Things to consider when choosing underfloor heating with wooden floors

Tips for choosing underfloor heating with wooden floors

• The room should have a relative humidity between 30 and 60% throughout all seasons of the year.

• The floor surface temperature must not exceed 27°C, and the relative humidity must be between 30 and 60%.

• When the floor has glued joints, the floor should be double-glued, i.e., glue is applied to the upper and lower entry of the groove, and then the tongue pulls the glue into the groove.

• The subfloor must be level. Max ± 2 mm height difference over a 2-meter measuring length.

• Always lay a moisture barrier between the underfloor heating and the wooden floor to prevent condensation on the underside of the floor.

Walk on a warm floor when the cold creeps in

A properly installed, functioning underfloor heating system provides a pleasant, invisible heat source and ensures an even temperature distribution in the room. Water-borne, controlled heating systems can be recommended. Self-regulating electric systems also work with wooden floors. The difficulty in regulating electric underfloor heating combined with the large differences in outdoor temperature (which this entails) (very rapid heating and shutdown of the system) can lead to cracks, veneer delamination, and similar damage in the wood.

Preparations

Ensure that the underfloor heating supplier guarantees the system's suitability for wooden floors. Also clarify if there are any limitations in the system that could lead to excessively high temperatures on the floor surface – and where the responsibility lies if this causes damage to the wooden floor. It is natural for wood to shrink and swell with varying temperatures and humidity. Floors with underfloor heating are more susceptible to moisture than floors without underfloor heating because the difference in moisture content between the driest and most humid states of the floor becomes greater.

Suitability of wooden floors for underfloor heating

You must carefully review the installation instructions that the floor supplier includes with each floor delivery. There, you can read that some wood species perform less well than others with underfloor heating. This applies to beech and maple. These shrink and swell more than other wood species, which can cause damage to the floor. Such damage is not considered a manufacturing defect and will not be accepted as a complaint. We therefore do not recommend beech and maple for underfloor heating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can underfloor heating be used under wooden floors?

• Yes, absolutely.

Can floors be laid directly on underfloor heating?

• Underfloor heating is ideal for parquet floors.

Can underfloor heating be used under parquet or laminate floors?

• There are no problems at all; it's fine to use, for example, underfloor heating mats with built-in heating coils.