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I have two small rooms which total about 120 sqf combined. I am going to replace the carpet with a floating engineered hardwood. I am interested in laying a hardwired radiant heat pad underneath. Have you or do you have this setup? Does the room warm up nicely? Are the electrical costs reasonable? And how much movement of the floor have you encountered? I.e gapping or any other possible side effects.
"Are there companies that manufacture an engineered flooring that can be installed over radiant heat mats?"
If there are, is it anything you like?
Good question. There are several that are made to go over matts. Engineered is the best for dimensional stability and there are even several recommended species of wood that do very well with radiant heat.
The point was you CAN'T install ANY kind of wood flooring "directly" (the implied direction of your original post) over electric radiant heat mats. The constant movement of the wood would chafe the mat, eventually causing a short and/or fire. Also, the heat generated by electric mats is hotter than that of hydronic- not good for the wood or your life.
If you want to use electric radiant heat for a wood floor, you have to "embed" the mat in at least a thinset mortar- a full mortar bed is even better. With that in mind, remember you will be raising the floor height a significant amount (mortar bed + finish flooring).
If someone actually does chime-in and states they have that setup, they clearly didn't follow the manufacturer's directions for installation.
The point was you CAN'T install ANY kind of wood flooring "directly" (the implied direction of your original post) over electric radiant heat mats. The constant movement of the wood would chafe the mat, eventually causing a short and/or fire. Also, the heat generated by electric mats is hotter than that of hydronic- not good for the wood or your life.
If you want to use electric radiant heat for a wood floor, you have to "embed" the mat in at least a thinset mortar- a full mortar bed is even better. With that in mind, remember you will be raising the floor height a significant amount (mortar bed + finish flooring).
If someone actually does chime-in and states they have that setup, they clearly didn't follow the manufacturer's directions for installation.
Ok I will defer to your experience. I found a mat from a place called warmfloor source that is advertised to go directly under a floating floor and is recommended for an engineered floor due to its dimensional stability. This is only one of four different manufacturers of a mat like this.http://www.warmfloorsource.com/Products-WarmSulate.php
Interesting product. I'd be curious to a long-term study.
It's obviously garnered quite a following- one of the top 5 requested radiant heat sources in Remodeling Magazine. Never been on my radar because most people want radiant heat under tile (which is embedded in mortar bed). Most people usually put area rugs on hardwood, so heating the floor isn't really an issue.
Plus, if you do the math, watts, Btu's, per/ft, hr- take out the R-value of the flooring, then the R-value of the rug (cause EVERYONE puts an area rug down), is the expense really worth it-vs-electric expense? Especially if this is to be used as a primary source?
Interesting product. I'd be curious to a long-term study.
It's obviously garnered quite a following- one of the top 5 requested radiant heat sources in Remodeling Magazine. Never been on my radar because most people want radiant heat under tile (which is embedded in mortar bed). Most people usually put area rugs on hardwood, so heating the floor isn't really an issue.
Plus, if you do the math, watts, Btu's, per/ft, hr- take out the R-value of the flooring, then the R-value of the rug (cause EVERYONE puts an area rug down), is the expense really worth it-vs-electric expense? Especially if this is to be used as a primary source?
I am very interested in trying this out. I think it would work well in my situation and what I want to use it for. The two rooms I would put it in are roughly 130sqf combined....a small family and dining room. I have gas heat which heats the house nicely but these two rooms are always the coldest. Since I travel through these rooms often all day, in socks, I thought it would be nice to have these rooms and floors warmer. I admit it is a bit of a luxury but the area is small and I see it as a fun experiment.
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