Under Floor Heating and Lmainate suitability

ec_pc

At the stage of looking at flooring and thinking of laminate with underlay designed for underfloor heating.

Someone mentioned it was madness to put down laminate and underlay on underfloor heating as it blocks 30% (made up figure?) percent. We were told tiles only to maximise benefit of UFH, but budget won't stretch to tile over 140 sq m downstairs.

Welcome any views on this especially from folks with laminate on UFH.

Dudda

Underfloor heating works in two ways. If you've a very well insulated new house or passive house then the underfloor heating can very slowly heat up the house as it will take ages to loose the heat. You can have thick rugs over the laminate and it won't make a massive difference as the heat will get through eventually.

In a poorly insulated draughty house or an old house where someone has decided to put in underfloor heating then you usually need a quicker response. Underfloor heating on and an hour later the room gets warm. Heating off and a few hours later it's cooled down. This is like the way radiators work and isn't great for underfloor heating. For this situation tiles or polished concrete floor are probably more suitable.

All laminates or 99% of them are fine for underfloor heating. Laminates go on top of an underlay which rests on the concrete. It's a thin layer to allow movement between the concrete and laminate. You just have to make sure the underlay you use is suitable for underfloor heating as some underlays which are designed to reduce noise transfer, etc are thick and prevent the flow of heat. At a guess 30% of underlays are suitable for underfloor heating and the rest concentrate on heat retention or acoustics.

ec_pc

Thanks for the quick response.

The house is heavily insulated, air tight etc, on track for A2 BER. Will be using underlay foam that is perforated and designed for UFH.

Dudda

ec_pc wrote: »

Thanks for the quick response.

The house is heavily insulated, air tight etc, on track for A2 BER. Will be using underlay foam that is perforated and designed for UFH.

Perfect. The only thing you need to worry about when picking the laminate so is the price and colour. Best of luck in the new house.

Outkast_IRE

it doesnt block the heat, it delays the response times.

The ideal scenario for underfloor will also be a polished concrete finish, or a heavy tile finish. As these are all materials take will take in the heat directly from the slab and add to the thermal mass of the slab.

Wood and underlay do not have the same effect and thus can add to the response time.

If you are going to operate you system as always on at a low temp, then this doesnt matter massively. If you were planning on running the system on , on/off cycles it would matter as it could take for example 3 hours from turning on the heating to heat the slab and then the laminate floor vs 2 hours without the laminate on tile or concrete finish.

If the house is well insulated and running from a heat pump you will likely utilise the always on approach and ensure decent quality room temperature stats are controlling each zone.

ec_pc

ok, so it seems there is no major drawback. Will be using always on heatpump.

Yellow_Fern

ec_pc wrote: »

At the stage of looking at flooring and thinking of laminate with underlay designed for underfloor heating.

Someone mentioned it was madness to put down laminate and underlay on underfloor heating as it blocks 30% (made up figure?) percent. We were told tiles only to maximise benefit of UFH, but budget won't stretch to tile over 140 sq m downstairs.

Welcome any views on this especially from folks with laminate on UFH.

I imagine the persn who gave you this advise is more familar with UFH in a colder house that was less suited to UFH in the first place.

Laminate comes in different thicknesses. But the cheaper brands and thinner brands will work better. There is detailed information online on the impact of different floors surfaces.

JoeA3

Have a look at LVT (luxury vinyl tile). Brands such as Karndean. When down it looks very similar to a laminate. But it’s much thinner - only a few mm thick and is glued down directly to the floor, no underlay. Apparently suits underfloor very well and is softer under foot to walk on.