Heated floors take chill out of winter
Shelley Little/Bettendorf News The McDonalds’ bathroom stays warm because of radiant-heated floors. They even keep the furnace register closed most of the time.
Shelley Little/Bettendorf News The McDonalds stay warm from head to toe in their shower with warm floors. One wall is heated, too.
When it is this frigid in the morning, the last thing you want to do is roll out of bed and step onto that cold bathroom tile.
Gisela and Douglas McDonald were smart when they custom-built their Bettendorf home; they were 10 warm steps ahead of most of us because they had radiant-heated floors.
Marlin Warm Floors is the only authorized distributor of STEP Warm Floors in Iowa.
Gisela McDonald
Q: Why did you decide to have a warm floor installed?
A: Warm floors are very common in Europe. I am from Germany, so having tile floors as warm floors was something I was very familiar with — plus something that I really wanted when we custom-built this home.
Q: What parts of your home have the floors installed?
A: We have warm floors in our guest bathroom, which is so nice for our guests. The upstairs bathroom also has a warm floor under the tile, a warm floor in the shower, and one shower wall is also warm.
Q: Do you still have to heat the bathroom by methods other then the heat provided by the warm floor?
A: No, the warm floor really heats the whole bathroom. I actually have the heating vent closed in there. It provides such a nice, soft heat; there is no harsh, hot air blowing from a vent.
Q: Has the use of a warm floor increased your heating bill?
A: I don’t think so. This home is much bigger than our last one, so the heating bill is more, but certainly not doubled. This type of heat is very energy-efficient.
Q: Do you think this has added value to your home?
A: Most definitely, this is the type of feature that remains attractive to buyers for many years to come. We feel the cost to put this in will come back to us. In the meantime, there is nothing nicer than stepping onto a warm tile floor in the morning.
Robin ChenowethTHE BUSINESS
Marlin Warm Floors
Owners: John and Robin Chenoweth
Phone: (309) 269-1978
Address: 2496 Forest Reed Place, LeClaire
Q: What are some of the benefits to having a warm floor installed?
A: The warm floors are self-regulating, which means that they can never overheat. This also means that they are very safe. Warm floors are very easy to install and virtually maintenance-free.
Q: How do they work?
A: They can actually run on solar power and wind power. The energy efficiency is amazing; it only runs on 24 volts of electricity, which equals the electricity of a doorbell.
Q: Can they only be installed in homes during the process of construction or can they also be put in older homes?
A: As long as we can get underneath the floor via a basement then there is no problem. Sometimes a homeowner is ready to change flooring and decides to install the warm floor at that time.
Contact the Bettendorf News at (563) 383-2396 or bettnews@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
