A client of mine wishes to install pre-finished wood flooring in a cold bedroom with some sort of radiant heat pad underneath. I’ve put these under tile before, but not under wood.
Anybody tried this before?
DCS Inc.
“He who xxxxs nuns will later join the church.” –The Clash
Replies
You might want to find out why the bedroom is "cold". If it's just because a heat run doesn't go there and everything else is kosher, i.e good windows, insulated walls, minimum air leakage etc, then it should work fine, provided the temperature at the subfloor is 85* or less.
But if the bedroom is cold because it's a poorly insulated, leaky envelope, and this mat is electric resistance, she might be warmer, but also will pay alot for the KWhrs.
Read "unsatisfied customer".
The room is cold because of poor insulation, no housewrap, etc. It was built 4 years ago and has vinyl siding. Typical new-style construction crap. That said, it's also a $250k townhouse and a client who wants a warm floor.
Anybody put mats under a wood floor before? Is that going to warp the boards? I've put floors over gypcrete and not had problems, but that was in CO with 0% humidity year-round. This is NC where we've had dewpoints in the 70's for the last two weeks.DCS Inc.
"He who xxxxs nuns will later join the church." -The Clash
It would help to know exactly what you mean by "mats". I'm assuming you mean something that heats directly via electric resistance. Also how is this room currently being heated? Forced air? Hot water radiators?
If this warm floor is going to be the ONLY heat source in the room, then in order to provide acceptable comfort, the floor temperatures may have to be so high (>85*) that you could have trouble with the wood floor.
BUT, if the heated floor will be supplemental, and electric, you could easily control the temperature of the floor to be in synch with whatever the floor material specs out for.
See if you can get some idea of what the heat loss of the room will be on a typical cold day in BTU/hr. That will help alot, as well.
In all seriousness, I would try to find the cause for the cold floor with a view toward a possibly easy correction, like is it over a ground floor slab or over a crawl space? A carpet runner laid over a traffic pattern and or sheep skin slippers are a lot cheaper than putting an electrical mat under the proposed flooring material.
Good luck!
Virginbuild
The heating mat vpeople say it can be done, but it has to be a glue down or floating floor. Nailed floor have too much risk of hitting the heating element.
But more importantly, not all floor mfgrs will allow it. Check the wood data sheet to see. If you ignoire their warning, you void the flooring warranty.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Real wood flooring has a recommended surface temperature limitation of 85 degF, according to Uponor (Wirsbo). NuHeat, a manufacturer of electric mat systems, states that theirs heats the floor to "approximately 80 - 90 F". I have this brand installed under tile only, but I can attest to the low temp level. The mfr does NOT recommend wood flooring over their product.
Easy fix: for about $60.00, a 4ft 1000 watt electric baseboard would pick up any extra heating needs.