In Floor Heat and wood floors?

[muddpuppy]

I would like heated floors and I would like wood floors not LAM... I have been told by a few not to do it. for reasons of:

Nail/Pex = Puncture holes

Heat = cracking splitting of the wood.

My question is Heat is Heat right whats the Diff?

For heated floors you have your subfloor/pex/thinset.......Could you not do another layer of subfloor then your wood floor?

Your ideas please

[K_Josh87]

can you install in underneath the sub floor in between the joists, and use that foild faced bubble wrap insulation stapled around the pipes to keep the heat from being wasted? I am not 100% positive as to how that is done, however I do believe it is one way to get in floor heat install on a main level. but you would need to make sure your subfloor was thick enough to insure no nails hit the pipe. In which case starts to defeat the purpose of the in floor heat.

[nobody05]

Yes you can put in floor heat underneath wood floors. I have done them only in the floor joist/bubble rap insulation along with aluminum heat transfer plates that the pipe fits into. Only run about 140 degree water max maybe 150 to prevent the wood was expanding contraction ext.

[Smoker]

They do make a sub floor in sections that the pex tubing can sit in. You can then see the tubing and not run a nail into it. You can push it in the slots or use a rubber mallet. I don't know the cost of it off hand. We had some training on it but never needed to use it yet. We have also added to floors in between the joist and used the radiant plates for it.

[muddpuppy]

They do make a sub floor in sections that the pex tubing can sit in. You can then see the tubing and not run a nail into it. You can push it in the slots or use a rubber mallet. I don't know the cost of it off hand. We had some training on it but never needed to use it yet.

I have seen this what you talk about. I called the local rep and sent an e-mail with no responce maybe out of business who knows.

[nobody05]

Uponor makes a couple products Fast Trak and Quik Trak. Same principal but only different.

Fast Track

Quik Trak

Floor Joist

Should give you everything you need to know about floor heat.

[muddpuppy]

Nobody05 Thank you for the links, I did check a bunch of videos out. I have calls and e-mails into about 5 companies looking for quotes. A week later I am still waiting on all of them to reply. I don't get it builders are the same are the trades that busy these days?

[deerminator]

We have an engineered wood floor that is tongue and groove over our in-floor raidant heating system. It's wonderful and according to the manufacturer, Kahrs, we can sand and refinish it 3 times over its lifetime. It looks great and feels great during the winter when heated. Good luck.

[Archerysniper]

Nobody05 Thank you for the links, I did check a bunch of videos out. I have calls and e-mails into about 5 companies looking for quotes. A week later I am still waiting on all of them to reply. I don't get it builders are the same are the trades that busy these days?

Business is not that good especially residential so if they are not responding I would be leary of their business or product.

[muddpuppy]

deerminator, do you user infloor heat for you total heat source?

[deerminator]

Pretty much. We have a gas forced air furnace too for the upper level where our bedrooms are but we have an open floor plan and the heat from the main level drifts upstairs and downstairs. We use the gas minimally. We filled up our 500 pound tank in September and still have about 40 percent left. We're thinking of going geothermal soon because it will basically negate our utility bills and the money we'll save on that will cover the loan payments.

[PurpleFloyd]

One thing to consider is how the heat from the floor is going to effect the wood. During the summer when the the air is humid and the heat is not running the wood will absorb the atmospheric moisture and expand. ( The wood will expand along it's width and not so much it's length).

In the winter when the air gets dryer and you turn on the boiler you will cook the water out of the floor and it will shrink back which will cause joints to open up more than they were in the summer.

I am not saying that you will have any failures, but when you are installing it you should keep in mind what season it is and whether the wood at time of installation is expanded or contracted and just keep the fact that it is wood in mind.