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Radiant Heat and Hardwood Floors
Radiant heat is becoming the most popular form of heating for homes simple because instead of circulating heat with moving air through a room, radiant heating systems heat the floors, and as the heat rises, it warms the air within the room. The most popular for of radiant floor heating, is a system that uses electric cables or small tubes of hot water that are embedded in a concrete floor underneath a ceramic tiled floor. The heat passes through the floor, warming all objects in the room, including the ceiling. Many people are worried that because heat dries out wood, that they would not be able to enjoy the warmth of radiant heat or because the already had radiant heat would not be able to enjoy beautiful hardwood floors. You can use radiant heat with wood flooring. Two factors cause wood to expand and contract, the first is a change in temperature and the second is moisture. When introducing heat to any wood flooring, you make the attention to moisture that more critical. Gaps between the boards and cracks in the boards occur when the content in the wood is too low and the wood has dried out, on the other hand, cupping is the result of too much moisture. However, both of these problems could have been avoided had the wood had proper time to acclimate to the environment before being installed. When installing any type of wood flooring with a radiant heating system, you want to ensure that the system had be allowed to run for a minimal of 72 hours before placing the cartons of hardwood flooring in the room. Next, you want to open the flooring cartons up to allow the wood to acclimate to the condition in the room for 72 hours before installing. It is also important to understand that not all-wood flooring is recommended for radiant heat. The best types of flooring for radiant heat systems are engineered flooring and laminates because of their stability. In addition, floating floors, whether they are engineered or solid are also acceptable because they are designed to move as a unit to accommodate changes in moisture. When making a decision of installing hardwood flooring over a radiant heat system, consult the hardwood flooring and your radiant heat systems manufacturers guidelines for compatibility and instructions to guarantee that you have selected the correct wood flooring so that neither warranty will be voided.
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