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.
Maple hardwood over radiant heat.
A good compromise is to install the hydronic system right in a concrete slab and install the wood on the concrete.
Most wood flooring can be installed over radiant heat providing all of the necessary conditions are met.
Thanks to the advances made in the heated floor industry it is now possible to confidently install hardwood floors over radiant heat.
Maple shorts such as those used for a herringbone parquet floor thin flooring 5 16 in thick solid strip and engineered flooring.
Following a few easy guidelines should make the installation process an easy one.
Unfortunately hardwood and radiant heat don t mix.
Fortunately progress has been made in this arena.
What can be glued down are solid 4 in.
The heating system should be activated at least 4 5 days prior to delivery of flooring to drive excess moisture out of slab.
But i have to caution you against using maple here.
A quick overview on installing hardwood over warmboard radiant.
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.
Quartersawn or engineered wood is the best choice over radiant floor heat.
Plainsawn wood will move more than quartersawn especially when it is over 4 inches wide.
And still many hardwood flooring manufacturers will not warranty their products over any radiant heating system.
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.
You got one thing right.
The various radiant heating systems there are 4 types of radiant heating systems steam radiators hydronic water hot water baseboards and low voltage electric.
But that said even a wood floor will warm up and heat you and the room quite well.
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.
Most species are not recommended over.
A belief that for many in the architecture and construction industries still exists today.