You might recognize Warmboard by its color…green. Some like to say, “Warmboard was green before green was the trend.” However, its green color is not the only green and sustainable part of Warmboard these days. Warmboard radiant panels have multiple sustainable facets. For example, Warmboard’s unique patented design and utility make its panels the most energy efficient in the marketplace, allowing a Warmboard radiant system to warm any home at the lowest water temperatures.

Energy conservation

Warmboard Radiant Subfloor is designed to allow the radiant system to operate at the lowest water temperatures. These lower water temperatures translate to lower energy consumption of natural gas, propane, or electricity. Moreover, the low water temperatures easily interface with solar thermal and geothermal technologies. Click here to read more…

Zoning

Warmboard also has the ability to zone a home to the needs and preferences of the homeowner. When a Warmboard Radiant System is designed into the home, Warmboard’s CAD department designs the system zones so that if a homeowner is only in his/her room at night that is the only time that area receives heat. This makes the system extremely efficient and allows less energy to be used. Thermostats are located in each zone and can be controlled accordingly. Click here to read more…

Health

As a radiant heating system, Warmboard provides clean indoor air quality. The heat is radiated from the floor so there are no allergens or dust particles blowing around the room as there are with forced air systems.

Improved indoor air quality could reduce allergies, medical bills, and more as the heat is radiated and not blown around.

• Approximately 34.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma by a health professional during their lifetime.2
• In a survey of U.S. homes, approximately one-quarter had levels of dust mite allergens present in a bed at a level high enough to trigger asthma symptoms.3

LEED credits

A complete Warmboard radiant heating system can gain between 7 and 11 LEED points in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating.

FSC certified panel availability

Warmboard is a low mass system made of seven layer plywood. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified plywood may also be purchased for any Warmboard project. The FSC certification ensures a homeowner that the wood manufactured into the product is encouraging and supporting sustainable forestry practices and management and is supporting the fair trade in communities that assist in bringing wood to world markets.

According to the American Institute of Architects’ Environmental Resource Guide, 42 million acres of tropical forest were cleared in 1990, an increase of 40% from 1980 levels. The AIA predicts that all tropical forests could be depleted by the middle of the 21st century. 1

Swanson - Oregon Forest Practices Act

The plywood of a Warmboard Radiant Subfloor panel is harvested in Oregon and complies with the Oregon Forest Practices Act which promotes sustainable forest harvesting, protects wildlife habitats, limits clearcuts, along with other important More information about the act can found here.

Wood - strong, renewable, resistant

Plywood was the first type of engineered wood. The seven plies of Warmboard are cross-banded and bonded together with pressurized heat and strong adhesives. Warmboard panels are extremely durable, resistant to warping, shrinking or twisting, and are also the home’s structural subfloor. From an environmental viewpoint, wood takes less energy to produce, compared to concrete, steel, or cement. Wood is also renewable and has strong insulation properties.

Warmboard lives forever…almost!

Often times, building materials are in need of replacement due to use and degradation over time. Warmboard however, is designed to last the life of the house, so there is no need to replace the materials. Therefore, it is less impacting on the environment because fewer materials are needed
and they last forever…well, almost.

Recycled aluminum

The top of the Warmboard panels consist of a continuous sheet of aluminum adhered to the plywood. The aluminum even covers the interior of the tubing channels creating a highly conductive surface beneath the finished floor covering. This 1100 alloy aluminum is not only highly conductive, it is also manufactured with 20% recycled aluminum.

Little product waste

Warmboard’s customized CAD design services fit the panels into each, unique, home design. Therefore, there is little waste when it comes to product purchase, development, and shipment; the exact amount of panels needed to cover a project, are the exact amounts shipped to a particular job site. This customization allows for a big reduction in product and material waste as well as a reduction on the environmental impact in creating and transporting such materials.

Sustainable manufacturing in the USA

Warmboard is proudly manufactured in the United States of America. It also uses a beeswax lubricant that is cleaned in water before it is used in the manufacturing process of Warmboard panels.

Phenol formaldehyde

As a structural, APA-approved, radiant panel, Warmboard’s Douglas Fir ply layers are bound together using a phenol formaldehyde-containing (phenolic) adhesive. This adhesive is extremely durable, waterproof, and contains as much formaldehyde as one breathes in an urban area.

Second vantage point: this is even less formaldehyde than the amount that naturally forms in apples, onions, and human blood, which contains 0.3 parts per million or ppm of formaldehyde. Even U.S. Government agencies claim “phenolic resin-bonded wood products do not cause significant formaldehyde related problems.” Formaldehyde is produced by cigarettes and gasoline and is always present to some degree in the environment. The amount of formaldehyde within Warmboard will not endanger your health any more than the air around you.

