Floor Coverings for Underfloor Heating

Almost everybody asks about floor coverings at some point, hence the link on the FAQ page. All of the photographs on this page are of our own home. We wanted to be able to demonstrate that it is possible to have any floor covering with underfloor heating, so when the developer asked us what we wanted, we chose a few different things. Our local clients often visit the house to experience the system, view things like the plumbing arrangement, and discuss they projects, so we thought it would be good for them to feel how good the heating is, no matter what the floor covering.

Stone or Tiles

Travertine tiles directly applied to the surface of the concrete. We have these in more than half of our ground floor and our bathrooms, which are 'wet' rooms. We say that going into the bathroom is like stepping onto a warm beach. There's no doubt that you would get the most direct experience of underfloor heating on the soles of your feet from a stone or tiled floor. We also installed towel rails in the bathrooms, because unlike some of our European neighbours we prefer to dry our towels on a rail, rather than on the floor!

A flexible adhesive must be used, and the manufacturer's guidelines must be followed.

Please see the important note below regarding preparation for laying any flooring.

Carpet

Yes you can have carpet with underfloor heating! Don't listen to anyone who says you can't. While we know white carpet isn't the most practical, it's gorgeous and it's not like we've got a herd of water buffalo running around the house. We've no idea what the tog rating of this carpet is, but it works, and it feels lovely. We usually say to our clients that anything but heavy duty hotel quality carpet will be fine. Ours has a light to medium-weight underlay beneath. What you have to remember is that carpets were originally used not just for comfort, but to insulate one's feet from the cold floor beneath. With underfloor heating there are no cold floors! Personally we wouldn't have chosen carpet for any of the rooms, but we thought that we should do so as a demonstration that it works, and we're glad that we did. Besides, our parents like it when they visit.

With regard to loose carpets, if you intend to put thick carpets or loose rugs on a hardwood floor, please reconsider. The carpet will hold the heat in the floor and may cause damage to your wood. It will certainly prevent most of the heat from warming the room.

Note on heat pumps: We do not recommend the use of carpets with heat pumps.

Please see the important note below regarding preparation for laying any flooring.

Hardwood

This is 16mm engineered hardwood from a company called Atkinson & Kirby. It is glued directly to the surface of the concrete using a flexible adhesive. You can have natural hardwood rather than engineered, if you wish, but the surface temperature will need to be limited, thus preventing damage to the wood once the heating comes on. This is normally achieved by fitting a floor sensor. Before laying a wood floor the concrete must be thoroughly dried out and there is a simple procedure for checking this.

There are various ways to lay hardwood. In every instance you should follow the manufacturer's guidelines. Some woods require a nail fixing, and for this it would be necessary to incorporate battens into a concrete screed to facilitate this, or fix directly into the joists, depending on the floor construction. Most hardwoods are either glued or floated. If floating, the wood is attached to itself, or glued to itself via its tongue and groove, and sits loosely onto a proprietary hardwood underlay. This allows the entire floor to be detached from the heated floor mass, enabling freedom of expansion and contraction. If gluing, a flexible adhesive must be used, and the manufacturer's guidelines must be followed.

Some of our clients have laid carpet on top of their wood floors. You should be aware that you will restrict the output of the floor by doing this, and it could damage the wood.

Please see the important note below regarding preparation for laying any flooring.

Vinyl

We chose Karndean for most of the bedrooms. This works very well with the underfloor heating. Plywood is fixed on top of the chipboard flooring to provide a sound surface and then the Karndean is glued to the plywood. You must be careful to limit the combined thicknesses of flooring to a maximum of around 25mm, so you could miss out the chipboard layer altogether. Increasing the thickness of floor layers will reduce the output from the floor.

A flexible adhesive must be used, and the manufacturer's guidelines must be followed.

Please see the important note below regarding preparation for laying any flooring.

BEFORE LAYING FLOORING
IMPORTANT NOTE

It is vital that you ensure that the floors are properly dried out before laying any flooring. Concrete takes 1mm/day to dry out properly under ambient conditions, but you can run the heating system gently in the background to aid the process.

There is a simple test you can do to check whether or not the floor is properly dry before laying flooring. Spread a sheet of plastic over the floor and leave it overnight with the heating running. If there is condensation under the plastic when you check it the next day, the floor is not dry. Repeat the process as necessary until the floors are completely dry before starting to lay any floor coverings.