Re-Mesh

Re-Mesh




Here we are getting the grid of #10 re-mesh put down, the white of the floor is actually the reflective silver side of a product called R/B/B/W TekFoil, which stands for Reflective/Bubble/Bubble/White-Poly. On top of that is a layer of 6mil plastic taped at the seams, and then the welded-wire grid.


Now the sellers of the R/B/B/W says to put the White side up (corrosive preventor), and the Reflective side down, this runs with the thought that the cold in the ground would be reflected down, therefore keeping the heat in the concrete slab from being chilled from below allowing you to save energy by not loosing as much heat downwards. The White-Poly side keeps the product from being destroyed by the acidic concrete. And the Bubble/Bubble act as insulating barriers to the two sides.


Sadly this makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever to me, so I am once again doing things my way rather than the way I am "told" via the "instructions" and so I have placed the product Up-Side-Down... With the White side down and Reflective side up.


Here is why: We are heating the house with radiant pipes running through the slab of concrete.


1. Heat is Radiative, therefore the Reflective side will reflect the radiated heat back up into the slab, and then beyond up into the living environment. The Reflective side is 97% reflective of radiant energy, heat radiates, cold does not.


2. Cold is Not Radiative, it will not be "reflected back downwards by faceing the reflective surface towards the source of cold" i.e. the ground. Hence; in my book; it receives the white poly, which is just a vapor/sand/radon barrier at this point.


3. There are two layers of Bubble between the White-Poly side and the Reflective side to better insulate the heat from the cold. 3% of the heat from the slab which moved past the reflective surface, will move through the materials, heating the air in the bubbles, and diminishing the effects of the cold earth.


4. We also have a layer of 6mil clear plastic to handle the job of corrosive preventor from the etching and destructive powers of the acidic concrete protecting the highly reflective surface.





You can barely see our curious dog Riley, standing in the far doorway, she is a pretty good dog and stays outside most all the time now, we are trying not to let her nails pop all the bubbles. D'Artagnon is cooling off for abit playing with some cars on the floor.


The grids are rather flat, they don't look it because of the plastic sheets tugged this way and that. We have secured them altogether with zip-ties. We will attatch the radiant pipes to these grids pretty soon.


You can also see the sub-grade pipe (middle/top) that sits above the sand floor, it will still be 2" below the finish surface of the concrete, we still need to reinforce this area with sticks of heavy rebar so we dont get any cracks in the finished floor. (thanks Mr Joiner)

More to come soon.