According to a study conducted by the georgia institute of technology school of textile engineering.
Floor type to go over heated floor.
Engineered timber is the best type of wood flooring to use with an underfloor heating system as it performs well with changes in floor temperature.
Carpet or rugs can go over a heated floor but they act as insulators and reduce heat flow to your feet and to the room as a whole.
But adding radiant heating under carpeting may be redundant.
Other wood floorings may also be used but with softer and less dense wood attention must be paid to the thickness of floorboards so that the floorboards do not act as an insulator blocking the heat.
If you choose electric heated flooring under hard flooring and plan to use an area rug consider installing the cables only under the flooring that won t be covered by the rug.
Types of electric heated floors.
Due to the excellent insulating properties of carpeting radiant heating systems will experience efficiency reduction and thus may require that the thermostat is turned up higher than it would be with hard flooring.
Older existing water type radiant floor heating systems need to be fully pressure tested properly maintained and set to a minimum of 64 f for at least 4 days before delivery acclimation or installation of the flooring begins.
And also you want to check with the manufacturer because installing some floor over a radiant heat system will void the warranty.
We wanted a wood floor and spent a lot of time talking to flooring experts.
Yes you can install just about any type of flooring over a radiant heat system but i would not recommend any type of vinyl flooring.