Entran II Tubing

We just found out that our Entran II tubing in our radiant floor has failed (installed in early 90's?) We bought the house in 2004. I have been searching and have seen info regarding class actions in the past. My question is what do we do at this point. Do we have to eat the cost of ripping up our floor/slab and replacing? I am assuming it is too late to benefit from the lawsuit. Can anyone tell me? Any suggestions on who I should talk to? Division of consumer affairs (we live in Mass). Would our homeowners' insurance pay for anything? We just found out today and trying to figure out what to do. Any help would be very much appreciated.

From what I can see, that stuff was manufactured from '89 - '94, so it's been around a while. Just found some info saying the claim deadline was November 17, 2009.

Sorry to tell you this, but you might be SOL. Maybe you can get insurance to pay for it ... BUT .. remember that your rates WILL skyrocket next year, so what are you really saving? They'll make all that money back from you in a few years of exorbitant rates. Besides the fact that they'll pull out all the punches to give you the LEAST amount possible .. or deny it altogether.

Insurance companies - a necessary evil ...

thanks for the reply. that's what I was afraid of

I used Entran II for my radiant heat when we built this place in 1993. I ended up in the lawsuit & actually got money....just enough to buy new tubing. I was hoping it would cover labor to remove, replace, but, no. Mine is "staple up" so it's possible to remove & replace. Those with "in the concrete" got more money per square foot, but, again, not nearly enough to do the entire job. Like most any lawsuits, the lawyers made out like fat rats & the people that deserved the money didn't get nearly enough to cover costs of repair. On one hand, yes, I believe you are too late to get anything. On the other hand, sadly, you wouldn't have gotten enough to repair the floor anyway. *sigh*

You see, at this point they look at it like this: It was warranted for 25 years. It's been over 20 years since it was manufactured. If yours failed now, it served it's purpose for over 20 years. They pro rate it and would only owe you 20% of the cost. Even if you got money it wouldn't be enough to buy three cheeseburgers.

It sounds like yours is in the concrete. Most people in this situation end up going with baseboard.... not an easy job at all, but, far less than a new floor. Some go with a "on top of the floor" radiant. It's more expensive by far and you lose some headroom.

Thanks for the info. Wow, this is a drag. Wonder if the party we purchased the house from collected the money...
I'd like to think that they wouldn't do that. Wonder if there is any way to find out...
I do hate the tile in there and it is cracked, but I have no idea how much it would cost to remove everything and start over.
How much vertical space would doing on top of floor take?
Agree with you about the lawyers always making out. Trying to talk my son into studying law...

There's two ways that I know of to go on top....one is 2" of "gypcrete". You staple tubing to the floor. You add dams as needed & cut doors as needed. Then you pour this liquid over the tubing & it hardens. The other way is a system that is about an inch and a quarter thick.... tubing in special races & plywood over.

So... your tubing is in concrete? Is it leaking in the concrete? I'm still using mine. It has turned brown and lost it's rubberyness. It was leaking at all the fittings. I added clamps & for now it's OK. It WILL fail I am told. IF it had leaked other than at the fittings I would have gotten double the money...an extra $1,200. Crazy lawsuit. On one hand they told me it WILL fail completely, yet, because it hasn't yet, they wouldn't pay as much. That's part of the pro-rated thinking.

I assume you put your flooring over the gypcrete? Tile, wood, etc. Strange thought - what if you did a stained concrete floor. Wonder if that would make it any easier/cheaper?

For us, the actual tubing is failing though we also had failures at the fittings. Our radiant floor in mudroom is still working, but seems that they used the same tubing to run to the baseboard FHW in the room over the garage. That is the tubing that has failed at this point. We could do something to run pipes to room over garage for now and leave the radiant and wait for it to fail I guess.

From what you describe about the lawsuit, the sad thing is that it is not just about the product not working, it's about having to demo and redo everything. I don't mind if something fails and you have to get a new one, but this is crazy. That's life I guess.

Actually, we really don't know if the tubing IN the concrete is leaking, but heat is still working...

if the previous knew(were notified) they are legally obligated to tell you.If they knew and didnt tell you your problems are over, any halfwit lawer can walk you through that. It is gonna be hard to find out what they knew and when, maybe check with the local plumbing contractors and see if prev. owners or the builder ever were asked to estimate replacement or repairs. Like I said ,if they knew, your in...

cmazzabrennan wrote:we really don't know if the tubing IN the concrete is leaking, but heat is still working...

Well... I suggest that you do what I am doing..... keep the water to the boiler shut off & check the pressure manually every couple of months. With the water turned off if it springs a serious leak at least it will only leak a few gallons.