Hardwood floors over radiant is a beautiful thing & very comfortable. If installed correctly you can use virtually any type of hardwood on top of radiant, whether its solid, engineered, nailed down, nailed & glued down or floated. It is a misconception that radiant floor hurts hardwood, but really it is the relative humidity of the home & the hardwood that makes wood expand & contract. If you want to speak with a great hardwood company go to www.launstein.com they warranty all their wood products on top of radiant & have testing facilities of their own. Additionally, the company I work for, Warmboard, uses lower water temperatures than other systems. You can also nail hardwood directly to our product. Feel free to call or email if you have any questiosn 877-338-5493 cwebber@warmboard.com

We have warmboard under oak flooring, not engineered wood. It is great - even heat. We did use quartersawn lumber rather than plain becauase it is much more resistant to expansion and contraction.

Hola, Sorry, forgot to post layout: And no, we're not thinking of using our huge fireplace as a heat source. My kids have asthma, so all the tiny particles from wood burning or pellet stoves are not good for the kids. And I don't think they're that environmentally friendly. If we have the money, we would do geothermal heating. Here's our house in about 20inches of snow last year (does this help your decision, since it's nice and warm today?): plllog: "You have young children. You have a budget...Then the children can spread out their painting projects on the floor, roller skate, or whatever. Real linoleum, such as Marmoleum, is an ecologically friendly choice...you can easily replace it when you decide you want hardwood. In fact, you can do the subfloor as if you're getting hardwood... Then it's easy to mop. And you can make the change when the kids are older and you feel like spending the money--or not." These are my thoughts exactly!!! roobear: "Hardwood is better for resale, it would add value to your home, it can be refinished etc. Plus, it would fit the period and style of the house better." EXACTLY! The flip-side of my thinking as well. If I'm going to do hardwoods later, why not do them now and enjoy the benefit of the flooring, rather than pay twice? I've also thought about the heated rugs; the Japanese use them all over their house. circuspeanut: "have cold feet 6 months out of the year" Argh: sometimes it feels longer. cleo: "using engineered hardwood floors" Great idea, but because we installed some in our previous house, I really did not like them. My main concern w/ them is wear and tear, especially in between the planks. What happens if water (or raw meat juice) gets in between and swells the ?particle boards, etc? lovilynne: "have you considered DIY wood" Oh, while my house is not historical, it seems like it with the uneven floor, no insulation in the walls, etc :) We are DIY the hardwood floors for the 2nd floor right now. The learning curve was HUGE for us. And I'm not sure about my skills w/ hardwood floor over radiant heat. "they make a special heater to go under the cabinet" Oh!!! Can you please tell me more? Do you have pictures to share? Hmmm...

How was the flooring installed? Bead glued? Just pull up the quarter round and expose the underlayment. Electric underfloor systems are warming systems only, not room heating systems. They keep your feet from feeling cold. That's it. The temerature that you describe would be almost the max that you would want to heat the wood. Even hydrionic systems which are designed to heat the room shouldn't heat the floor above about 82-85ð.