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Floor thickness question

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tileproowner
tileproowner Member Posts: 2
in Radiant Heating
I visited a new house under construction to bid on the wood flooring (2,000 s/f of wood). The heat system is hydronic, the tubes are buried in 5" of concrete on grade (insulated underneath the tubes) the slab is recessed 2" from other areas of the house and the builder wants to put 2 layers of plywood down and then install the wood flooring on top nailed down. I am concerned that he is flying by the seat of his pants and asked if this was addressed with a heating engineer. I would rather see the floor brought up to height with a cement product and the wood (engineered) installed on that. Do you have any thoughts on the thickness( 2") of the wood build up on top of the concrete. I have never see that kind of thickness on top of the tubes, also is the distance of the tubes to the surface (6"+) if the floor is built up with gype-crete or similar and the wood installed floating or glued going to lead to any problems?   

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  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
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    Flooring

    Two inches of wood is too much to expect the floor to be able to heat through efficiently and you would have to raise the water water temp significantly to even make heat, and it would be a waste of fuel. (I don't know if it would work at all without more details). I would suggest 2x4 sleepers anchored to the floor at set intervals and doing a concrete overpour to the sleeper level. This would give direct contact of the concrete to the wood floor and also give you nailers for your hardwood.

    Rob 
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