Installation Process

As an APA-approved, structural, subfloor, Warmboard panels are the radiant heating system combined with the structural subfloor. When installed, the 4 x 8 sheets (1 and 1/8 inch thick) are placed over the floor joists and nailed down. Afterwards, the installer has the subfloor in place along with a highly conductive radiant panel in which to place the tubing; a two-in-one product. This eliminates labor and materials, reducing the waste a project might produce from their separation.

Solar Decathlon

The Department of Energy’s biannual competition in Washington, D.C. showcases and awards (based on distinct criteria) energy efficient homes created and designed by 20 colleges and universities that are selected to enter. Warmboard has been selected for a majority of these homes because the best engineers at the best universities know that Warmboard is the most energy efficient when it comes to radiant heat.

Direct Sale Model

Warmboard has a direct sales model, reducing the amount of transportation it would take to get panels from the manufacturer to the home construction site. Instead, Warmboard ships directly to the project site, taking out any waste involved in the logistics of a distribution model.

Encourages paperless communications

As a company, Warmboard encourages its employees to promote paperless communications in order to reduce the paper and gas waste that a company incurs when printing and sending through the mail stream.

Latest News

-  Warmboard is honored to win the Best HVAC System and People’s Choice awards at the 2009 GREEN LOG Home Awards. Click here to read more.

-  Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified Warmboard Radiant Subfloor is now available! Warmboard adds value and sustainability to its radiant floor panels. Click here to read more.

-  Warmboard is pleased to be a Certified Green Business through the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program. Click here to read more.

What our customers say:

“Widely accepted as the most comfortable, healthy and energy efficient form of heat”

- Kirsten Laraby, Grand Park Co., Marketing Director

“Grand Park, [Co.] is committed to creating a community that sets new standards for quality in Grand County…Grand Park has incorporated the practices of green building into the first neighborhood…One of the most luxurious features in the homes…is the use of Warmboard radiant heat. Widely accepted as the most comfortable, healthy and energy efficient form of heat, Warmboard is especially attractive because its systems are easily zoned and have a fast response time, reducing energy usage by heating only the occupied rooms or regions…Because of it’s high conductivity, Warmboard’s 12″ on center tubing outperforms other panels using 6″ on center tubing. This spacing also results in lower material useage. It replaces a traditional plywood sub-floor, further reducing wood useage while its high conductivity reduces the amount of tubing and manifolds needed.”

“It’s an excellent system and we love it.”

- Teddy & Alice Deane, Friday Harbor, WA

Hi Barry, It was fun to finally meet you and to have you see the house that we built in 2001-2002 using Warmboard. As you could tell, we’re very energy conscious and that’s one of the reasons we chose Warmboard. It uses a modest amount of propane in a combi-core unit that supplies hot water too. Combined with our hefty insulation and southern glass orientation, it keeps the house warm all day by only coming on in the morning and evening, after the sun goes down. I have water pipes stubbed to the roof as well and because Warmboard uses a lower water temperature to heat, I believe I can get a lot of what I need from solar collectors when I eventually get them. We love how absolutely silent it is, how little space it takes, and we have had no problems and no maintenance since we moved into the house. With a programmable thermostat the whole system runs continuously, efficiently, and flawlessly on it’s own. We are glad that we found out about Warmboard before construction and were able to incorporate it into our plans. It is an excellent system and we love it.

“The homeowner is very pleased.”

- Don Moore, Integrity Plumbing, Florence, OR

I love Warmboard. The tubing went down really well. The layouts that Warmboard provided were great. What is most impressive is that the water temperatures I run my system at are extremely low and response time is extremely fast, even with all hardwood and tile floors. Warmboards efficiency proved true. The original design takeoff from the engineer was designed in accordance with a slab system, calling for set-back controls and a high efficiency boiler, however none of those setback controls were needed. Warmboard heats the 3500 square foot home with a 75 gal LP gas water heater set at only 95 degrees. The homeowner is extremely pleased. I would absolutely use Warmboard again, in fact I will use it every chance I get. No problems, just awesome.

“Warmboard helps ease our allergies.”

- Kenneth Buser, Franktown, CO

Warmboard was easy for us to install, which was one of the things we enjoyed. We weren’t limited on floor covering choices, and are very pleased with the results and the even distribution of heat. Another reason we chose Warmboard was to get away from blowing dust in our home. It’s a plus for us that Warmboard helps ease our allergies by not compounding the problem like a forced air system would.

1 http://www.bdcnetwork.com/university/info/CA6529042.html?nid=2073
2 World Health Organization Global surveillance, prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases a comprehensive approach, 2007.
3 Branum, AM, Lukacs SL. Food allergy among U.S. children: Trends in prevalence and hospitalizations. NCHS data brief, no 10. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics 2008.