UFH & Laminate floors

We plan to have UFH on both floors of new build and thus we are limited to using laminate flooring esp upstairs as we went with precast floors here.
At the weekend i noticed on certain packs of laminate flooring that its compatible with UFH, but i thought this was the case with all laminate and is this just a sales gimmick...it was the same with the foam underlay, one was white with no reference to UFH compatibility and the other was a pink foam which was compatible with UFH.

Anyone with experience with UFH and what floor types they uses would be great as tiles are not an option for upstairs/living room/sitting room where we would like to use laminate or wood.

Cheers

I've just completed a new build with UFH and I put down laminate floor in 3 of the bedrooms and semi solid in the living room. All the packaging said that they were compatible with UFH. As for the underlay I used a cork based underlay which was suggested to me by the hardware store where I bought the floors. Just make sure you leave the wood in the rooms to acclimatise for a few days before you lay it.

whyno said:

As for the underlay I used a cork based underlay which was suggested to me by the hardware store where I bought the floors. Just make sure you leave the wood in the rooms to acclimatise for a few days before you lay it.

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Do you have the name for this underlay and what it cost...how does it work with the UFH?

I can't recall the name of the underlay or the exact price but it was not overly expensive - around 20euro for a roll which would cover a standard size room. I got it in Joyces Hardware store in Headford, Galway. It works with the UFH because it is a porous material.

I have UFH under laminate for 10+ years......the white, thin stuff (can't remember the name)

In the new house, there's semi-solid, and they used a different underlay for both laminates and semi - it was sold to me as specifically suitable for UFH..........got it in Curley's Furniture, Craughwell Co Galway. Brown, layered material...........

We used laminate all over our ufh house, upstairs and downstairs and were sorry we didn't go for semi-solid or solid as the laminate swells and buckles allot leaving air gaps between the concrete floor and the laminate. An air gap is a very good insulator unfortunately!!

We bought the best textured laminate they had in homebase so it wasn't cheap. All laminates are the same, crap in my opinion. I now know plenty of people (wish i knew them 3 years ago) who put solid flooring on ufh and it's fine as long as it's floating and preferably glued as this ensures contact between the timber and concrete floor. Boy is that glue expensive though! Other alternative is to get those concrete floors completely level using floor levelling compound and lay thin underlay. The thinner the solid flooring the better. Junkers solid timer flooring is sold as specially designed for ufh but my parents put it down on a non ufh floor and hair line cracks started showing up all over it, so it was a disaster, they were given some compensation when the rep. saw it, he said it was a bad batch, yea right!!

Good Luck !

I'm confused as is it not supposed to be the other way round in that laminate by its nature doesn't warp or buckle and its the solid wood that is not suitable for UFH?

johnnyg said:

I'm confused as is it not supposed to be the other way round in that laminate by its nature doesn't warp or buckle and its the solid wood that is not suitable for UFH?

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+1 on that.

As mentioned, my laminate (cheap stuff, tbh) is down 10+ years and has never moved), so I had no hesitation using it in our new house. In new house, though, I was warned about conditioning the semi-solid first, which I did, and 12 mths later, no issues.

Solid, though, you can't use, afaik.

laminate is clicked or wedged together and is one piece throughout the whole room and can only expand and contract under the skirting where a big enough gap is left you hope.

solid flooring is usually put down with gaps left after every 2 or 3 boards or strips, so it has more room for expansion and contraction.

my most problematic areas with the laminat was around door opening as the laminate continued into another room without any gaps (which look unsightly)

if somone can prove to me laminate does not expand and contract i'll eat my hat ! All timber (especially compressed pulp) expands and contracts, believe me, i learned the hard way )

bmm said:

if somone can prove to me laminate does not expand and contract i'll eat my hat ! All timber (especially compressed pulp) expands and contracts, believe me, i learned the hard way )

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aaah, but there you go, you see........laminate isn't made of wood !!

As for door issues, I see what you mean - but - did they not put the floor under the frames, rather than cut the floor around the (convolute) shape of the frame ?? Tbh, that's the way all timber floors should be done.

oooh, er, have you door saddles ?