Points To Consider With Oak Flooring And Underfloor Heating
10th Dec 2014 @ 16:04
The installation of underfloor heating systems is becoming more and more common with renovation projects. When installing oak flooring and underfloor heating there are certain points that should be considered.
Type Of Oak Flooring
The first point is the type of oak flooring. When laying oak flooring over underfloor heating, we only ever recommend using engineered oak flooring. Due to its construction, engineered oak flooring is much less prone to movement caused by changes in humidity. With the variable temperature changes of underfloor heating, a solid oak floor is much more likely to encounter problems.
Type of Underfloor Heating System
Typically there are two types of underfloor heating systems; water or electric.
One such water underfloor heating system, involves heating coils which are embedded in concrete. The concrete then allows this heat to be distributed across the entire floor surface. With this system, the temperature can be harder to control than other systems. This is because concrete will naturally keep its current temperature for longer periods. This means once it is warm it will stay warm. When the concrete is cold however it can take longer, in comparison, for the temperature to warm up.
Another form of water underfloor heating system, is a system based on aluminium heat plates. The heating coils for this system are placed in curved grooves. These plates fit directly underneath your engineered oak flooring.
With electrical underfloor heating systems, these consist of heat cables which are laid out in a joist construction. Electric underfloor heating systems are often combined with radiators.
How The Floor Will Be Fitted
How you intend to fit the floor over your underfloor heating system very much depends on the type of system chosen and what your chosen manufacturer recommends. Typically the engineered oak flooring is fitted using either the floating floor method or the adhesive method.
The floating floor method involves no direct fixing to the sub-floor. Instead, the tongue and grooves of each board are glued together, creating the floating floor. This method however is not recommended over underfloor heating.
With the adhesive method the boards are glued directly to the underfloor heating system using a suitable flexible flooring adhesive. Whether or not this is a suitable method for you depends on your own situation and own underfloor heating system.
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