Floor Installation

Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier Under Floor Installation:

Our Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier can be used under an elevated floor to cut down on heat gain or heat loss through the flooring.

Installation Tips:

  • Perforated Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier is recommended for this job
  • Unroll the Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier and staple to bottom of floor joists
  • Overlap each run by about 2 inches
  • Tape seams to reduce air infiltration
  • Widths: 52” and 25.5”

Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier in Radiant Heat Flooring:

Radiant heat floors are becoming very popular, however, they have a tendency to loose their heat to the space below. Our Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier will increase the efficiency of these radiant floors by reflecting the majority of this heat back into the conditioned space.

Installation Tips:

  • Perforated Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier is recommended for this job
  • Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier should be sized in width to match your floor joist spacing
  • Install Radiant Barrier directly beneath radiant heat tubing
  • Staple in place or allow the material to rest on top of the floor insulation
  • Add conventional insulation to the underside of the Radiant Barrier
  • Widths for dimensional lumber - 25.5” (24” o.c.) or 51” (3 x 16” o.c.)
  • Widths for manufactured floor joists - 25.5” (24” o.c.) or 51” (3 x 16” o.c.)

Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier Between Radiant Heated Floors:

When used in the floor between two radiant heated floors, our Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier helps direct the heat to the zone in which it is needed.

Installation Tips:

  • Perforated Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier is recommended for this job
  • Ra-flect™ Radiant Barrier should be sized in width to match your floor joist spacing
  • Install Radiant Barrier directly beneath radiant heat tubing
  • Staple in place
  • Typically, conventional insulation is not used, except for sound control
  • Widths for dimensional lumber - 25.5” (24” o.c.) or 51” (3 x 16” o.c.)
  • Widths for manufactured floor joists - 25.5” (24” o.c.) or 51” (3 x 16” o.c.)

What is Emissivity and Why is it Important?

The reflectivity of a radiant barrier is pretty easy to understand, the higher the reflectivity value, the more light energy(heat) the radiant barrier is able to reflect. If you look at different radiant barriers, from paints and sprayed on applications to foil rolls, you will quickly see that rolls of aluminum have much higher reflectivity values, making them more efficient than their counterparts.

But what about emissivity, why is this value so important?

Emissivity is basically the ratio of heat energy radiated by a material to the heat energy radiated by a true black body at the same temperature. Yea, I know thats a bunch of physics nonsense, so let me lay it down for you in layman’s terms. Basically, if we were to take a black object (theoretical) which reflects no light energy and absorbs all light energy that touches it, it would have an emissivity value of one (ε = 1). Any real object , weather it be black or not would have an emissivity value of less than 1.

So what this definition is really saying is that the darker an object is, the more light energy it will absorb. And subsequently, the lighter and more reflective a material is, the less light energy it will absorb. This why radiant barriers, even though they have little or no “insulative” properties, can effectively block out most of the radiant heat coming in or leaving a structure.emissivity