The Box installation instructions.

"We've gone and made it so anyone can install underfloor heating."

1. Planning the layouts for the underfloor heating circuits in each room.

Start by planning the circuit layout that will be required in each room. This is a very simple process and should take only a matter of minutes.

2. Creating a circuit in a room.

Next, lay out the straight panels and the U-turn panels as required to create the water pipe circuit you require in each room you are fitting. At this stage, you will be simply pre-positioning the panels to create each circuit, without actually gluing or fixing them down to the floor.

Cut the panels wherever needed in order to make them fit precisely up to each wall. Also, new channels can be cut where necessary and lined with aluminium tape (supplied).

3. Fixing the panels to the floor

The panels can be stapled, nailed, screwed or glued to the subfloor. If you are gluing them down, then lift the panels you've already pre-positioned, one line at a time, and spread the glue evenly over the floor below. Let set until it becomes sticky, and then replace the line of panels, pressing down firmly across the entire surface of each panel as you do so.

4. Fitting the pipe

The pipe can easily be fitted by just two people. One person feeds the pipe from the roll whilst the other secures it in the groove.

Use the aluminium tape to keep the pipe down in the U-turn panels.

5. Connecting the pipe to the pump manifold.

The next step is to connect the pipe to the manifold. Use the bending-units (supplied) to support the pipe where it leaves the grooves of the floor panels to travel up to the manifold.

6. Testing the system before laying the flooring.

Before commencing the laying down of flooring materials over the system, it must be pressure tested for a minimum of one hour by a qualified plumber.

7. Laying down flooring materials.

Almost any kind of flooring can be laid on top of the system. However, certain flooring materials will require different methods than others when fixing them down onto the panels:

Hardwood floors

Hardwood floors can be laid directly on top of the Box panels, but due to wood's "live" expanding and contracting nature, they must not be glued or fixed directly to them in any way. Hardwood floors should be left "floating" on the panels. However, some hardwood flooring manufacturers may state specifically that their particular flooring must be glued to an underlying surface. Where this is the case, plywood sheeting can be laid directly on top of the panels to create an intermediate surface that the hardwood flooring can then be glued down onto. The total thickness of wood should never exceed 22mm.

Ceramic tiles and natural stone

Tiles larger than 150 x 150 mm can be glued down directly on top of the Box system's poly-panels. However, the only tile adhesive that should be used to do this is Mapei's 'Kerabond' - which is mixed together with Mapei Isolastic.

If you are planning to put down tiles of a size less than 150 x 150 mm, then you must first cover the system with some kind of load distributing board (for example gypsum boarding - or chipboard). Alternatively, you could cover the system with a layer of fibre-reinforced screed.

Carpet and other resilient flooring materials.

Carpet and other soft flooring materials, such as vinyl, linoleum, cork, polyurethane, rubber, and asphalt composites, are too soft to be placed directly on top of our systems. They therefore require an intermediate layer that is flat and load bearing, for example chipboard, hardwood or a fibre-reinforced screed.

Download the complete Installation Manual from our Downloads page