Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Renovations => Topic started by: Spiderhitch on August 24, 2025, 09:13:03 am

Title: Heated floors
Post by: Spiderhitch on August 24, 2025, 09:13:03 am
Has anyone replaced flooring with heated tile floors? Is there enough clearance for slide to operate? Do I need to tell my wife no?
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: Forewheelers on August 24, 2025, 11:40:24 am
I always thought enough heat from the Aqua hot kept the floor fairly warm...... I would like a lesson on how that works telling the wife no....never worked for me.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: Spiderhitch on August 24, 2025, 11:43:05 am
I always thought enough heat from the Aqua hot kept the floor fairly warm...... I would like a lesson on how that works telling the wife no....never worked for me.
Not sure its going to work for me either. We are planning of skiing all winter in coach. Thinking tile could be kept cleaner and heat would be nice
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: SuperFore on August 24, 2025, 01:05:54 pm
Adding electric heat will raise your floor close to a quarter inch - I've never really looked and thought about it for the slide but I imagine you can make it work... Just not sure - curious how the OEM installation works and what material they use to level after putting the floor mat down, a flexible polymer based leveling material would probably be best? I have to think adding some electric heat to the basement would probably take care of the main living area floor pretty well and turning the thermostat up in the bathroom would take care of the floor there... We have solid surface everywhere except the bedroom and the bathroom is the only area where the floor has felt cold traveling even down in the single digits.


Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: Spiderhitch on August 24, 2025, 01:12:05 pm
Adding electric heat will raise your floor close to a quarter inch - I've never really looked and thought about it for the slide but I imagine you can make it work... Just not sure - curious how the OEM installation works and what material they use to level after putting the floor mat down, a flexible polymer based leveling material would probably be best? I have to think adding some electric heat to the basement would probably take care of the main living area floor pretty well and turning the thermostat up in the bathroom would take care of the floor there... We have solid surface everywhere except the bedroom and the bathroom is the only area where the floor has felt cold traveling even down in the single digits.
Wasn't sure if basement heat would be adequate to warm floors. Have done a bit of tiling but only heat I've done was with Schluter. Not sure how mat would work and imagine it would require close to 3/4" for mat, mortar and tile
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: fourdayoff on August 24, 2025, 02:29:19 pm
Maybe @dsd  will chime in, he spent allot of time in that area replacing his slide bladder and improving the "bow" in the slide box. He may have advise on clearance for the slide. Same year coach. Jim.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: erniee on August 25, 2025, 12:03:47 pm
I have done multiple Foretravels with engineered wood and slides. The 3/8 is really tight for those slides to come in. I give thin pieces of vinyl planks to clients so the slides won't scratch the floor. If you have to embed the electric mats or wires for the heated floors in thin, set. That will raise the floor- beware.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: Spiderhitch on August 25, 2025, 05:29:17 pm
I thought that to be the case. I figured tile, thinset and heat mat would be around 3/4". Anyone want to tell my wife no, I'd appreciate it. I'm afraid of engineered wood floor. It's beautiful but we have 2 dogs and plans on living in it a couple winters and skiing. Not so sure of the durability. Any thoughts on a quality LVP or LVT. There's some pretty nice stuff out there these days
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: Elliott on August 25, 2025, 07:50:47 pm
I thought that to be the case. I figured tile, thinset and heat mat would be around 3/4". Anyone want to tell my wife no, I'd appreciate it. I'm afraid of engineered wood floor. It's beautiful but we have 2 dogs and plans on living in it a couple winters and skiing. Not so sure of the durability. Any thoughts on a quality LVP or LVT. There's some pretty nice stuff out there these days
We put high-end LVP in our grand villa and it is indestructible, but simply not as aesthetically pleasing as wood would have been.

My personal opinionis that it is great for your  use case despite its shortcomings. You just have to get the wife to sign off on it.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: erniee on August 25, 2025, 08:38:39 pm
Part 2
There is a product with just wires that you can use a router on the plywood floor to embed those wires. Then you can skim coat it with some Portland based patch.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: dsd on August 25, 2025, 09:02:46 pm
So seems like a simple project, but they all do. The height of the carpet is used level the slide during operation. I installed the Vinyl Plank flooring and just love it for our utility use. I made rollers to compensate for the difference in height. The current slider wont play nice with the vinyl flooring IMO. But probably would on tile. You just dont have 3/4" probably closer to 1/2" so to heat with the Aqua hot is possible but is a bigger project than I would want to take on. Using electric panels would suck a lot of power? Good luck saying no.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: turbojack on August 25, 2025, 09:31:25 pm
Anyone want to tell my wife no, I'd appreciate it.

Don't have to tell her no, let her tell you NO.  Just tell her you were on the forum and found out you were going to have to cut the floor down in order to add the electric heat. Cost of doing that, along with the heat coils and wiring was going to cost around $200,000+ and you found a better option that already has electric heat and has little more room, and an upgrade.


2014 Foretravel ih 45 Bath & 1/2 ih 45 (https://www.motorhomesoftexas.com/used-foretravel-motorhomes-for-sale-Nacogdoches-texas--inventory?condition=pre-owned&make=foretravel&pg=1)
 
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: kgrover on August 26, 2025, 07:37:30 am
The bay heaters do a decent job of warming the floor. You could just add a few more to the other bays and use that.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: erniee on August 26, 2025, 07:47:01 am
Get a couple of fuzzy shag rugs to keep her toes warm.
Title: Re: Heated floors
Post by: fourdayoff on August 26, 2025, 10:44:27 am
Get a couple of fuzzy shag rugs to keep her toes warm.
How about a pair of slippers? Jim.