Underfloor hearing - underlay for wooden floors & carpets

T

Treas

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Hi Folks,

This is my first time. . !! I have to do some research inot the best underlay for both semi-solid wooden floors & carpets with my main priority being the conduction of heat. I am at the latter stages of a self-build with geothermal/underfloor heating and know from the off-set that there are products available so now I just have to track them down. If anyone has any tips or advice for me I would very much appreciate it!

Many thaks in advance.

Treas
 
Hi, I am looking at same setup (mostly semi-solid, no carpet), but most advice I am getting is to stick timber flooring directly to screed. Special glue of course and very expensive I believe but if conduction of heat is the priority then underlay may not be an option. Of course there may be special stuff out there - I haven't looked for it myself.
 
Re: Underfloor heating - underlay for wooden floors & carpets

If you go to most flooring outlets they will have underlay to do underfloor heating for both wooden flooring and carpets. The underlay is different for both. I don't think sticking it directly to the concrete floor is a good option. Underlay lets it breath and provides a cusion so it's not as hard to walk on. Also one major outlet tried to sell me solid engineered flooring for underfloor heating saying that it's all that can be used. It cost over 50euro a sq yard!! I put laminate in the bedrooms and semi solid in the sitting room. No Problems. Carpet is not recommended but I think it should be O.K in small areas.
 
How are you getting over the fact that wood is not a good heat conductor? When you install underfloor heating, the floor becomes the "heater". Wood you embed your conventional radiators with solid wood and expect a good performance?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely all the efficiencies of UFH go out the window if you install it this way?
 
Thanks for all the comments - extopia it was the conductiveness of the underlay I was querying not the wood . . . . flooring can hamper the heat rise and I have made provision for this in the actual thickness of my screed. I have tiles in the house and chose to put wooden floors & carpets in some areas - this was factored in at design stage therefore not an issue. Aidomoss thanks for that - sounds very expensive - where abouts did you get it so I can look them up? Ennisjim are you finding the concensus seems to be lay them directly or have just a few people said that to you??
 
I have all three floor coverings - tile, solid wood 22mm glued and 14 mm engineered floating with very thin underlay.

There is no doubting that tile is the best way to go everywhere from a heat transfer point of view. However the glued solid heats up quite well and I had the u/floor heating supplier lay the pipes closer together and ran 2 circuits in this room to compensate. Upstairs I have the engineered and I have to bring the temperature of the screed to 40 C (30 C downstairs) to compensate. The heat will come through engineered floating floors but the response time is slower but then again the floor will stay warmer longer.

The best tip I got was making sure that the screed was insulated from the external walls.
 
'Ennisjim are you finding the concensus seems to be lay them directly or have just a few people said that to you??'
I'm just going on what some people have said they have done and also what I am reading on forum's like this. I can't imagine that I will be be going with underlay based on what I've been hearing (even though it would probably be more comfortable underfoot). However it would be good to get good figures for heating efficiency for non-underlay vs. underlay approaches - but I guess these would be hard to find.
 
Ted - how close did you get pipes laid ? I will be using a lot of semi-solid (same thing as engineered I think!) and I would be interested in your experience.
 
150 mm centres but not sure. Just told the UFH supplier my floorcovering and arranged to have them closer.
 
Hi Folks,

My friend is at the same stage in a similar construction to mine. He tried the Glue in one bedroom and the special cardboard underlay in another. The room with the glue was 2 degrees warmer that the one with the cardboard.

Can anyone help be vis-a-vis special underlay for carpets.

THanks a mil!!!
 
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