Is the house to be located where it snows?

Finished concrete or carpet. You have to find a vinyl SPECIFICALLY designed to handle the heat. Vinyl produced in Korea is one of your best bets. In-floor heating is found in over 75% of Korean homes as their primary source of heat. Therefore ANY vinyl produced in or for the Korean market MUST be able to handle in-floor hydronic heat.

EZLay or DropNDone are two lines that are available in Canada. You can find them in the USA with some dedicated searching.

@Mark, yes, Pennsylvania Laurel mountains around 2200 ft above sea level

"Wood look tile. No wood. No vinyl. No carpet. All of those have R value, or have other issues with radiant"

Agree

"Tile with rugs all over" will defeat thermal conductivity of the tile since a 1/4" rug has 3 times the resistance to heat transfer as the tile you installed, and a nice 3/8" wool rug would have 7 times the resistance, so it you're worried about thermal conductivity this isn't the answer.

Many flooring options like vinyl, ceramic tile and engineered laminate have very little difference in thermal resistance between them and will depend more on the specific product of each and not the type. Thermal resistance for ceramic tile is about .02 but than again so is 1/8' sheet vinyl. Linoleum is 0.4, engineered wood is 0.25 to 0.75 depending on thickness and density, and carpet may be 0.7 to 2.0 depending on type and thickness. To put this in perspective a single pane of glass is 0.9 so even with a 1/2" carpet your house will heat up fine, just a little slower.

As long as the floor joist cavity under the radiant tubes are well insulated you can use almost anything you want but you must follow the products instructions, like acclimating the floor and product before installation as directed. I'd like to mention that Luxury vinyl is completely water proof, not just resistant but durability depends on quality. It's made up of many layers and all are water proof but the top layer, called the wear layer will determine durability and if you choose LVT look for one with a wear layer 20 mils thick, your dogs and kids will never hurt it. Do your research, the minimum you should even consider should be 12 mils and some expensive brands are only 8 mils thick on the wear layer so watch it. 3/8" LVT's thermal resistance would be about 0.5 to 0.6 fyi.

I personally would use anything except solid 3/4" wood flooring over Radiant just because of maintenance reasons and I like carpet in bedrooms and tile in bathrooms and basements only Tiles in open floor plan living room/kitchens has this odd acoustical problem I don't like and just don't look good.

From personal experience, not technical point, of view, I love LVP. We have hydronic radiant heat throughout (and three large dogs in a snowy climate). On the main floor and upper floor, our tubes are set in warmboard which I understand is more efficient than a staple up installation. The tile in the bathrooms is the warmest underfoot and the carpet in the bedrooms is the least warm underfoot. The LVP in the rest of the house is in between. All three heat about the same, but are in different zones so not an apples to oranges comparison. I keep the bedrooms cooler. LVP has been great with the dogs — no worries about water bowls and tracking in snow. I wet mop often. I love the look of tile, but after having it in the kitchen in my old house for more than 30 years, never again. I cook a lot and occasionally for several hours at a time and tile was really hard on my back. The difference is amazing. My back hurt so much more at 45 cooking in my old kitchen than it does now at 65 on a softer surface.

@kevin9408 Thank you! That hit about every point I had been considering and also supported my husband's claims that the flooring won't make much of a difference given the way he is installing the radiant system. Of course I couldn't just take his word for it *eye roll*

Mojomom,

What brand of lvp do you have on your radiant flooring?

Thanks!

mmmmmm — my flooring is Coretec. We’re still very happy with it!

Mojomom,

Thanks! Especially for the picture. We have all tile and you are right it is hard under foot. i had a contractor propose coretec yesterday. I came to the houzz forums to check user reviews and was dismayed that people found it rough underfoot and some quality issues. i wonder if it is a current issue and the older stuff was ok.

Does any of the coretec get direct sunlight? We have alot of big windows in Colorado and from what I am reading it may have problems with the high heat from direct sun. Also the areas where the hydronic tubes come out of the manifolds the floors get quite warm due to the concentration of tubes. But it sounds like you have had none of these problem?

Love the picture, especially the dog. What color did you choose? Are their different levels of produt? Maybe yours is a higher level.

Thanks!

mmmmm,

Sorry for the delay in responding. We are in Colorado too with lots of big windows for the views although none of them get direct sunlight on the Coretec, so I can’t answer that question. We have not had a problem with the heat from the tubes, but we used Warmboard subfloors which may have helped. Here is a picture of the Warmboard before the floors were installed.

One nice thing about using Warmboard is that the manufacturer will design the zoning and layout from your plans to maximize efficiency of radiant.

I haven’t found it rough underfoot at all. Our choice — Blackstone Oak — has a small bit of texture though which I really like because it doesn’t get as slick.

Thanks mojomom,

Do you recommend your installer? Sounds like they did a good job. If so can you let me know who they are.

Our local (Steamboat Springs) contactor installed the floorimg. Out son-in-law did the radiant — its his business so very experienced. Where are you?

Denver metro so not the same area. Appreciate the info on how much you like the floors and the pictures. We have had tile for 20 yrs and would love something softer underfoot.