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Wasted $400 on a heated floor system that didn't work

Installed those electric mats under my tile in Denver. Followed the directions step by step. Wired it up and nothing. No heat at all. Turns out I nicked the wire with my trowel during thinset and broke the circuit. Anyone else ruin a heated floor install this way?
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4 Comments
hannah_west39
Spliced mine with a crimp connector and it's been fine for years.
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fionam11
fionam1121d ago
...and you found the nick with a continuity tester after pulling your hair out for an hour, right? I did the exact same thing on my first heated floor job, that little wire is just asking to get caught. Sliced right through it with the edge of my margin trowel and didn't even feel it happen. Spent the rest of the weekend trying to splice it back together under the uncoupling membrane, what a nightmare.
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ward.anna
ward.anna20d ago
Wow, did you manage to save it with that splice or did it fail later?
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fionafoster
Ever checked your house voltage at the outlet before hooking it up? I mean, it's boring and nobody does it, but I found out the hard way my "120V" system was actually getting 108V from an old subpanel. That floor never hit temp, and I spent weeks blaming my trowel work instead of my electrical panel. Tested voltage at the thermostat and boom, there it was. So maybe your nick wasn't the only problem, just the one you found first.
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