A heated driveway?
This is what it looks like before they pour the concrete apparently.
Just wait until one of those hoses springs a leak.
If they think getting it installed was expensive, they ain’t seen nothing yet.
A What?!
Bustednuckles
Documenting The Death Of America
If anything like radiant heated floors, then probably pretty durable. Recall a steam heated sidewalk in Wichita Kansas probably 50 years ago … never had to be shoveled of snow or de-iced.
I’ve read where the hoses are durable for 30+ years. But what about crappy installation where the slab cracks??
A good snowblower is waaaaaaay cheaper.
Modern Pex tubing is virtually indestructable. We’ve used this system in radiant floor heat systems for many years now.
Lines end up 3+ inches below the top of the slab, so unless some moron uses 8″ tapcons to put the plates down you’re good.
Lines are set at pressure and monitored throughout the entire slab pour and construction process.
That’s PEX radiant heat. Light weight concrete will be poured over top of it. The concrete will act as a sleeve so that leaks are impossible.
Our little county hospital has hydronic heating in its helipad, and the sidewalks up to ER as well.
If you have ground source geothermal, or solar hot water, your operating costs are the pump to move fluid. Install costs are astronomical though.
Saving teh planet!!11! One rich democrap’s driveway at a time!
Swept a driveway on an estate in Connecticut that had heated driveway and sidewalks. They had a dedicated boiler housed in an out building, IIRC they used propylene glycol as the stuff doesn’t boil nor freeze…
and THAT, boys & girls is how the other half lives!
Yep, what everyone said above.
Owned a self-serve car wash for 20 years. the slab cracked, but the hoses in the concrete stayed fine.
It isn’t as expensive as you might think to install, and to keep the slab JUST above freezing isn’t that bad either…this was in the Chicago area.
When I sold the place they demoed the slab for a restaurant….and the hoses STILL wouldn’t break very easily. That Pex is tougher than you think.
And!!!! No snow removal costs.
You’d be surprised how durable these are, if installed correctly will outlast a standard concrete drive.
6500 square feet of it installed last year at work in a new maintenance shop using that exact same method/materials in the photo. Liked it so much, did the same to my new workshop at home. Picked up 1000′ of 1/2 oxygen barrier tubing for $129 shipped from a surplus place, put 2″ foam insulation down, 4×4 remesh and tied it to every other square using zip ties in 3 separate 225′ zones within the slabs. Used a point of use propane camp shower heater, a 3 zone manifold and a grundig 1/40hp pump to circulate it.
Nothing like having a floor set at 75 and the interior temp stays at 70+ throughout the coldest months of the year. Propane isn’t the most efficient without a large holding tank, so I’m retrofitting it right now with a spare 40gal water heater. Water heater set at minimum should keep me warm enough for t-shirts all winter long.
I have in floor heat in my garage 30×40 I use a 40 gallon hot water heater as boiler. I installed mine and a friend was over he wanted me to install the same system in his shop but was kinda worried about leaks. I handed him a piece of pex and a framing hammer he beat the shit outta that pex but wore himself out before he could put a hole in it.
Bill Gates has a driveway in Wyoming almost two miles long. Six propane heaters required to keep it snow and ice free. Hypocritical asshole spews bullshit global warming nonsense wherever he goes.
My uncle had a similar system installed under his driveway in Wyoming sixty years ago. He turned in on at the first forecast of snow one autumn. The next morning he had a half dozen elk bedded down on his driveway and they weren’t too eager to move out of his way.
We’ve got a heated driveway at one of the building where I work. Eastern WA, so actual winter, and it’s one of the three sloped driveways. Been working fine for 20+ years, as long as someone remembers to turn it on before the C-levels come to work.
Because of *course* it’s the admin building driveway, and not the ones over at the building where staff and clients need to park, hell no. (They chain off the steeper driveway when frost starts, because otherwise it’d be WEEEEcrash all morning – and all day once the snow hits.)