Maple Hardwood Over Radiant Heat

If you are choosing our engineered hardwood floor it is very important that your heating contractor understand the maximum surface temperature of the flooring cannot exceed 25 degrees celsius.

Maple hardwood over radiant heat.

Where radiant heating pipes are incorporated into wood subfloor panels ensure that moisture content of the wood subfloor is within 4 of the maple flooring prior to installation. Installing wood floors over a radiant heating system is a topic for a whole article but in brief here are a few things to think about. Unfortunately hardwood and radiant heat don t mix. The various radiant heating systems there are 4 types of radiant heating systems steam radiators hydronic water hot water baseboards and low voltage electric.

Charles peterson a hardwood flooring expert and author of the upcoming book the art of wood flooring the taunton press 2009 replies. When you are installing wood floors over top of concrete the double layer two layers of 1 2 ply floating plywood method will be the best method. This means homeowners can now enjoy the natural beauty of hickory oak cherry walnut maple ash and any other fine hardwood plus the efficiency and luxurious comfort provided by radiant heating. Thanks to the advances made in the heated floor industry it is now possible to confidently install hardwood floors over radiant heat.

Following a few easy guidelines should make the installation process an easy one. A quick overview on installing hardwood over warmboard radiant. But i have to caution you against using maple here. Maple shorts such as those used for a herringbone parquet floor thin flooring 5 16 in thick solid strip and engineered flooring.

You got one thing right. Quartersawn wood flooring is always more stable under conditions of extreme moisture or heat and is always a good choice over radiant heat especially when going with flooring wider than 4 inches. Fortunately progress has been made in this arena. Most species are not recommended over.

Plainsawn wood will move more than quartersawn especially when it is over 4 inches wide. But that said even a wood floor will warm up and heat you and the room quite well. Most wood flooring can be installed over radiant heat providing all of the necessary conditions are met. The heating system should be activated at least 4 5 days prior to delivery of flooring to drive excess moisture out of slab.

Wood flooring manufactured and expected to perform at mc levels higher than 9 percent or in conditions above 50 percent rh should not be used with radiant heating systems. And still many hardwood flooring manufacturers will not warranty their products over any radiant heating system. A good compromise is to install the hydronic system right in a concrete slab and install the wood on the concrete.