Finding heat tubes in floor, How frustrating

redtom

Well-known Member
I posted a while ago. Got ok from boss to put in a hoist where I work. The floor has in floor heat.

Heres what I know: we have no blueprint of the heat tubes. The boss knows the previous owner that built the shop and called him. He said "the floor may be 5 or 6
inch, he cant recall, there may be foam under neath he cant remember, the tubes may be 3 or 4 ft apart he cant recall, and they may or may not be tied to the mesh on the
bottom" (who said pot doesnt affect your memory).
I had a local hoist company come in and look it over. They said they had a thermal scanning contractor they subbed to. After waiting 3 weeks I called him back and he
said thermal guy wont return his call after five calls! No thanks to him...I'll find another installer. I have searched all over to find a scanning contractor but find
none that do concrete. Only walls and electrical scanning. I CANNOT use the guess method. I pointed my IR thermometer at the floor and might get a rough idea but I
cant chance it. Getting it wet does not work either! The heat is too spread out. I just find this so frustrating. I cant be the first one that has done this so why is
there not a service that does this? The boss has money to spend for me and I cant spend it! wow
 
We had a similar situation a couple years ago. A Plumber had a scanner but it was out of order, for a backup he had a little unit that plugged into a smart phone. We borrowed it, turned the heat on to warm the pipes, not long enough to warm concrete and tried it. Worked great!
Here is one
 
Throwing this out there because it's the only thing I can think of.
You say you cannot get a good reading with your IR thermometer because the heat is too spread out. Soooo, why not try going the other way. Is there a way to circulate very cold water through the system? Or maybe even freon? Is it possible the IR thermometer would be more sensitive to that? Just thinking out loud.
 
I think my tubes are about every 18-24 inches, always wondered if a thermal imaging camera would work?
 
Shut the heat off and let the floor get to ambient temp. Get an infrared camera turn on the heat, and take images as it warms. I cannot guarantee this but it will make an image. Jim
 
I just called our son, he has some experience with thermal scanning cameras, and he said you can buy one that connects to an I phone for <$200. I would shut off the heat for a day, then turn it on for a couple of hours, and do a scan. I would think the tubes would be obvious.
 
Maybe I'm just crazy (OK, OK - stop nodding your heads), but why not just go ahead and install the lift? Yes, there's a chance that you'll hit one of the in-floor heating tubes. But can it not be repaired?

Given that you have no idea of the spacing, depth or layout of the lines, seems there is little other option. Would probably cost a lot less to repair a line than to keep waiting on these guys anyhow.

One other option would be to try witching the lines.

And finally, what about injecting an additive into the heating liquid? Kinda like adding dye before an MRI. Might be able to add tiny metal dust and use a sump pump to circulate it through the lines, then find those lines using a metal detector. If you do not know much about metal detectors, then look up metal detecting clubs or coin collectors or treasure hunters in your area. Put an ad in the local paper looking for an experienced metal detectorist. Or maybe go to www.treasurenet.com and ask on there. I used to see people go there and ask if a detectorist could look for a ring or some other lost item. One person even asked if someone could go underwater to find a set of keys.

If the floor has steel reinforcement, then use copper or aluminum dust. A good detectorist can filter out the iron signals.
 
Why not put in a 4 post, above grade, drive on hoist. With the wheels free option, they are great. We had one for light vehicles, and one for heavy trucks.
 
My son has installed hot water heat in two of his shop floors. We turned the heat on when the floor was damp - sweaty would be a good description. As it warmed up, you could see every heat line as it dried the surface of the floor.

Based on that experience, I would try turning the heat off and letting the floor cool down. Then wetting the floor in the area you are concerned about. When you turn the heat back on, the floor will dry first over the tubes.

It takes a while for the floor to cool, and then it takes a while for it to warm back up. Eight hours or so in each direction.
 
We had the same issue when putting a hoist in for my son last year. Just turn the heat off for a day or so. When the floor is cold then turn the heat back on. We used a simple infrared thermometer. The tubes were where we thought they should be. The key is to get the floor cool/cold. The colder the better for seeing the tubes as they heat the floor back up. The concrete is a HUGE heat sink. So over night or even a day is usually not long enough for it to get cool enough. The colder the floor the slower it heats up. This gives you more time to find the tubes. They will show up as a narrow line right over the heat tube. The strip/line gets wider the longer the heat is on.

We had the floor plan from when we built the shop but wanted to verify it. Turned out to be simple to do. Local hoist installation fellow told us how to find the tubes.

The shop floor is 12 inches thick and the tubes where installed in the bottom two inches of the floor that was poured over four inches of foam insulation. I just listed the floor size/depth to give you an idea of how it worked on a thick floor. The fellow told us the thinner floors are easier to find the tubes in but heat up faster.
 
I was thinking the same thing but it still needs to be anchored to the floor and thats likely what they?re doing. I haven?t seen an in floor hoist in years.
 
Just thinking out loud here but, is this a 2 or 4 post lift? what kind of support is required? if it is a 2 post I would suspect that it will need a larger footing(possibly deeper than what is there)if that would be the case you would have to take out concrete to make deeper footing. IF that is the case if you hit the line taking out the concrete where the footing will go you could fix the tube. But maybe what concrete is already there would be enough. Just thinking.

Steven
 

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