Radiant under softwood foors

Michael B

I am with HR. Take a look at a whole house humidifier. I am a big fan of the the carel steam units which can be used in a ducted or ductless system.

Michael
Able Distributors

Justin Winter

radiant under softwood floors

Thinking of installing radiant closed loop under 3/4-1" antique pine flooring in a new Post and Beam house. Can anyone tell me if this would be effective, or would I lose too much heat or would it take too long to warm the house up due to absorption by the floor boards?

Many thanks!!

J. Winter

hr

Possibly

Your first step would have to be a heat loss calculation for the home. With this information you will be able to determine if the radiant floor and coverings would be a feasible match.

I have one job with 2X10 pine flooring that works fine. There is more movement in the wide boards, keep that in mind.

Critical to any wood floor is control of the humidity. The closer this is controlled the better for the wood floor and movement issues.

Find a knowledgeable, competent designer and or installer, in your area, for help with the heatloss and design. Don't leave home, or start home, without it!

hot rod

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Justin Winter

radiant under wood floors

Hot Rod:

Hot Rod, thanks for the info. When you say "controlling humidity is the key", do you mean in the home in general or the humidity that's generated by the coil system under the floor boards? If so, what's involved in controlling the humidity under the floor boards?

Thanks again,

Justin Winter

John Felciano

Humidity

Humidity plays a big factor in the movement of wood.All wood no matter how well sealed will absorb or lose moisture depending on the humidity of the surroundings.This is what causes floors to gap and buckle.Look at the old wooden barrels that were once used.They leak like a sieve when first filled but after the wood absorbs enough moisture they swell up tight.

If the surroundings are kept at a fairly constant level of humitity the movement of wood will also be kept at a fairly constant level.It's a bigger factor in parts of the country that go from one extream to the other like here in the northeast,we have wet humid summers and fairly dry winters.The movement can be seen in anything made of wood,cabinets,furniture,and floors.

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Duncan_2

Softwood flooring

It could be effective if the floor emitted heat at a faster rate than the room loses heat.

I did a job using 100 year old 1" x 12" spruce floorboards salvaged from a turn of the century ice house.

It worked superbly, but had a couple drawbacks. It had a high initial installation price because it required lots of heavy extruded plates to meet the entire heating load. The owner wanted no visible sign of a modern heating system.

The flooring was stored in the building in the winter while construction heaters warmed the place. The heaters dumped moisture-laden combustion products into the air. This raised the humidity of the workspace and the (uninstalled) wood absorbed the moisture. The flooring was installed in this condition. When the finished heating system was turned on, the living space humidity level dropped, and the flooring cupped, and shrank noticeably across the grain, to the point where the floor needed to be aggressively sanded and the gaps filled.

Definitely make sure the wood is dry before installing. Measure the moisture. I've heard no more than 6% is good, but you should check that. Any wood will expand and contract as moisture levels rise and fall. Some woods react more than others. While my 3" #2 oak floors are very stable in all kinds of weather, my neighbor's 3" #1 maple floors will gap when moisture levels drop. The wider the plank, the larger the overall expansion/contraction for the plank.

The construction in the softwood floor I did was 3/4" plywood subfloor with nominal 1" spruce finish flooring. It heated a ten inch log home comfortably to temperatures below minus twenty F. Design and install it correctly, and you'll be very pleased. A heavy extruded plate installation would help keep heating output up while keeping surface temperatures down (higher heat flux).