Question on wood floor over radiant heat..

Carrin

All we have is wide pine and older floors so we have never seen this before. If this is the case then it should be ok.

Thanks

Carrin

Wood Floor over radiant heat

We are in the process of selecting a wood floor to lay down over the plywood subfloor and radiant heat. We originally wanted wide pine flooring but are concerned that this might not work out with the radiant heat. So now we are looking at some reclaimed lumber which is heart pine. I think this will work well but I am concerned about these ridges that are milled into the bottom of the boards. These ridges increase the stability of the wood. They are 1/2 inch wide, centers are 1 inch apart, and they are 1/8 inch deep. Would these ridges reduce the efficiency of the radiant heat? It seems to me that the ridges create air pockets that would insulate the wood from the heat. Would that mean less heat in the room?

I figure that you guys are the experts on this and might have some ideas about this.

Ericjeeper

relief cuts.

I do not think I have ever seen a "nail down" hardwood flooring that does not have the relief cuts that you are referring to.

Constantin

Can work just fine...

... launstein.com and the RPA have a lot of good info re: wood floors over radiant heat.

With the right kind of heating system (and a tight, well-insulated envelope so that the house needs little heating in the first place), just about any flooring material can be made to work. We have 2" wide red, quarter-sawn oak in our home. There is virtually no noise and thus far there are no visible gaps in the flooring either.

Another RFH house I know has wide (4-6") plain pine flooring with visible gaps (intentional) and ticking noises (unintentional). If the near-boiler piping and the control strategy on that house were to be improved, the ticking will most likely go away.

The wider you go with your flooring boards, the greater the potential for gaps. Quarter-sawn wood is better since it'll expand less sideways than plain-sawn. However, it costs more and the choices are more limited.

The degree to which wood expands also depends on the species. For very problematic woods, a floating floor can be a viable solution. However, controlling the humidity of the wood/house is also very important with such woods.

heatboy

Having miles of tubing...........

...........under wood floors of all widths and types, I can say I have never had any floor problems. Wood will expand and contract regardless, since it is a "living" product. The wider the plank, the more gap will be seen simply because there are less gaps in the entire floor. Wide planks don't expand or contract at a different rate, per inch width, than narrow planks.

Constantin is correct about the humidity issues. That is the sole reason for any expansion / contraction issues.

Now, I'm sure if someone really screws a radiant floor, it would have adverse reactions, but that never happens, does it?

hb

www.climatecadvanced.com

Carrin

wood floors over radiant

> ... _a

> href="http://www.launstein.com"_launstein.com_/a_

> and _a

> href="http://www.radiantpanelassociation.org/i4a/p

> ages/index.cfm?pageid=1"_the RPA_/a_ have a lot

> of good info re: wood floors over radiant heat.

> With the right kind of heating system (and a

> tight, well-insulated envelope so that the house

> needs little heating in the first place), just

> about any flooring material can be made to work.

> We have 2" wide red, quarter-sawn oak in our

> home. There is virtually no noise and thus far

> there are no visible gaps in the flooring either.

> Another RFH house I know has wide (4-6") plain

> pine flooring with visible gaps (intentional) and

> ticking noises (unintentional). If the

> near-boiler piping and the control strategy on

> that house were to be improved, the ticking will

> most likely go away.

>

> The wider you go with

> your flooring boards, the greater the potential

> for gaps. Quarter-sawn wood is better since it'll

> expand less sideways than plain-sawn. However, it

> costs more and the choices are more limited.

> The degree to which wood expands also depends on

> the species. For very problematic woods, a

> floating floor can be a viable solution. However,

> controlling the humidity of the wood/house is

> also very important with such woods.



We have ticking noise now with just the subfloor. I think it does when the boiler is on and the warmer water is first running through the tubing. It is less noisy than FHA but certainly not silent. The tubing runs through metal plates attached to the subfloor. The plates were never screwed in at all the holes along the plate. Maybe this is causing some of the ticking sound we hear as the metal heats up.

Carrin

wood floors over radiant



We have ticking noise now with just the subfloor. I think it does when the boiler is on and the warmer water is first running through the tubing. It is less noisy than FHA but certainly not silent. The tubing runs through metal plates attached to the subfloor. The plates were never screwed in at all the holes along the plate. Maybe this is causing some of the ticking sound we hear as the metal heats up.