Underfloor Heating And Flooring

Aurelian

I know there are some old threads on this but I was wondering what people's recent experiences are and/or has technology moved on.

I've been assuming that I'd wind up with laminate floors above my underfloor heating. Some of what I am reading suggests tiles are really the best way to go and are warmer than wood. Is this the case?

I've also read that modern laminates can be absolutely fine with underfloor.

I've about another month to decide.

JoeA3

Have a look at LVT (luxury vinyl tile). It’s a very thin (2-3mm) “tile” that to the casual observer looks like a timber/laminate. It is glued directly to the floor. We have it (“Karndean” is the brand we have) in most of our living area and hall and it works really well with UFH. The floors are lovely under foot, always warm and cosy under bare foot. We have cheaper laminates in a couple of bedrooms and they don’t seem to be as cosy to walk on.

maxsmum

Tiles are best but think about having a hard floor, if you've kids etc may not be best choice. We were told laminate was a big no no as air trapped under the floor (or something) so while it is technically compatible, not the best for energy efficiency of the underfloor heating. We got engineered wood floor. There is a page online (warmup dot ie) that tells you the optimal thickness to width ratio of boards as the planks can vary so much in size. It also has info on laminate, I think because we got gas fired water heating it wasn't advised but if he'd had electric foil heating it would have been ok. Vinyl can look really good, it's posh lino as the woman in one place described it to me, but I am a wood fanatic so wanted wood.

ec_pc

We have a combination of tiles, laminate and engineered flooring. The tiles are by far the warmest to walk barefoot on, followed by the engineered wood floor which is glued directly to the concrete floor. The engineered floor is slightly warmer than the laminate.

I was a but dubious about the laminate myself, but we got special underlay and whilst it's not as warm as the tiles, it's still warm to walk on.

For me the more important point was will it impact the overall warmth and comfort factor of the rooms? In our case there is no noticeable difference in temperature in each room which is the key point.

Aurelian

ec_pc wrote: »

For me the more important point was will it impact the overall warmth and comfort factor of the rooms? In our case there is no noticeable difference in temperature in each room which is the key point.

That's my concern, that the system works properly overall. I don't particularly want tiles in certain areas so I'm leaning to engineered wood as the best option.

Thanks for the replies.