ᐅ KFW55 house with underfloor heating... which type of flooring is best?

Hello everyone

My wife and I are planning to build a semi-detached house this year to the KfW55 energy standard, turnkey. Regarding the flooring, opinions seem to be quite divided. Since we will have underfloor heating, we keep hearing different advice about suitable floor coverings. Terms like thermal transmittance values, delayed heat transfer, and so on, are mentioned repeatedly. This is quite confusing for a layperson.

Our builder told us to choose tiles within a certain budget. Since we would like a wood-look floor and tiles are apparently the best option for heat conduction, the price would be well above our budget. Solid wood flooring would be great, but probably not cheap either (though we would be willing to pay more for real wood). We have often heard that wooden floors are definitely possible with underfloor heating but can be expensive. The same applies to parquet and laminate. Vinyl, however, seems to be a feasible alternative in terms of both cost and thermal conductivity.

So my question to all homeowners: How have you handled this? Tiles, solid wood planks, parquet, vinyl... what have you installed, and did you experience any positive or negative aspects?

We would really appreciate any advice that might make our decision easier.

Thank you very much,

Michael

Tiles on the floor below, carpet above.
We wanted to avoid using plastic flooring (vinyl, laminate) in the living area.

In passage areas and bathrooms, tiles; everywhere else, parquet directly glued onto the screed... don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Tiles are good at emitting heat but also become cold underfoot faster than parquet.

Vinyl flooring really only belongs in commercial buildings... even though it is currently being marketed as "designer flooring"... PVC remains PVC.

We installed tiles in the hallway, kitchen, and bathrooms. Everywhere else we used glued cork flooring. It is wonderful to walk on (warm in winter, comfortable in summer – not as cold as the tiles) and great for children to play on.

We have tiles in the bathrooms, kitchen, and hallway. In the other rooms, we have laminate flooring.

Vinyl flooring or designer floors may sound appealing, but they don’t look nearly as good as in the glossy photos. You can tell it’s plastic flooring.

No one has noticed that our laminate is laminate so far. However, it’s important to choose high-quality laminate (over 25 € / m² (over 2.32 $ / ft²)).

Wood flooring with a similar appearance would have cost four times as much.

We have tiles in the kitchen, bathroom, and hallway. In all other rooms, we use vinyl. It is warm underfoot (even when the heating is off), has good heat transfer, and is durable. I would prioritize it over parquet/laminate flooring when using underfloor heating.