# Economical raditant installs, how do you do it?



## markb (Jun 11, 2009)

Getting into lots of residential radiant recently. We are a company that does custom homes exclusively, and we do radiant in about half of those with snowmelt in about a quarter. 

My question is, what kind o stuff does everyone do to increase profit margins? Do you find that pre made manifolds worth the costs? Do you do your own wiring? Poured slab on second floor or plywood panels? 

Thanks for the tips

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## beachplumber (Feb 7, 2010)

Raise price


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## trick1 (Sep 18, 2008)

Our radiant is a custom installation and between the engineering, design, installation, and balancing I can't see any way to achieve an "economical" install.

The only way I can see to save any type of money is to eliminate motorized mixing valves (like the Taco "I" Series) and go with a fixed type mixing valve, and even then the price point isn't that much lower.

Nope, come to think of it, radiant heat has a higher price point, period.

Maybe staple up as opposed to a track system??


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## OldSchool (Jan 30, 2010)

instead of track system get the customer to do an over pour of light weight concrete


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

markb said:


> Do you find that pre made manifolds worth the costs?


No.



> Do you do your own wiring?


Of course. Yes.



> Poured slab on second floor or plywood panels?


Poured slab.


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## markb (Jun 11, 2009)

Do any of you prefab piping at the shop on plywood and then bring it to the jobsite? I would think it would save some money. Especially when we have three or four of the same jobs to pipe.

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