Pros And Cons Of Wooden Floors

[EcclesCake]

We are considering laying wood flooring throughout the house and having underfloor heating so that radiators can be dispensed with.

What are the pros and cons in your experience?

[pixie373]

My friend was thinking of the same, but was strongly advised not to use underfloor hearing with wood, as it warps it over the years.

[jomifl]

I installed underfloor heating in couple of rooms and laid hardwood strip flooring over it. I laid it in the summer so that when the heating was on in the winter the wood dried and contracted slightly so that the joints opened a little, in the summer they closed up. Some people make the mistake of drying the wood too much then installing ot with tight joints. without underfloor heating in the winter the wood expands and the floor buckles. It is now possible to get flooring consisting off strip planking glued to plywood, this is very stable and probably the best solution. Underfloor heating is wonderful, the all over heating is very gentle and convection draughts are much reduced. We could keep our room 2C lower than before with the same degree of comfort.

[Inquisition3000]

Underfloor heating is probably not the best idea according to my friends' testimonials, but I did that in my house. My hardwood has been around for 3 years now and I don't have any problems though. Probably, that's the point of the quality of installation. Make sure you hire a skilled professional to install hardwood floor or be very accurate if you do it yourself and use the right guidelines
http://www.askwiki.net/How-to-Install-Hardwood-Floors
This one looks comprehensible

Check some videos for better idea and enjoy your flooring:)

[Octavius]

For me it can sometimes make a house feel "hollow" and there is often a lot of clonking about on squeaky floorboards.

[gingejbee]

I know it's a personal (and fashion!) thing, but I hate wooden/laminate flooring in a house. It doesn't look "homely" to me and makes me think of doctors/dentists/hospital waiting-rooms.

[craft1948]

I have wooden flooring throughout my bungalow, so no carpets anywhere, and indeed no curtains either. Considering what my dog gets up to it's the easiest solution............

[ummmm]

So much easier to keep clean.

If I had my own way I wouldn't have any carpets in my house.

[Old_Geezer]

Not a lot of experience but I suppoose a pro is it must be easier to clean than carpets. But I'm unsure I'd want it throughout. May be a limited pro if you put rugs over the top though.

I've been told that if you put your (shopping ?) bag down on a floor with underfloor heating you may find you have melted your chocolate.

[tonyav]

My Mrs loves ours, as ummmm says easy to keep clean.

[EcclesCake]

Thanks guys. The whole installation will be professionally done and will probably be done in the summer so that will address much of the buckling issues.

I intend to lay large rugs to give some sound insulation and soften the dentist waiting room look.

I'm hoping for a more gentle form of heating as jomifl has reported he has experienced.

Keeping it clean istheleast of my worries, I anticipate dust bunny farms in every corner :-)

[diddlydo]

Cons of wooden floors: (1) Not remotely cosy (2) Very uncomfortable to sit/lie on (3) They're always dusty/fluffy unless you're a houseworkaholic.

Cons of underfloor heating (1) You can't snuggle up by a radiator (2) Pretty silly having to put wet washing on the floor to dry it rather than on a radiator.

My advice - don't do either!

[jno]

easy to keep clean/has to be kept clean as dirt shows. Carpets are more forgiving and squeak less.

[EcclesCake]

Diddly, I don't do any of that anyway so it won't be a problem.

JNO, the squeaking is dependent on the sub-strata. We have no problem in parts of the house that have already been laid with wood. And as I've said cleaning will not be at the forefront of my mind......

[giveup]

Re drying the washing. We had underfloor heating in one house and it was lovely and warm. I used to put washing on an airer in the kitchen overnight and it was dry by the next morning.

[ummmm]

I do that, giveup, dries really quick.

I can only think of pros for wood flooring.

[Smowball]

I have a combination of both. Upside - easy to clean.Downside - bloody dangerous when wet, can also make room feel v cold in winter hence we got a big rug in lounge.

[The Builder]

Eccles, what kind of floor do you have in your house?

Solid concrete with sand & cement screed?
Concrete with timber overlaid?
Suspended timber floor with void underneath?

[EcclesCake]

Solid downstairs and suspended timber upstairs. They will both be having the same wet system installed, if we go ahead.

[Barmaid]

You will be utterly shocked at the amount of muck your floors accumulate. We have engineered oak on all our downstairs floors now (apart from kitchen). 2 minutes after I have vacuumed (I killed the swifter after about 2 weeks), there is fluff and dust everywhere. However, once it is clean it does feel really clean.

The other thing you have to take into account is maintenance, we oil ours about once every 6 weeks (well, when I say "we", I mean "HE")!!!

[The Builder]

I'm a great fan of UFH, but it must be designed, installed and controlled properly.
The bad news is .......... although solid floors give the best results (also cheaper than fitting over a suspended floor), best results are from excavating your whole ground floor to a depth of around a foot (300mm).

The reason being, insulation is essential. Heat losses under the system will be huge, and very wasteful without insulation.

Assuming a solid bed... there would be ...
100mm of concrete
50-100mm of "board" insulation (50 minimum, 100 is best)
Then plastic pipework laid over this.
Then a sand & cement screed (50mm) over this (surrounding the pipework)

Solid hardwood flooring is then glued over all.

The screed ensures an even spread of heat. Although I appreciate Jomofil's concerns over timber warping......... this should never happen with good flooring timber and a properly controlled system

Unlike rads, the floor should NOT be overly warm to the touch. The heating principle is quite different from rads. The system temperature is much lower than that used in radiators.