We are thinking of under floor heating for our new build.

We really love solid floors (Oak for example). I am told its not
recommended on top of the screed containiong the under floor heating
pipes. Experts say the timber will move with all the temperature
changes. They are recommending Semi Solid flooring. I hate that stuff !


Can anybody offer a way to have the best of both worlds?

Thanks in advance.
C

Chad wrote:
We are thinking of under floor heating for our new build.

We really love solid floors (Oak for example). I am told its not
recommended on top of the screed containiong the under floor heating
pipes. Experts say the timber will move with all the temperature
changes. They are recommending Semi Solid flooring. I hate that stuff !


Can anybody offer a way to have the best of both worlds?

Ok...I installed floating floor for this reason, and when money and time
permits will rip it out and go solid.

The BIGGEST movement I got was in summer, when the RH goes very
high..60-70% in a sticky summer. I got about a cm expansion over a 6m width.

The issue is not heat, its humidity...in use the floor seldom gets much
higher than 30 degrees C.. which is no different from a hot summers day.
In fact with proper UFH the range of temperature of the wood is probably
narrower than with any other sort of heating as cold floors simply don't
happen.

The greater issue is differential thermal conductivity - a cm of solid
wood is not the worlds greatest conductor, and you may well need extra
underneath the floor to prevent inefficiency. And you will need slight
gaps between blocks or boards to take up normal humidity variations of
course.

There is one way on which floor temperatures CAN rise quite a lot..and
that is under cushions and furniture. WE have a large sofa with a floor
trailing fabric fringe, and it gets very cosy under that - 35C or so.


Of course one thing that should go without saying, is that you will only
get decent low floor temps if the house is insulated well enough to not
need massive heat input to heat it. You MUST review all insulation,
especially underfloor insulation, critically before installing UFH of
any serious nature.





Thanks in advance.
C

On Nov 14, 8:17 pm, "Chad" wrote:
We are thinking of under floor heating for our new build.

We really love solid floors (Oak for example). I am told its not
recommended on top of the screed containiong the under floor heating
pipes. Experts say the timber will move with all the temperature
changes. They are recommending Semi Solid flooring. I hate that stuff !

Can anybody offer a way to have the best of both worlds?

Info here;
http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=19

Note the bit about controlling humidity, as NP has said. Changes in Rh
caused by heating in winter can be eye-watering. To me, this implies a
need for run & stand-by/assist humidifiers in winter (they scale up in
use and so will require regular maintenance), and properly controlled
dehumidification (no, not one of them DIY Shed jobs) in summer.

This suggests the need for the application of much wonga.
The chances of finding someone in the UK capable of specifying,
installing and controlling such an installation is arounabout zero,
approximately.

The site above is American.
The Americans have much more hardwood than us.
Solid wood floors are much used.
They mostly heat with air and domestic installations often have AC.
Humidifiers are fairly commonplace.
They mostly have more wonga.

I'd go with the engineered floor option; unless you have a surfeit of
said wonga.

I think there may be something about it on the Rehau website (Kahrs?).

Read the UFH & Flooring sections on the UK_Selfbuild FAQ

http://www.sbfaq.borpin.co.uk/dokuwiki/

Engineered flooring or Laminate is best for UFH. or even better is tiled.
I have UFH throughout house ... 75% of ground floor is tiled - rest is
Engineered hard wood, 1st floor is laminate throughout - except for
bathrooms which have tiled floors.

I would personally never use solid wood floor over UFH.



"Aidan" wrote in message
oups.com...


On Nov 14, 8:17 pm, "Chad" wrote:
We are thinking of under floor heating for our new build.

We really love solid floors (Oak for example). I am told its not
recommended on top of the screed containiong the under floor heating
pipes. Experts say the timber will move with all the temperature
changes. They are recommending Semi Solid flooring. I hate that stuff !

Can anybody offer a way to have the best of both worlds?

Info here;
http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=19

Note the bit about controlling humidity, as NP has said. Changes in Rh
caused by heating in winter can be eye-watering. To me, this implies a
need for run & stand-by/assist humidifiers in winter (they scale up in
use and so will require regular maintenance), and properly controlled
dehumidification (no, not one of them DIY Shed jobs) in summer.

This suggests the need for the application of much wonga.
The chances of finding someone in the UK capable of specifying,
installing and controlling such an installation is arounabout zero,
approximately.

The site above is American.
The Americans have much more hardwood than us.
Solid wood floors are much used.
They mostly heat with air and domestic installations often have AC.
Humidifiers are fairly commonplace.
They mostly have more wonga.

I'd go with the engineered floor option; unless you have a surfeit of
said wonga.

I think there may be something about it on the Rehau website (Kahrs?).

Aidan wrote:

On Nov 14, 8:17 pm, "Chad" wrote:
We are thinking of under floor heating for our new build.

We really love solid floors (Oak for example). I am told its not
recommended on top of the screed containiong the under floor heating
pipes. Experts say the timber will move with all the temperature
changes. They are recommending Semi Solid flooring. I hate that stuff !

Can anybody offer a way to have the best of both worlds?

Info here;
http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=19

Note the bit about controlling humidity, as NP has said. Changes in Rh
caused by heating in winter can be eye-watering. To me, this implies a
need for run & stand-by/assist humidifiers in winter (they scale up in
use and so will require regular maintenance), and properly controlled
dehumidification (no, not one of them DIY Shed jobs) in summer.

Or just have some flowers in vases through the winter.
Or do some steamy cooking now and again.

Actually I have found the summer to be the worst.

USA has cold dry winters and use aircon in the summer - these reduce RH
inside the house a lot.

I WOULD do it, but not without thought first. Probably Parquet..with
mastic in between each block.

On Nov 17, 10:45 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

USA has cold dry winters and use aircon in the summer - these reduce RH
inside the house a lot.

DX cooling does do that.
Proper AC cools the air to condense out the excess water vapour and
then re-heats the air to get it back up to the appropriate supply
temperature.

Aidan wrote:

On Nov 17, 10:45 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

USA has cold dry winters and use aircon in the summer - these reduce RH
inside the house a lot.

DX cooling does do that.
Proper AC cools the air to condense out the excess water vapour and
then re-heats the air to get it back up to the appropriate supply
temperature.


So its well below the 70-90% humidity of a stocky hot summers day then.

On Nov 17, 7:23 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
USA has cold dry winters and use aircon in the summer - these reduce RH
inside the house a lot.

DX cooling does do that.
Proper AC cools the air to condense out the excess water vapour and
then re-heats the air to get it back up to the appropriate supply
temperature.So its well below the 70-90% humidity of a stocky hot summers day then.

50% ish summer or winter, rain or shine, ideally. It can be achieved.
Wooden stringed instruments & paper move around a lot, thin material,
so they're even more affected than floors. Willis Carrier first
invented AC to control the humidity, not the temperature, in a
printing plant.