Can you heat hardwood floors? Absolutely. But: not all wood floors can be treated—or heated—equal. Even if you own the best hardwood floors that money can buy, there's no guarantee they'll be the best hardwood floors for radiant heat.
In short, yes, you can use underfloor heating with wooden flooring — both wet systems and electric underfloor heating. Timber flooring is capable of effectively holding onto heat and releasing it into a room, plus it heats up quickly.
According to Mickey Moore, Technical Director of the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association, the temperatures used in floor heating will not damage the wood in any way.
The Launstein testing found that quarter-sawn planks up to 7 inches across (when properly installed) can work well with radiant heat systems. The testing also found that hardwood flooring that is three-eighths of an inch thick conducts heat better than thicker floors and resists gapping.
Wood floors provide heat that lasts
Wood and other solid materials significantly reduce your home's temperature fluctuation because they absorb and store heat while light carpet fibers simply become a barrier. This phenomenon holds true for other solid materials like concrete, laminate, ceramic, and tile.
Adding Underfloor Heating to Engineered Wood Floors
Both electric and hydronic heating systems can be utilized with engineered wood. Hydronic systems are more popular but do require a structural floor remodel in most cases.
The best type of flooring to use with underfloor heating is tile and stone. Tile and stone have high thermal conductivity, meaning that the heat from an underfloor heating pipe or wire transfers to the floor surface quickly. Tile and stone also retain heat well making the system efficient.
Never use solid wood flooring with underfloor heating. because planks of solid wood are not stable enough to deal with the changes in temperature and can become severely damaged. Engineered hardwood flooring looks exactly the same as solid wood flooring once you have installed it.
Porcelain, ceramic, and natural stone are the best flooring materials for radiant heating as they encompass all four factors. On top of it, tile tends to feel colder than other types of flooring, so the need for radiant heating underneath is greatest.
Water underfloor heating over existing floors
Our overfloor systems can be installed directly over any solid subfloor such as existing floorboards, plywood or concrete/screed floors, or any solid surface such as existing tiles/wooden floors.
You won't need to use your UFH system all year round, even with the irregular British weather, so your system may lay dormant during the summer months. When heating your system back up again after a long period, it is important to follow the same steps as when heating up your system for the first time.
It is advised that in the depths of winter, an underfloor heating system should be kept on at all times. Although it should be at different temperatures depending on usage and activity in the house. This is because underfloor heating can take two to three hours to warm up, so it is best to not completely turn it off.
When remodeling your bathroom, radiant floor heating is especially worth thinking about. You will save a lot on the labor cost if the flooring is being lifted up and changed anyway. The comfort and the cost savings of running the system on your heating bills will work out to your advantage in a longer run.
Heated Floor Electricity Specifics
Most heated tile floors and electric floor heating systems use 12 watts per hour per square foot, meaning a 100-square-foot room would use 1200 watts in total every hour (potentially up to 300 watts less than the average space heater).
The cost depends on square footage, but the national average cost of radiant floor heating is $3,800 and ranges from $1,700 to $6,000. The low-end cost of radiant floor heating is about $200 and the high-end cost is up to $10,000.
With proper care and maintenance, a floor heating system can last up to 35 years. It can save money, too. Radiant floor heating warms a room from the floor up. As a result, most people will feel more comfortable with their thermostat set at a lower temperature.
Electric radiant underfloor heating systems can be installed under wood floors by working from the basement or from a basement crawlspace. This is the easiest and most cost-effective way of installing electric radiant heat under finished wood floors; it's also the least labor intensive.
Underfloor heating is well suited for use under carpet, provided that care is taken when choosing the carpet. The overall thickness of any materials above the heater needs to be taken into account too, as this will ensure efficient heat transfer. This includes any underlays and overlays.
The Thermal Envelope
About 35% of the heat will escape through the walls and through gaps, in and around windows and doors, and about 10% of heat will disappear through the floor.
Tiles can be cold underfoot and extremely hard to fall on, so not always a popular choice for families with babies and young children. Hardwood flooring, on the other hand, is much warmer and softer underfoot, making it a more appealing choice in living spaces.
Hardwood Flooring - Floor for all Seasons
We'll never change the fact that as a material, wood feels colder underfoot than carpet; however engineered wooden floorboards, as opposed to solid wood flooring, are much more suitable to be used with underfloor heating systems.
Can Underfloor Heating Replace Radiators? Using underfloor heating instead of radiators is possible and depending on your heat loss, you can even get rid of radiators completely. In order to decide whether underfloor heating can be used as the sole source of heat, you will need to conduct a heat loss calculation.