Is Radiant Floors a good investment?

Question

I have a 3 family that I am gut rehabbing and be 3 luxury condos.  I am considering radiant flooring in the bathrooms.   The cost is about 8,000 for 7 bathrooms.  Is this a good idea? Also if Yes should I do the kitchens? What are your experiences?

Lauren B. · Answer

$8,000 is the add on price for radiant or total title cost? I installed suntouch from Home Depot in my last bath Reno, it was under $400 for mat and thermostat. It was a little trickier to install tile. It was my first time installing it and it was easy to DIY.

My father is does high end kitchens and bath renovations and recommended the brand. It’s a nice feature and I went with the 7day programmable thermostat. A “must” at $400 but I wouldn’t consider it for $8,000 given the $300k price point of the home where I installed it.

If the goal is warm tile floors, I’d do the electric mats.

Pat L. · Answer

From experience & living in upstate NY I would do it. Our friends installed them in the kitchen & baths during a major rehab & they are amazing. The only problem is their 4 little dachshund pups sprawl on them during the cold months creating a trip hazard.

Bryan Devitt · Answer

They're a luxury item that is a nice feature if the location and rest of the apt call for it, but you will never hear someone say "I can't stay here, it doesn't have heated tile in the bathroom". You would hear "OMG heated floors in the morning in winters would be amazing" but how much is that worth? If you're in Brockton with a $600/month apt, then zero, if you're in South Boston, then it is cool and might put you over the top to someone

Brian Ploszay · Answer

Radiant floors are an amenity, that can't be seen by immediately by consumers, such as some of the other updates of your bathroom.

The best answer is to look carefully at the comps in the market over the last two years to see if this amenity is included.  In some markets, it is a must.  In most urban markets with renovated, older construction, it probably is not.

Kevin Polite · Answer

I put in radiant flooring in my personal home master bath and wish we had splurged to put it all of the other bathrooms, and were talking just 3 month mild Atlanta winters. Wouldn’t do it on a flip, but man love ‘em personally. We did do one in a basement in a higher end rental. 5 years later a flood and had to jackhammer around it to fix plumbing. Heater still working 2 years later. Very little energy used and comes with a timer though we kept ours at a set temperature in the winter because it takes a couple of hours to warm up. It’s like you don’t turn off your heater completely when you leave the house. We used  Warmly Yours

Johann Jells · Answer

Given that in the northeast most of the living areas are hardwood and kitchen & baths tile, the bang for the buck is doing it under the tile if you already have a usable heat source. I would not do it electric. In my old house the kitchen is 2" thick terrazzo and the bath thickset tile, but it's the ground floor with the joists exposed underneath. So I did what's called "suspended pex" in the joist bays as a zone off my boiler, and it works like a charm, lovely warm stone floors for not much money.

Electric just for the baths seems a reasonable thing, but you do not have reasonable prices. It's just an electric mat that goes under the tile and gets wired to a thermostat on the wall. $1100 each bath seems high.

Tyler Desprez · Answer

I avoid doing radiant heat at all cost there is much cheaper options especially if your going under tile. I would never suggest doing it under hardwood but the system I use is electric and all of my projects have had positive feed back as you can adjust the temp. and choose what time the floors are heated. One of my biggest worries as a contractor is gettig involved with a previous house with radiant flooring because during removal of the flooring the demo guys can hit a line and cause water damage.

Here is two of the systems I have used in the past.

https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Stone-Electric-Floo...

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Floor-W...

Schluter system is an excellent system a bit more expensive but it works as a uncoupling membrane as well and helps avoid tiles from cracking in the future I am using it now in a high end master bathroom remodel.

Dan K. · Answer

For a new build I thought radiant heating would be a no-brainer, but after doing research it's really not a worthwhile investment unless it's expected.

To appreciate radiant floors your really need to be a home owner and "get it."

Charlie MacPherson · Answer

@Philip Ganz  For luxury condos, I'd say yes.  It's definitely a luxury feature that will set your units apart.

So to back up my gut instinct, I just went into MLS.  Of the 498 condos priced $700K+ there were 20 with radiant heat.  Their low price was $729.9K.  The high was $4.65M.  Average $2.035M.

If you can tell me what part of Boston, I can dial those numbers in more tightly.

Ravi P. · Answer

@Philip Ganz

Radiant flooring is not a necessity. It will be a selling point against a property without radiant flooring but I wouldn't bother.

Since this is a gut rehab focus on a nice clean design.

If you want to see if it is worth it. Take the 8,000 and divide it by the increase in rent per year. That is how long the payback period would be. ( Assuming tenant would pay for electricity so I ignored that cost from the formula)

If you are financing this you should take that into account as well. It may only be a small amount but you would be paying interest for 20,25 or 30 years.

One last thought. If it breaks, or stops working, would you have to repair or replace it? Don't create more work than you need.

Is Radiant Floors a good investment?

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