Technical questions about showers, heated floors and wet tile beds...

Me again with another bathroom question...

I've decided that seeing we are demolishing our bathroom and starting from bare boards, we should install under-tile heating. I got one quote and then got our sparky in to see the job. His whole house has under-floor heating, and instead of the clip and wire set-up, he is getting a quote for us from a company that makes up a mat the size of our room with the wiring enclosed in a mat made to suit exactly what we need.

Our tile asked us two things -

1. He has only seen the older style clip and wind it yourself heating, and suggested we don't run this under the shower. Our sparky says the system he is getting quotes for, and which he used in his house, is wiring embedded in a mat made to suit the shape of what we want heated. Can we run this mat under the shower tiles? We will put down compressed AC sheet, sparky lays down temperature probe, tiler comes in and waterproofs over the probe and the rest of the room, sparky comes back and lays down the mat with the wiring running through it, tiler lays his bed over the top of this and then lays the tiles. We are tiling the whole floor and the shower section will be sloped to the drain.

Tiler hasn't seen the mat system before and thought it could get wet under the shower area. Sparky says the company tells him it is quite safe and water will not affect it.

Is anybody able to confirm this?

2. Tiler asked me to find out if the bed composition should change due to being constantly hot and then cold, maybe the "usual" bed needs to be altered to allow for this. Sparky told me his contact said the bed doesn't need to be changed to allow for the differences in temperatures.

Can anybody confirm this?

I will get the quote tomorrow, and will email the company to ask these things, but I thought someone may know the answers.

One more question -

When a tiler waterproofs the whole room, and then lays a bed under the tiles, is it normal for that bed to be constantly wet. The only thing stopping the water seeping through the tiles to the bed is the grout, which isn't really waterproof.

I realise he will use an angle strip outlining the shower, unseen but separating the "floor" tiles from the "shower" tiles. Does this mean that all these types of walk-in, hobless, trayless showers have beds under that may be constantly wet?
 
I've decided that seeing we are demolishing our bathroom and starting from bare boards, we should install under-tile heating.
wylie, you live in Brisbane for goodness sake. I'd be installiing under-tile air/con to cool the place down, not heating!! :p
 
wylie, you live in Brisbane for goodness sake. I'd be installiing under-tile air/con to cool the place down, not heating!! :p

If the bathroom is warm from under-tile heating the 17 year old might just get out of the shower :D. Apparently it is too cold to get out of the nice warm shower.

We have four heat lights, but under-tile heating sounds nice :p and apparently will warm the room nicely (according to our sparky).
 
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