Wood-look Porcelain Floors with Radiant Heat
elistro
last year
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porcelain tile directly over old vinyl tile, with radiant heat?
Comments (4)I would peel up whatever vinyl sheets are there. Then scrape the rest with a scraper. Tile needs a good substrate or the tile could crack, your grout break up, or tiles become loose. I would use something like Schluter-DITRA (Mike Holmes uses it constantly) orange waffle. I used a blue mat I found in the tile section of HD. It's intended to quiet tile for upstairs flooring, but it had a sticky tar like backing that made it ideal for laying over old laminate that wouldn't come up. Here is a link that might be useful: Schluter-DITRA orange waffle...See MoreHydronic Radiant Heat Under Wood Floors?
Comments (4)The good news is that neither heat nor cold have an effect on wood movement. The bad news is that moisture content does. Is this a genuine wood floor or one of the manufactured floors? If manufactured, I'd consult the manufacturer's literature. If natural wood, each species shrinks and gains on an individual basis. If plywood, with a veneer, the movement is less. But that would be a manufactured floor, which the manufacturer would be able to answer that. If genuine wood, your floor would be constantly moving, just like genuine wood moves in your house from summer to winter. If the wood had a Summer moisture content of 11% in the East when installed, and was reduced to 6% during the Winter, you would get shrinkages of possibly 1/8" per foot of width. If installed in the dry Winter, the wood would expand in the Summer unless your house was perfectly climate controlled, resulting in buckling. Wood improperly secured that doesn't allow for movement will eventually crack. Properly secured, it should fare well. Since heat dries the air, and dry air causes wood to shrink, your floor might move around. I'll have to ask around about this at work and get some other opinions....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 Moreelistro
11 months agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
11 months agoelistro
11 months agoelistro
11 months agohazwe
11 months ago
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