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Timber flooring for underfloor heating
Solid wood flooring is appropriate for under floor heating with the following conditions and guidelines; although our top quality 20mm thick engineered boards would be more stable. With engineered boards you have less worry about movement and moisture, as our boards are manufactured to a exceptionally high specification.
- Maximum width of 150mm solid wood flooring on a cement based sub-floor. Maximum width 160 mm solid woods flooring on ply or flooring grade chipboard sub-floor of 20mm depth.
- If a wider plank is desired use Engineered Oak boards, these can be used up to 220mm wide, the same installation and acclimatisation recommendations apply although engineered boards are less prone to moisture affecting their movement.
- Recommended moisture content of the wood flooring is 8-10%. Ours is 8.5%.
- Underfloor heating type: Warm water piped system embedded into cement screed sub-floor or any other underfloor heating system encapsulated beneath ply or flooring grade chipboard. With our engineered boards you do not need a plywood base.
- Cement based floors should be sealed with an appropriate 2-part resin membrane. If ply or flooring grade chipboard then a sealer would not be required. * Flooring should be fully stuck down using a recommended elasticised PU adhesive such as Bona R850 which is what we normally recommend
- If you are installing a pre-finished solid wood floor as a floating system it should be laid over a recommended low-tog underlay such as Duralay Heatflow.
Installation Guide
- After the underfloor heating has been commissioned the heating must run for a minimum of 21 days to accelerate the evaporation of moisture in the screed. Ensure that the sub-floor is porous and patching or levelling of floor is complete prior to installation. The heating should still be run with other sub-floor compositions such as ply or chipboard.
- Recommended acclimatisation period for the wood flooring is 14 days. The flooring should be stacked in piles of 10-15m2 or have bearers inserted between packs of flooring to allow for air circulation at ambient room temperature.
- Prior to installation moisture and humidity readings should be taken from the area to be fitted. The relative humidity should be between 45 and 60%. The moisture content of the sub-floor should ideally be below 5% you should then apply Bona R410 which will seal the concrete.
- Underfloor heating should be turned off for a minimum of 2 days before installation begins.
- Important: The underfloor heating must remain off for a further 2 days AFTER installation is complete. The heating should then be built up in stages from low level to room temperature over a period of 10 to 14 days. The sanding and finishing should be carried out approximately 3 days after the heating has been turned back on.
