Climate panels with glued down wood floor?

Wayco Wayne_2

Some glues can harm the pex tubing. Call your manufacturer to see which ones are safe. WW

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Ted_9

Help

OK, guys, I need some help. I have a customer that has some 1/2 Teak wood flooring. The box says to only glue. Now, can this be glued to the climate panels? When this floor system gets installed, do they glue the tong and groove of the flooring or the underside of the flooring?

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CC.Rob_4

teak

1/2" teak is probably a "floating" system similar to Pergo (recognizing that teak is nice and Pergo is, well...). Check the installation instructions. If it is floating, then glue in the tongue and groove would be the install method. Then I guess the question is whether any glue drips would get on the pex in the climate panel (I'd guess likely to certain), and whether those drips would degrade the pex.

I don't deal with this issue directly (I use teak for boats, not radiant flooring), but with only 1/2" flooring, there should be room for a 1/4" underlayment to isolate the flooring from the climate panel if you must use a glue for the flooring that is potentially harmful to pex. (What impact on floor output would the additional 1/4" have?) Standard red rosin paper under the flooring might also suffice, if that's ok on top of climate panel.

Tons of flooring these days is marketed as "teak." The teak family is generally fairly stable, but I would be a bit concerned about 1/2" if it's some of the "off-species" teak-like stuff. How wide are the planks? What's the design floor temp? What does the flooring manufacturer say about radiant underneath?

Ted_9

Thanks for the replies.

I looked at the box and there are no instructions to speak of. It says "Glue only" The name is three letters and there is not phone number or web site. It is made in Thailand.

All that said, I got a list of approved adhesives from Viega today. The flooring guy wants to glue from the bottom of the hardwood, but he doesn't know what to do. He wants to see my radiant panels because he's never seen them, nice.

The planks are 21/4 to 3 inches wide, I didn't measure. The system design water temp is 98 degrees. The btu's for the room is just over 2,000 and the flow rate for two 5/16th loops is .2.

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CC.Rob_3

glue

In general, gluing down flooring is to be avoided. Even fairly stable teak will move (shrink, expand), and glue doesn't allow that. I can see why the box would say "glue only" because 1/2" would be a pain to nail well without splitting, etc.

Could be you're dealing with a bargain-basement cheapie floor? Typical solid wood flooring is 3/4". At the least, I'd say put 1/4" underlayment between the panel and the flooring, so if the flooring does fail, at least the HO is not ripping up the panel, too. (Ideally the 1/4" would be glued and screwed to the panel, but screws alone _might_ work.)

All that said, is this solid 1/2" teak or an engineered (i.e., laminated) product? If it's engineered, then glue could be fine.

Ted_9

Wood

It looks solid. I did get word from Viega to use approved adhesives on the panels. I'm just wondering, with 1/2" solid Teak, do you glue the tong and groove and not the underside?

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CC.Rob_4

below

Tongue and groove is to allow movement. Gluing of tongue and groove material is typically for engineered stuff that doesn't really move. So that leaves underside. However, solid wood really doesn't like to be glued down like that. Teak also tends to be oily and some adhesives don't do well with it, or really need surface prep with lacquer thinner, denatured alchohol, etc. to perform well. Good luck!

Ted_9

Thanks

I spoke with the wood manufacturer, and they said to glue it down from the bottom. The glue they recommend is the Bostik Best, the same on Viega approved. I think the hardwood is prefinished. We'll see what happens.

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