My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards, reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room. Small house.

She's thinking tiles in hallway and wood flooring in front room, or wood in both.

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?

Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?

On 12/05/15 10:26, Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards, reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room. Small house.

She's thinking tiles in hallway and wood flooring in front room, or wood in both.

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?

Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?


Tiles of course are fine.

Some engineered wood flooring is fine - but check the manufacturer's
instructions. You might look at kahrs website - they do have detailed
instructions and a technical line you can phone.

On 12/05/15 10:26, Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood
floorboards, reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not
habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room.
Small house.


tack down hardboard to kill draughts. Makes a huge difference


She's thinking tiles in hallway
Then you will need to put better than old floorboards and hardboard -
suggest ripping up and using 3/4" ply or chip



and wood flooring in front room, or
wood in both.
Wood as in laminate?

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only
engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?


Whoa - where did UFH come from?


Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?




If you are doing UFH and not using leccy mats then you need to start
from scratch and do the whole thing right.

The easy part. laminate is OK with UFH as is engineered wood but real
boards may well shrink a lot in winter.

IF this is a suspended ground floor, you MUST shove in as much
absolutely draughtproof insulation as you can, otherwise the UFH will
heat the underfloor space as well as the house.

That means (unless you have crawl space under the house) ripping up all
the floors and starting again.

If you can access from underneath, wedge 75mm kingspan or similar
between joists flush with base and foil tape over bottom.

If you cant access from below, screw little L shaped hangers to the
joists, and pop the insulation on that, and then go round the edges
with a mastic (decorators caulk works and is cheap) to completely seal
from draughts.

Put a piece of insulation along any outer walls as well, under the floor


You can then use pipe clips pushed into that to locate the UFH pipes.
Which you should lay at around 4" spacing in as many parallel circuits
as you need. That will give you about 100W/sq meter at 50C water temp
which is OK for a moderately well insulated house.


Put the pipe inflows at the edges and the outflows near the middle

For tile over, I'd lay 3/4" floor grade chip or ply over all that make
sure its dead flat by using packing over any low joists.. And use a
thick cement bed - at least 6mm - of flexible and quality tile cement.

That's about an inch in total, and if you want to match that with solid
wood that's easy enough with 3/4" boards on a 1/4" packing but beware of
shrinkage.

For engineered wood us 3/4" chip flooring, a bit of foam underlay and
1/4" engineered wood. That works pretty well. Remember to leave an
expansion gap at the edge and cover that with skirting.


The main point is that you cant do half a job with wet UFH. You must
lift the lot and insulate properly, and the more insulation the better.








--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

On 12/05/15 11:08, Tim Watts wrote:
On 12/05/15 10:26, Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood
floorboards, reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not
habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room.
Small house.

She's thinking tiles in hallway and wood flooring in front room, or
wood in both.

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only
engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?

Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?


Tiles of course are fine.

Some engineered wood flooring is fine - but check the manufacturer's
instructions. You might look at kahrs website - they do have detailed
instructions and a technical line you can phone.

I used kahrs - its fine

--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

"Eusebius" wrote in message
...
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards,
reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low
ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room. Small house.

She's thinking tiles in hallway and wood flooring in front room, or wood
in both.

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only
engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?

Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?




But would it not be a better option to insulate under the floorboards?



--
Adam

On Wednesday, 13 May 2015 11:36:06 UTC+1, Andrew wrote:
On 12/05/2015 10:26, Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards,
reason being cold rises
from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the
hall and small front room. Small house.


Err, cold doesn't 'rise', and nor for that matter does 'heat'.

Well no. But it's very easy to get cold draughts blowing up from a cellar through
the floorboards - and that will very quickly chill a house.

In article ,
Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards,
reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low
ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room. Small house.

If you have underfloor heating, wouldn't it be better to insulate/seal
under the heating elements? Waste of energy getting it to try and heat
colder air than it needs to.

--
*For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Andrew wrote:
I asked said bod to point to where the sun is (approximately), and he
duly obliged by pointing up in the air. I then asked him how come, if
the sun is 'up there', the heat arrives 'down here' ?.

Try Googling radiated versus convected heat. And tell us how underfloor
heating works.

--
*Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tuesday, 12 May 2015 10:26:54 UTC+1, Eusebius wrote:
My ex is about to put some flooring down over existing wood floorboards, reason being cold rises from the cellar underneath (not habitable, low ceiling). Will be in the hall and small front room. Small house.

Insulation under the floor is what's needed for that

She's thinking tiles in hallway and wood flooring in front room, or wood in both.

What kinds of wood are reliable with underfloor heating? Is it only engineered wood squares, or are there some other clever options?

Experiences and advice, including wood and tile options?

For UFH you especially need underfloor insulation


NT