Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 12, 2025 ...

Floor heat

June 19, 2015, 02:45:42 pm

We just purchased a 1989 36' Foretravel and it needs new flooring. I have been spending way too much time on the forum looking at all the things everyone is doing to their coach and looking forward to doing the same. It has been mentioned to put in floor heat when replacing your floors but I have not found on the forum where someone has actual accomplish this. We are planning to use a Bruce laminate wood floor. I am not sure I want to use a thinset to put down the heat strips. We will be spending a lot of time in Montana when I retire in a few years so heat is high on my list of important things to consider.

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Re: Floor heat

Reply #1 – June 19, 2015, 06:20:38 pm

Hi, Flight4952.  I would ask Andrew & Julie on the forum.  They have successfully installed in-floor heating, and just mentioned that upgrade in their recent thread Completely remodeled 96 U320.  I completely understand getting the itch to incorporate a lot of these neat upgrades.  Congrats on your new-to-you Foretravel, and best of luck with your project!  Remember to post lots of before and after pictures for us voyeurs. 

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Reply #2 – June 19, 2015, 07:40:11 pm

I would be very careful installing laminate flooring over a heated floor.  We have a solid hardwood floating floor over wot water in-floor heat in our house.  It is wonderful. 

If I were going to replace flooring in the coach (over a heated floor or not) I would probably use something like Mannington Adura Vinyl Plank flooring.  It can be installed over a heated floor as long as the floor does not exceed 90°.  Lots of people use ceramic tile or stone tile over heat grids.  I have been in these and the floor feels good when heated.  Cold when not.  Most use area rugs.

Another option would be cork flooring.

Not sure I would want a cold floor up north here.  Even in the summer our bathroom floor in the house seem cold.  Maybe in TX it would be OK.

http://www.mannington.com/Residential/Adura/~/media/Files/Installation%20Instructions/Adura%20Luxury%20Flooring%20Installation%20Instructions.ashx

Roger

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Reply #3 – June 19, 2015, 10:38:09 pm

Yes, so put floor coils in the bathroom of my 99 U320 about 10 years or more ago when I replaced the rug with a beautiful ceramic tile. Hard wired it to the 120 duplex outlet in the bathroom and mounted the rheostat switch nearby This was before anyone had OEM heated flooring and we sorta "winged it". Worked like a charm, about I0 watt/square foot and our bathroom was about 10 sq ft. We used the orange waffle filler.

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Reply #4 – June 19, 2015, 11:02:06 pm

@flight4952

I put down Thermosoft heat mat under the Snapstone tiles when I redid my floors.  It works but if I had to redo it again, I'd put the heating wire directly in thinset and install a conventional tile floor.  If you are in a truly cold place like Montana (or North Dakota in my case) you'll want to add more wattage per square foot in the areas that don't have the somewhat insulated storage bay below it, such as the bedroom and the front entry area.  The floor temperature in those areas is much colder than everything with a storage bay below it and the heat mat standard spacing won't be able to maintain a warm temperature at those areas.  If you using heating cable and thinset, you can switch from the standard 3 inch spacing everywhere else, down to a 2.5" or 2" spacing to put more heat into the bedroom and entry floor (though you'll probably want those areas on their own thermostat with a floor temp sensor to ensure that it doesn't overheat). 

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