Wide plank floors installed over radiant heat is a great option if you’d like to make your home more energy efficient as well as comfortable and cozy! A radiant floor heating system heats your home from underneath your flooring. By heating your home with radiant heat, you can rest easy knowing you are being eco-friendly since radiant heat uses less energy than forced air systems, not to mention the incredible coziness factor of warmth underfoot!
Read on to learn more about having radiant heat installed under your wide plank floors.
What is radiant heat and how does it work?
A radiant floor heating system is installed underneath the subfloor. A good way to understand how this works is that it essentially utilizes the same type of radiant heat that makes your oven heat up your entire kitchen while you’re cooking.
The heat is generated from either electric heating coils or from tubes filled with water which can be warmed up using a variety of different heating mechanisms such as an oil or gas-filled boiler or a solar water heating system.
This network heats up everything in its path using the generated radiant heat, thus warming up the areas in your home where the system is installed, all from underneath your floors.
Today, with rising energy costs and increasing concern for the environment, many homeowners are choosing this technology because it provides faster, more efficient home comfort while reducing energy bills. In fact, installing a radiant heat system can lower the amount that a homeowner spends on heating by as much as 50 percent compared to a standard forced air system.
Another benefit of this is that you can choose the rooms in which you want to install a radiant floor heating system––this can help you save on install costs by only installing the system in one or two rooms in your home.
How to install radiant heating underneath wide plank floors
First of all, we highly recommend hiring an experienced wood floor contractor to install floors over your radiant floor heating system. This can be a complex process, and a contractor will know how to navigate the challenges better than a DIY-er. If you need recommendations for an experienced wood floor contractor in your area, contact us at (877) 697-5265.
While radiant floor heating systems are easiest to install in new construction homes, they can be retrofitted for existing homes as well. However, your flooring will need to be taken up before you put down the heating system and it will need to be replaced afterwards. So why not replace it with trendy wide plank floors?
We highly recommend that you put engineered wide plank floors over radiant heat. This is recommended in order to prevent the wood floors from forming gaps in response to the heat produced by the radiant heating system. Wide plank floors over radiant heat is a great option because it helps your home look more elegant and modern.
Having wide plank floors over radiant heat offers a lot of wonderful benefits for your home. One of these benefits is that your home can remain completely silent as it heats! While other heating systems make irritating noises to let you know they are working, this radiant heating system offers silence so you can stay relaxed and warm day and night.
The comfort factor is also a big reason why homeowners choose this heating method––imagine your floors always being warm underfoot! On a cold winter day, there’s simply nothing like it.
This heating system is also safe for allergies as well since it is installed beneath the floor! Many times, dust and pollen is spread around the house through forced air systems, which can aggravate any allergies you may have.
But not everything is perfect! There are a few cons to installing and having wide plank floors over radiant heat, like how it can be expensive to install. Keep in mind that if you are retrofitting your home with this system, you will also need to have your floors replaced after the radiant heat installation.
However, although the upfront cost is higher, a radiant floor heating system will last much longer and be provide more efficient and affordable heating throughout its life.
While there are a few cons, the benefits of having wide plank floors over radiant heat outweighs them by a landslide! So now the question is: are wide plank floors over radiant heat the right choice for you? Call us at 877-697-5265 or email info@wideplankfloorsupply.com to speak with a wide plank expert and get some input.