Nevin Lantz is a clinical psychologist who is also very talented in home building and remodeling. This past year, Nevin finished renovating his retirement home in Capitola, California. He had a fantastic experience with Warmboard and was kind of enough to tell us about his experience.
“Growing up in Pennsylvania, we were used to cold winters. My father was a general contractor back then, and I remember when our house was upgraded with radiant baseboard heating. It was a game changer! It was still an early technology at the time but it was such a remarkable improvement from the coal-fired hot air furnace we had been using. For the next many years I recognized and enjoyed the benefits of living in a home with baseboard heaters.
Years later in 1972, I traveled to Afghanistan and had the privilege to visit a lovely protestant church in Kabul. And aside from the architecture, one thing I almost immediately noticed was radiant heating, though I could not see baseboard radiators anywhere. Turns out they were heating it through the floor. All the benefits of radiant heat, without the visual reminders on the walls. It was wonderful.
In the 1980s, we bought a 150 year old farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It needed a lot of work. Using all the skills I had picked up over the years, I was able to make the house a home. It wasn’t like building a house from scratch, but it came pretty close. I knew I wanted radiant floor heating, and the only real option at that time was to pour gypsum concrete over the tubing. What a nightmare that turned out to be! First it ran all over the place and made a huge mess. It dried that way, and when the construction crew began breaking it up, they hit the tubing. Even once all that got resolved, affixing the floor was no easy feat.
Still, we enjoyed that home for many years, and even when moving to California to pursue my career in clinical psychology, I continued to remodel my homes while keeping up with the latest developments in the home building industry. It was during this time when I first heard about Warmboard in the trade publications. I remember seeing the thin profile of the panel and its extensive use of aluminum – I immediately made a mental note.
Fast forward and my wife and I are making our retirement plans. We’ve purchased a condo in Capitola, California and know this where we will be spending many years to come. I knew I wanted Warmboard, and now these many months later, I couldn’t be happier.
I installed the panels and tubing myself, and just hired a plumber to do the final connections to and from the boiler. I got rid of my furnace, and by using the Navien 150 Combi-Boiler, I was able to get 15 square feet back of usable space to our home. The custom routes took a bit of time, but the router bit and template Warmboard provided were immensely helpful. After the systems was hooked up, we installed engineered hardwood over the panels.
Having 4 separate zones is wonderful so we can have the ideal temperature in each area of our home throughout the day. We can keep our bedroom cool during the day, and turn down the kitchen when the sun shines in. And of course, all this is configured into our thermostats now, so we can save energy and experience more comfort.
Working with the Warmboard team was so easy. Peter and Todd (Warmboard employees) were always just a phone call away. I was expecting to just order some panels and be done with it, but Warmboard gave me so much more – from detailed, easy-to-follow plans and documentation, to consistent support throughout my installation. The Warmboard team was wholly committed to the success of my project.
I absolutely love my Warmboard system, there’s just no comparison to the other radiant systems I’ve experienced. My wife and I couldn’t be happier.”
