ᐅ Which type of flooring is best for the ground floor – experiences?

One thing is clear: The warmer a floor feels to bare feet when unheated, the poorer it conducts heat (which is why it feels warm) and therefore the less suitable it is for underfloor heating.

I know cork from my parents, who don’t have underfloor heating, and it is comfortable in the bedroom. And yes, it is more delicate than wood. I had extreme wear under my desk chair in my teenage room.

Cork is one of the few floor coverings where even manufacturers say it is not suitable for underfloor heating. There may be exceptions. Your heating engineer is not wrong.

In practice, the effect depends on the thickness, manufacturer, and insulation value. It will work somehow, but it would have been better to install underfloor heating on the walls or ceiling instead.

What will happen: the heating flow temperature needs to be higher than usual to warm the cork-covered rooms. All other rooms will have to be throttled because otherwise they become too warm. This increases pump energy consumption and reduces heating system efficiency, especially if a heat pump is installed, which would be unfavorable. Living rooms (due to sunlight and usage) and bedrooms often have a slightly lower heating demand, which might compensate for this somewhat. With a gas heating system, you might take the risk if you are attached to cork, but with a heat pump, I would strongly advise against cork.

Vinyl is warm to the touch and, when glued down, performs almost as well as tiles for underfloor heating. Even with floating installation of a highly conductive covering (no wood content), I observe higher return temperatures.

The ongoing additional heating costs are difficult to quantify. Worst case, probably no more than 25%.

Altai schrieb:

It is loud, hard, and extremely cold underfoot.

But surely not more than wood? Neither regarding hardness nor coldness underfoot. Maybe a short-pile, low-maintenance carpet would be ideal for the bedroom after all?

boxandroof schrieb:

Vinyl feels warm underfoot

I don’t agree at all. In our current apartment, we have laminate in the living room and vinyl in the hallway, and we find the hallway cooler.

chand1986 schrieb:

But not more than wood? Neither in terms of hardness nor coldness underfoot. Maybe a short-pile, low-maintenance carpet would be ideal for the bedroom after all?

The topic is closed. See the house photo thread. We debated back and forth until about three weeks ago. The construction coordinator suggested mixing materials (to save the budget and because it feels better in the "living room"), while the parquet installer advised against mixing tiles and laminate (with transition strips, it just looks awkward). Since our budget is well sufficient, we decided to go with tiles.

We will now mix 20x120cm (8x48 inches) and 30x120cm (12x48 inches) tiles on the floor throughout the house (random pattern). The bedrooms will have high-quality, abrasion-resistant laminate purchased from a specialty retailer and installed by the parquet installer. We are having it professionally installed because the price is very good and because my construction coordinator had to assist too much with private installation on another site to ensure the vinyl was installed correctly.

In our case, the vinyl is significantly warmer than the tiles. Laminate is "considered" cold, but I no longer have any and thus no direct comparison. It probably depends, as always.