Engineered wood flooring for radiant heat
Mel
6 years ago
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In-floor hot water heating with wood?
Comments (6)Wide width is subject to warping anyway, and there are already a host of requirements in place when installing it like the use of humdifiers and AC in their appropriate seasons. If you do all of that already, and choose a hydrionic system that is designed for low temp loops, then it's doable. If you choose a system that runs above 80 degree water in it, then most wood floor manufacturers will not warrant it. Most will tell you though that they ONLY recommend engineered wood floors with radiant heat. Not solid wood. Solid wood just moves too much with the change of temperature and humidity, even with using all of the humidifier and AC....See MoreDoes radiant heat work well under engineered wood flooring?
Comments (1)The issue normally isn't the 'engineered' part that is the problem. It is the wood part. It sounds like you are adding ELECTRICAL in-floor radiant heat. If you are, then wood is normally a no-no. The vast majority of wood manufactures do NOT allow their product over ELECTRIC in-floor heat. They are allowed over the more expensive HYDRONIC heating (tubing filled with water/oil/gel). Why not electrical? Because wood can burst into flames if heated 'too much'. The 'fire hazard' thing is real when it comes to electric wires (ahem...they are exposed wires....that's how they generate heat). Yes I understand you will be SINKING the wires into cement. Yep. Got it. To get away from the FIRE HAZARD you would need about 1" worth of cement sitting on top of the wires. If your home's flooring set up can handle that type of increase then go for it (check the clearance on the doors, base trim, exit and entrances, top of stairs...etc). That will reduce the chances of a fire hazard (lots of thermal mass for the heat to warm up = lower chance of wood spontaneously combusting). But the warranty on the wood is *probably void. Not always....but the majority of the time it is. For me, wood over electric heating = waste of money. It sounds like the heating in the home is provided by some other source and the in-floor heating is just to warm the toes and the tile. Skip the $10/sf upgrade (that would include the 1" of concrete on top...just sayin') and go ahead and upgrade your HVAC system to handle the home's square footage. It will be a little cheaper and will cost you less in the long run (because an upgrade often means HIGH EFFICIENCY model)....See Morefloat or glue an engineered wood floor over radiant heating & slab
Comments (3)We had this in our mountain home, over a slab with engineered wood - and LOVED it (it was glued down). Yes, it was more expensive up front, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. We didn’t need AC - that was key. We did have to have an ERV unit (we also had foam insulation). They ran it up to the 2nd floor and encased the tubes in Gypcrete. The warranty on the wood floor insisted on a whole house humidifier (we are in CO - very dry). The utter silence of the heating system is gold - no vents to get crap down into either. The only thing I would have done differently is put a separate thermostat on the primary bathroom - so you can keep the bedroom cool and the bathroom a bit warmer. Had to plan ahead if we were going to use guest bedrooms, as it takes hours to heat up, but that wasn’t ever a problem....See MoreBest soundproofing underlayment for radiant hydronic heated floors?
Comments (5)Is your staple up system heating both floors? If so, I would recommend adding sound isolation clips to the downstairs ceiling and ensure everything is sealed then call it a day. There are a lot of good resources out there for soundproofing information. I suggest looking at some of the home theater boards as they have collected a wealth of great information. I would not use any type of resilient underlayment system as they generally work by converting sound energy to heat energy and tend to not be conductive to either. There are some soundproofing materials with decent thermal conductivity, but they cost too expensive to be practical in a home. There are basically four principles to dampening sound... (1) Sealing, (2) Mass, (3) decoupling, and (4) resilient layers. With a staple up hydronic system, sealing and decoupling are likely your best options. Adding mass (thermal mass) can also be effective but your system is going to less responsive if possibly more efficient and I believe that one of the benefits of the staple up systems is their responsiveness. There are other options to add mass that is thermally conductive, e.g. fiber cement (hardieboard), either as a subfloor or an isolated thermal mass between the joists, but they are probably not worth it. Sealing, drywall isolation clips, and two layers of drywall you will get a lot of deadening. ETA: I am not an expert on this... Have a studio and a theater and was forced to do a lot of research to get around marketing B.S....See More
Mel
6 years ago
PROUnique Wood Floors
6 years agoMel
6 years agokrisleenyc
4 years ago
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