The key to installing wood floors over radiant heat is to give extra care to wood species, wood width and thickness, moisture levels, installation practices, the heat output requirements of your system, and radiant heating control.
Board Width
Install narrow board widths, preferably 3 inches or less. Avoid boards wider than 4 inches. Narrow boards provide more gaps for expansion and contraction across a floor; therefore, gaps resulting from natural movement are much less noticeable. The maximum recommended board depth is 3/4 inch. Thicker boards add too much resistance to heat transfer.
Dimensional Stability
Use quarter sawn wood. It is significantly more dimensionally stable than wood that is plain sawn. Pick a wood that’s known for its dimensional stability. American cherry, ash, most softwoods, and teak fill this bill, and oak is reasonably stable. By contrast, hickory, maple, madrone, and American beech are known to be less stable.
Age & Drying in Tropical Woods
If you are importing tropical or exotic woods, pay close attention to the source, age and how the wood has been dried. Tropical wood needs to dry slowly. Quick drying creates stresses that can affect the wood later as it expands and contracts. If your supplier has stored the wood in your region with no problems for one to two years, surprise stress-related problems are much less likely. Though it can be fun to be unique, avoid pioneering the use of a wood where there is little information on its dimensional stability.
Moisture
Wood naturally expands and contracts in response to changes in moisture. With this in mind, avoid installing wood flooring during stages like sheetrocking or painting, when significant moisture may be introduced into a structure. Operate the heating system until the humidity in the structure stabilizes to the average level expected for the area in which the wood floor will be installed. Then, allow the wood to acclimatize to this humidity level by “sticking” (usually several weeks) before installation. This will minimize dimensional changes due to moisture. Make sure the wood is dry since radiant heat itself can be drying. Experienced flooring installers recommend buying wood for radiant at around 6 to 8 percent moisture content. This figure may change somewhat regionally. Use a moisture meter during the construction process, and then use the average of many readings. Remember, the average expected humidity level of a structure is an average of seasonal conditions. So, if the structure is expected to average 30 percent humidity in the winter and 50 percent in the summer, the average would be 40 percent. This equates to about a 7.5 percent moisture content in the wood. Most installers consider this average the ideal moisture level at which to install wood flooring. These numbers can vary significantly by region.
Surface Temperature
The maximum surface temperature of a wood floor should be limited to 85°F. Use a control strategy that ensures this will not be exceeded. Use an indoor or outdoor reset control that brings the floors to temperature gradually.
