Of course you can! – In today’s modern world you can have pretty much anything and that’s no exception with wooden and laminate flooring already a firm favorite in most UK homes.
The best type of flooring to go for is something called “Engineered” wood, this is a made base (a bit like ply wood) with a natural wooden veneer to the surface, these types of floors can usually stand a good sanding or two over the years.
The main reason that this type of flooring is really good with underfloor heating is the fact it is man made product and very stable, unlike solid wooden planks such as Oak which is a living product and has a tendency to expand and contract as the moisture levels go up and down.
Laminate flooring is also a good product to use over underfloor heating, this too being man made has very little expansion or contraction in it and is not normally affected by moisture to the same degree as natural wood.
One of the best underfloor heating systems to use with wood & laminate flooring is what we call the “Carbon Heating Film” the best way to describe this product is it’s a very thin double plastic laminated film (similar to photo negative film).
The Carbon system is a dry installation which means no screeds or adhesives are needed, all you do to install this product is cover the sub-floor in 6mm or 12mm Depron depending on room type, tape all the joints together, then lay the heating film on top, run the cold tails (connection wires) to the junction box, cover the system with a moisture barrier (polythene sheet) and then test the heating film and lay your floor.
All of the above parts come as a complete kit and is controlled via a floor sensing digital thermostat to give you optimal control. Most flooring manufacturers don’t recommend you exceed 27dC and this certainly won’t happen if you programme the thermostat correctly.
