Culinary enjoyment at the highest level

The Dutch village of Amerongen is home to the luxury Restaurant Bentinck, where gourmets are served top-level cuisine. This wonderful guest house dating back to 1286 is housed in the cleverly restored horse stables installed around the Amerongen palace. Since demolition work was prohibited due to the building’s listed status, modern floor heating was laid.

Converting the impressive building was anything but simple. The monument protection standards had to be upheld, while at the same time, modern, sustainable technology was needed – a balancing act that our Dutch partner Technea was asked to perform.

The strongest horse in the Variotherm stables

The ideal solution turned out to be the installation of the modern, energy-efficient VarioComp floor heating system. With its thin construction height of 20 millimetres and low weight of just 25 kg/m², it is ideally suited for the sensitive renovation of listed buildings. The dry construction floor heating could be quickly and easily applied on the existing floor covering. The 11.6 mm Vario-ProFile pipe (aluminium multilayer composite pipe) was laid along the premilled routings on the VarioComp panels (gypsum fibre boards tested for their biological properties) and finally surrounded by the thermally conductive VarioComp filling compound.

Quickly on tour

In contrast to the standard procedure with wet screed, no long drying times were needed. Quite the opposite: after just 24 hours, the hard-wearing wooden floor covering could be applied. Thanks to the fact that the VarioProFile pipes are laid close to the surface, the dry construction floor heating provides fast reaction times. With an average time of 2.5 hours, the pipes provide the required temperature faster than wet screed floor heating. Not only that, but the floor heating ensures a comfortable room climate thanks to its radiant heat, while also reducing heating costs.

Plus: The impressive building was further improved as a result of the installation of the Variotherm pumped manifold. The reason why is obvious: thanks to the 15 low-temperature heating circuits, it was possible to connect the new floor heating to the existing high-temperature system. As a result, not only was it possible to install an energy-saving heating system, but the original heating installation could also be retained.

Variotherm-systems:

100 m² Modular floor heating system – VarioComp

Fotos: Technea (Montagefoto) | Bentinck (Restaurant Innenaufnahme)