Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

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dpc
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Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:41 pm

Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by dpc »

We may be buying house that has a hot water under-floor radiant heating system. I have no experience with this type of system. The sub-floor is basically wood on joists so I'm assuming the tubing is attached to bottom of the subfloor. House will be inspected in a week and I'm seeking input on problem areas or things to discuss with the inspector. The house is fairly new, built in 2005, in the Pacific Northwest.

Also, we are thinking of putting hardwood floors in the living room, which is presently carpeted. My Internet research indicates some issues (real or imagined) related to hardwood flooring installed over radiant heat. I'd be interested in hearing about any experience with this, both good and bad.
"Worrying is like paying interest on a debt that you might never owe" -- Will Rogers
greenfire
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by greenfire »

Radiant heating is wonderful. We remodeled and used it. We have tile downstairs and it is really nice to walk on warm tiles. Upstairs we wanted wood, and were told that there could be problems with hardwood because it can warp and buckle with the radiant heat. We went with an engineered wood floor. It is real wood glued to a sub layer of plywood. It looks and acts like hardwood, but it more dimensionally stable. You can refinish it, but only one or two times, because the top layer isn't that thick. There are better and worse companies that make the engineered product.
desiderium
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by desiderium »

It can depend on what is under the floor. We have wood floors over 2 layers of plywood floating over the radiant concrete subfloor. Also the temperature. Our system uses water that is surprisingly tepid. The wood is perfect no buckles. If the tubes are in concrete there is a large thermal mass. Generally such houses are maintained at a constant temperature so there isn't the up and down you see with furnace heat. Also depends on the overall efficiency of the house. If you have to pump a lot of high temp water to keep up with a poorly insulated or drafty house the wood could suffer more.
bnes
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by bnes »

If the house was built with radiant from the start, I'd not worry.
They may have used something like http://www.warmboard.com/ which results in a much thinner layer of wood above the tubes.

With radiant: be sure your inspector is radiant savvy. Look for signs of past leaks. Look for quality materials.
Look for any signs of excessive drying or shrinkage of the wood. Ask, if you can, who installed the radiant system.

But most importantly: new house? Neighbors in the same development? Ask them how their radiant systems perform.
DFrank
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by DFrank »

We have a house with radiant heat that has hardwood floors installed in most of the living areas on the main floor. I assume it's installed over plywood subfloors. The hardwood floors are holding up fine. The flooring was put in by the prior owner sometime after the house was built, I think in about 2007.
Dave
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dpc
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by dpc »

Thanks for all of the great info. I did find an article on the This Old House website discussing this issues and they provided some good guidelines for hardwood over radiant heat. I know they use radiant in a lot of their remodels. Out here in the Northwest, radiant heating is still fairly unusual, at least in my limited experience.

Dave
"Worrying is like paying interest on a debt that you might never owe" -- Will Rogers
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dianna
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Re: Radiant Heating and Hardwood Floors

Post by dianna »

We also have engineered wood floors over top of radiant floors in our home, similar to what greenfire posted. Our radiant floors were retrofitted to a midcentury modern home, so some are within poured concrete slab, while others were installed in ply, then covered with hardboard before the finished engineered hardwood was installed on top. My in-laws home also has radiant floor heating, with solid cherry wood overtop; they definitely have more problems related to expansion and contraction as the weather and humidity change. But overall, we really love the radiant floor heating and haven't had any problems with the engineered wood product.
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