De-icing System For Porch

wbsbadboy

I have a customer that wants to install some type of system to keep his front porch, and especially the steps, warm enough that ice will not form on them durring the cold spells.
This will need to be placed under the red brick I will be installing over the existing concrete steps. It must be electrically powered and must be able to be controlled by a thermostat that can be set to a range of around 30-50 degrees. I have looked at some of the radient heat systems but can not find anything that is for outdoor use.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Grumpy

Have you considered one of the gutter warming cables? I doubt it would be strong enough to warm through 3" of brick though, perhaps if the porch were concrete and it imbedded an inch or so below the surface.

Just a though I am no expert in this matter.

stacker

wow seems like it would take a bunch of heat to get the face of a regular paver warm enuf to keep ice from forming.if you havent got them yet i would try to talk your customer into a one inch paver.then a floor system could be installled beneath that.

__________________
life is short,do your masonry naked!!
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wbsbadboy

Well I found a system that would handle the project. They do under floor heating systems and also the snow melt systrems. Problem was the price. It is expensive stuff for the snow melting system as each one is custom made to suit the project. The customer decided that they could do without the almost $6000.00 price tag for the front porch and back patio. Their indoor stuff is more reasonably pricesd though and I have requested some sales material for my remodeling bids.
If you are interisted and live on the west coast you can contact there sales person at scott@warmyourfeet.com

CE1

I have used this company to do a couple of jobs with their product and it works good. The stuff is expensive but the trade off is the safety issue. one install job was for a doctor's office.

http://www.delta-therm.com/snow/index.php

wbsbadboy

CE1 they were the other company that I sent a bid request to. Two of them actually. They didnt even have the courtesy to tell me to not bother them with such a small project.