Little white balls and radiant

J Matthers

They were crazy to go with wide oak in a building that is closed up for the winter in the first place. I just don't want the Golf Pro to suffer through wasted money screwing things up with to thick a carpet.

So Mike....do you chase that white ball?

J Matthers

Little white balls and radiant

Here is a chance for you wethead golf nuts to help out a great golf course, National Golf Links. Who knows, maybe a visit or two will be necessary to look things over and get in a round.

National built a new pro shop a few years back. It is a SIP building with in floor radiant and hydro AC using a geothermal heat pump. Great technology and no noisy compressors outside to disturb the golfers.

The problem…the wide plank oak floor is all over the place after two heating seasons. Looking at the options, they have decided to put in carpeting.

I became aware of all this during a conversation with the Golf Pro one day last week during a regional PGA Championship being held at the club I run. I told him how the floor should have been installed and warned that, if they go with carpet, to be sure it is appropriate to go over radiant. Additionally, to keep in mind that the geo unit can only supply max 120 degree water. The last thing I said was to consult a radiant pro before anything was done.

Today the pro is back at my club for an outing. He grabbed me and thanked me for the advice. Said he talked to the board about it and carpet is definitely what they are going with. The carpet guy said he has a nice wool carpet that will look good and when asked if it would be O.K. over radiant, the answer was "absolutely". I told him to check with me after his round, I know some guys that know about this stuff, let me ask them about the right carpet and if it may work over the geo radiant.

So, we have a well insulated tight building that needs comfortable heat in the fall and the spring and needs to be kept above freezing during the winter months when the shop is closed. If I had heat loss calcs I would share them. My guess is that a new heat loss should be done and a new loop temp determined that will maintain temp with the place fully carpeted and then an auxiliary heat source be put in to help the geo get the loop temp up to the correct range. I'm also guessing that no heating pro will be called, the wrong carpet will go in and the shop will be cold causing complaints about the radiant heat. What do you wallies think?

Mike T., Swampeast MO

"...wide-plank oak floors all over the place..."

By that do you mean gaps, movement and squeeks?

There is GOOD reason that natural wood flooring is generally three times as wide as it is thick!!!

While wide planks may be currently in vogue, they don't have the best history for performance. They MUST be of the FINEST quality wood cut in the MOST STABLE manner! Even with this the edges are generally beveled so that the INEVITABLE gaps don't show too badly. The best quality will STILL be pegged down to the subfloor. I rather doubt that the heating system is the culprit in this case!

Wool carpet over hardwood over radiant at 120° max supply temp??? Someone needs to study the ORIGINAL heating system plans CAREFULLY and do some SERIOUS number crunching before they have yet another problem....

IF you can keep TOTAL r-value of floor in the 2.6-2.8 range (that's using THIN wool carpet and THIN pad) AND required output is in no more than 15 btu/hr/sq.ft. range AND delta is no greater than 20° you MIGHT be OK.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

No time for golf...too busy trying to solve the problems of the world.

The "ultimate" in both though is probably equally elusive.