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

The NWFA guidelines are a good place to start for advice on radiant heat under a wood floor. There is also a discussion on the link listed at the bottom. Hardwood Floors Magazine has a forum discussion at http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/forum/topic165-solid-pine-over-radiant-heat.aspx. Launstein has a web page devoted to radiant heat at, http://www.launstein.com/radiant-heat/radiant-heat.html. American cherry and walnut are know to be more stable so are often suggested over radiant heat. There are a number of species that professionals have experienced problems with including Brazilian cherry. You might look at the discussion at http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/forum/topic109-jatoba-over-radiant-heated-gypcrete.aspx Here is a link that might be useful: Blog on Radiant

I put radiant heat under my wood floors and it works very well. The floor is just pine over wood joists and plywwod subfloor, and not engineered.. I did pay close attention to insulation, isolation, heating loops, tube spacing, loss calculations, all that good stuff. I get some seasonal gapping in the wood though frankly it's hard to notice, and it's not any different than what I got without radiant heat. The one thing I did regarding controls was to use both a floor sensor and a thermostat for each zone. The thermostat runs the system but if the floor heats up to a set temperature (I use 85 deg F) the system shuts off - that way the floor never gets hot enough to damage the wood, if it could damage the wood, which I'm not sure of. I've heard good things about the control system that funnycide mentions (water temp function of outside temp) but I get pretty good performance with my water at a constant temp - very comfortable and fuel efficient.

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...