi neighbourhood in downtown TO to Moosonee on James Bay many years ago. Still can't figure out that move! (Other than polar bears are better neighbours than visiting rock stars!)

What’s your vote for Heated floors?

I have heated floors in two of my bathrooms (in sunny SoCal). I enjoy it in the evenings and early mornings.

Two negatives:

(1) requires a dedicated electric circuit -- may need to update your electrical panel

(2) incompatible with kitty litter boxes -- if you happen to have an indoor cat

Interesting, ty!
But Yikes! What’s issue w kitty litter box? Ours would be under tile, how would that be affected by cat litter?

We did it in our master bathroom and we LOVE it! We live on the PNW coast, so not a cold area, but a consistently/year round cool area. We have it on a timer for the mornings because that’s when we normally shower... I usually forget to turn it on if I shower in the evening and I’m always like “dang it, I should’ve turned that on!” when I hop out. We’ve lived in our new build for a little over a year now, and I haven’t really missed it in my laundry/mud room or powder room, but we normally wear slippers. I have missed it in our guest bathroom though, but that’s the only bathroom with a tub and I take epsom salt baths on a fairly regular basis. Occasionally my bath mat is in the wash and that tile floor is COLD after a nice hot bath, but those are the only times I’ve really missed the heating in there. That bathroom is fairly small, so a large bath mat works fine in there (as long as it’s not in the wash... I should get a backup, lol) But my master bath is pretty large and I do have a couple of bath mats, but that heated floor is SO NICE! So glad we did it!

Thank you so much skmom, your comments and insights were very helpful. I’m thinking along the similar lines, master bath and possibly guest wr. It is so luxurious.
Can they be on a programmable thermostat? It wouldn’t make sense to leave it on all the time.

Kitty litter box would not affect the floor heating. It's the other way around -- heat enhances the "aroma" -- it did not bother the cat I was fostering, but it made me jump out of bed to clean the box in my ensuite bathroom.

Thank you meaningful contributors.

To Worthy and Bishack, rather than picking on geographical descriptions, why don’t you offer some actual advice on the topic at hand?
You bothered to log in, follow a thread, then you choose to respond like that? And you’re an architect?? Aren’t you supposed to be a “PRO”? FYI Copy sent to the editor.
I’m pretty sure your response isn’t what the HOUZZ community expects when they humbly put forth questions about their homes.
Do us a favour and ask yourself, why you bothered.
Very rude.

Wave runner, yes, it’s on a programmable thermostat. I said timer, but programmable thermostat is what it actually is. It runs for a few hours every morning to accommodate both hubby’s and my typical routines. It doesn’t take very long for it to warm up if I turn the heat up for other times, but then, we don’t have big temperature changes here either. When I turn it back down after I turn it up in the evening or something it gives me the option to return to its normal schedule. Hope that helps!

I've installed electric in-floor radiant heating in a number of master bathrooms--unfortunately, not in my own. If I were building a new home, it would be a must-have in the master bathroom, but not elsewhere. While programmable thermostats will allow you to ramp the temperature up and down, I'd opt for setting it to a temperature and leaving it there.

Thank you skmom!! Very helpful.

A question for you Charles Ross Homes, why would you recommend leaving it on all the time?

We added on a master bathroom extension and decided against heated floors in it. BIG MISTAKE!!!! We are in the northeast US and as soon as the weather gets cold I wish like heck that we had done it. It's the coldest room in the house. :(

Radiant heat doesn't work like forced air. You cannot just turn it on and have the floor be warm in 5 minutes. There's a tremendous lag time as it heats up the large cold thermal mass that it's embedded into. Hours. Radiant is always best turned on, and left on. It uses pennies a day, so it's not like it's costing you a huge amount of money. I'm in a warm enough climate that I can partially close the damper on the bathroom duct, and the bath is still warm enough from the floors and open door to the bedroom.

Very helpful Minardi and Diana!! Thank you!

Random thoughts:

- My niece has heated floors in her huge kitchen /attached dining area, and it's very nice underfoot -- and that's nice because she has four small children. However, she complains that it really bumps up her power bill.

- Know that the heated floors "come on" slowly. If I were going to have heated floors, I'd want an automatic timer or a switch I could reach from my bed -- so the floors would have time to heat up before I entered the bathroom.

- This likely won't be a popular opinion, but I'd consider linoleum flooring. It's not nearly as cold as tile, so heated floors aren't needed. It'll last a long time (my office has the original linoleum from 1970), but it's easier /cheaper to change out. I have tile in my bathroom and linoleum in my kitchen -- I like the kitchen floors better.

What a great idea to have it on a remote! I was sort of thinking the same thing. How do you turn it on before you need it without going in there first World problems! Thank you for your opinions. I appreciate it.

You get a programmable thermostat if you want to do that. Schluter has those. But, it's a waste of effort and time to even do that. It takes a couple of hours to heat up fully. No reason at all to try to micromanage that. It seriously does not cost but maybe .10 a day for a bathroom. OF course, that will depend on your utility rates. But the only way that it's a significant cost is if you have half the house done in electric heat.

Thank you Minardi. We’re using Schlutor

We live in Muskoka. Have a boiler system. The only heat in bathrooms are the floors. Wonderful. Our entrances also have heated floors. For us, it is a must. Love it.

Thank you April!