ᐅ Floating solid hardwood flooring installation—any experiences?

superzapp schrieb:

I’m also very interested, since I’m still looking for a suitable solution for my new build. I also prefer solid wood planks installed as a floating floor. But I’m getting a heat pump with passive cooling, and I’m still wondering how to achieve this without additional cooling panels (under the ceiling)?

We also had a heat pump with cooling function installed; we’ll see how well the cooling works.
Regarding the price, I’ll provide feedback once I have the invoice here. I need to add up several jobs, since the floor installer laid the plates here, not the plumbing contractor. Of course, the plumber also had to prepare the substructure for the planks.

Thank you for the initial information. I am very interested in more detailed pictures of the exact floor construction and, of course, whether you are satisfied with the floor once it is finished.

I’ll check which detailed photos I still have. Details of the construction:

The subfloor for the floorboards is made from theater battens. Since the overall height was important, we built it as low as possible. These battens are very straight and dimensionally stable, which allows for quick leveling. To ensure the heating panels fit tightly against the floorboards, a fill material was placed between the joists. We used Cemwood CW 020, a wood chip fill. This was leveled off on the joists that were in contact with water. Then the heating panels were installed. The heating pipe is a 16x2mm (5/8 x 1/16 inch) aluminum composite pipe, which provides good flow. Many low-profile systems only use 14mm (9/16 inch) pipes.

I chose this system for the reasons mentioned above, especially because our raw concrete floor was uneven. Using the joists, we could create a flat surface without having to smooth everything out with leveling compound beforehand.

In new constructions, where the concrete floor is sufficiently smooth, it’s also worth considering the Lithotherm system. It is well-developed and basically follows the same principle. The advantages are probably the somewhat better impact sound insulation and the joists integrated directly into the system.

I spent quite some time researching most dry underfloor heating systems for floorboards. Ripal offers a completely different approach, although I preferred the other systems more.

May I join the conversation with a (possibly simple) question? I’m following the discussion with interest, but I haven’t fully understood what exactly needs to be considered when installing floating floors over underfloor heating. In my case, the screed is poured with underfloor heating embedded. The total build-up height is calculated at 17mm (0.7 inches) (tiles are already installed). Unfortunately, I only recently learned that floating installation is also possible over underfloor heating. Is this feasible with solid hardwood planks? Are they available in thicknesses of 14–15mm (0.55–0.6 inches)? Then I would still have to add 3mm (0.12 inches) of corrugated cardboard underlay. I would really like a floating installation of solid hardwood flooring (without layers or glue in between), but I am already constrained by the conditions of the underfloor heating in the screed and the build-up height of 17mm (0.7 inches).

For a purely floating installation, I don’t think any solid wood plank manufacturer would approve it. Nailing or stapling would be an alternative, but not with 15mm (0.6 inch) thick planks. For 15mm (0.6 inch) thickness, I would rather go with a 3-layer engineered wood floor (which, by the way, can also be made entirely from the same wood species, so both the core and the top layer are the same wood). Elastic installation could be another option, but if the screed is already in place and planks are desired, I would recommend gluing them.

The requirements: no glue (so no engineered wood – floating) and no adhesive (so no planks) cannot, in my opinion, be combined with the existing floor structure when installing a wooden floor.

Thank you, @HarvSpec! That’s a good summary. I can understand it even as a layperson. So, I would probably choose the option “floating, but still multi-layer parquet (what is the correct term for this??)” after all.

Now I need to check if that also fits within the 17mm (0.67 inch) thickness. But theoretically, it should work if the same multi-layer parquet was planned for glued installation.