Can wooden floors be used with underfloor heating systems? Check out this guide and learn all you need to know

What You Need to Know About Wooden Floors and Underfloor Heating

Wood has been a popular choice for floors for centuries, and it remains one of the most widely used and desired materials. It can offer us a range of incredible benefits, and it looks absolutely fantastic.

However, wood is a natural material, which means there are a number of things you need to think about when using it in place of a synthetic material. Wood can be sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, such as heat or humidity. If you have underfloor heating, you will need to take some things into consideration before installing wooden floors. Read on to find out more.

Can Wooden Floors be used with Underfloor Heating?

The short answer is yes, wooden floors can be used with underfloor heating. While wood is a natural material that is sensitive to environmental and atmospheric changes, that doesn’t mean to say that it can’t be used in combination with an underfloor heating system.

In fact, there can be some benefits to using wooden floors with underfloor heating. Let’s find out more.

Heat Retention

There is a widely held misconception that wooden floors make a house cold. Wood is reactive to its environment; in a cold room it will feel cold and in a warm room it will feel warm.

Heat retention is one of wood’s biggest benefits. It can absorb the warmth from your underfloor heating system and hold it for a long time. This can make your floor feel toasty warm underfoot, perfect for those crisp winter mornings.

Wood is also a conductor of heat, rather than just an insulator. This means it will both store and distribute heat, which can effectively heat up your whole house and see you have to use your heating system less, saving you money.

Things to Think About

While using wood floors with an underfloor heating system can be beneficial, there are risks that you need to be aware of. Heat can cause wood to expand and distort, which could cause damage to your floor.

To prevent this from happening, you need to strictly control the temperature and remain vigilant by watching out for any signs of distortion. Beforehand, ensure your heating system specs are suited to your floor, and make sure your floor is properly installed.

What Type of Wood is Best?

When it comes to combining wooden floors with underfloor heating systems, the general consensus is that engineered wood floors, such as those found at Wood Floor Warehouse (woodfloorwarehouse.co.uk), are best.

This is because of the way in which engineered wood floorboards are constructed. They use a real wood top decorative layer, but the middle and bottom supporting layers are made of different materials. This makes the flooring incredibly strong and more resistant to temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Conclusion

If you have underfloor heating, you may believe that that means you can’t also have wooden floors. That couldn’t be further from the truth, wooden floors work perfectly with underfloor heating and can actually offer a lot of benefits. However, there are a few things you need to think about, so proceed carefully to ensure you do things right.