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Flooring Design Dilemma

Does radiant heat work well under engineered wood flooring?

Jennifer Roberge

3 years ago

We live in a very cold climate. Currently all our flooring is removed and we are starting from scratch with the floors. We will be installing radiant floor under our tiled flooring. Does it make sense to install under engineered wood too?I know it's safe with the kind we're choosing, but does it work and really feels warm? I just don't know if it's necessary to heat wood floors.

Do you have radiant heat under engineered wood floor? Would you recommend it? Is it worth the expense?

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Comment (1)

SJ McCarthy
3 years ago
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).
Jennifer Roberge thanked SJ McCarthy
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There is no way hot water heat could be a fire hazard. It is much less than the temperature of boiling water! Even the most flammable of gasoline soaked carpets would have to be around 500f to ignite. We have hydronic heat under regular maple hardwood (15 year old system) and it is zero problem. Your mileage may vary depending on your system, but think of it this way -- the water under our floor is like max 100f (the floor only gets up to 80f), and our house gets close to 100f on the hottest of sunny days (no AC up here in Canada although I came close to the breaking point this summer). So I can't really see how the heating is more harmful to the floors than everyday life. Slightly related: my uncle was chiding me for the 'safety hazard' of letting my curtains drape over my hot water radiators. I was like 'What are they going to do, slightly warm my curtains to death like a gentle beam of sunlight?' Well, I was more polite in person. But seriously. This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Nov 25, 13 at 22:41
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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
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Did you ever find out more about Bausen Flooring? It is really interesting. I am looking at the Colonial Collection (http://thecolonialcollection.com/) which apparently is distributed by Artisan Hardwood (http://artisanhardwood.com - not to be confused with Artisan Hardwood Flooring in Texas) and apparently has some relationship to Bausen Flooring (http://www.bausenflooring.com/), The interesting things is that all of them share the identical warranty verbiage with simply a name change. Interesting that the "Colonial Collection" is warrantied by the "Colonial Collection" which as far as I can tell does not exist as a legal entity. That would lead me to believe that the warranty is worthless. All of it seems to be run by Kuo-Tung Liu who is doesn't seem to have much history. The google maps image view of the warehouse in California "18971 Arenth Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748" has a Bausen Flooring sign next to a US Alibaba and another flooring warehouse with Chinese characters that Translates to 'Brothers Flooring Center - Leo Brothers Flooring Center', President Shengyang Cheng. No information on any of the companies on LinkedIn or Facebook. I dont get it?!?
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From a thermodynamics standpoint, the wood flooring may slow the transfer of heat a bit, which will result in a little more lag, but heat is not going to be "lost." My neighbor and I have essentially the same house design, with hydronic heating of bare concrete floors downstairs and plywood subfloors with carpeting upstairs. About a year ago my neighbor replaced all his carpeting upstairs with engineered flooring and has reported no problems. With any radiant heating there is always a lag as the heat source first heats up the surrrounding materials, and it can be a long time for concrete to heat back up once it's cooled. In fact, if I lose power for an extended period of time in winter the house cools slowly, but it can take almost 8 hours for the house to get back up to normal temperature when the power comes back on. That's why we don't have a night setback thermostat since the swings in temp are so slow. Having said that, I don't think what you're contemplating will create major problems and should work ok, and you may have less lag with your setup than I do with my concrete floors.
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