Expert: Nazim Nice - 12/17/2009

Question
We are building a new house and thought in floor heat would be a great way to heat . Since then my wife has started to work in a building with in floor heat. She and her coworkers have started to get bad foot and leg pain in the cold months. Is this due to the floor heat or a poorly designed system or something completely unrelated ? My wife works as health care provider.

Answer
Hi Durand,

I have never heard of in floor heating causing foot or leg pain.  In fact, a cold surface is more likely to cause arthritic pain because your body is radiating it's warmth to that cold surface, which can cause arthritic like pain in some people. So a warm surface floor should be a positive thing, not a negative.  I would look at other factors like what is the flooring surface?  If it is hard concrete or tile, and your wife previously worked somewhere there was a softer surface (like carpet or even a sheet vinyl product will have more give than concrete), perhaps the hard flooring is causing the pain because she and her coworkers are standing long hours?  

Nazim Nice
http://www.motion-space.com

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