Reference installation
Radiant heat main floor
What does a correct hardwood installation over radiant heat look like, end to end?
Radiant assemblies impose a thermal cycle on top of the seasonal one. Product construction and method are both constrained, and neither is a preference.
Specification
The assembled specification
- Substrate
- Radiant heat assembly
- Product construction
- Engineered — required, for dimensional stability under thermal cycling
- Method
- Floating
- Acclimation
- Minimum 72 hours in the actual conditioned space
- Moisture testing
- Substrate and material, documented, twice
- Operating band
- 35–55% RH
- Dust containment
- HEPA throughout the process
Sequence
The sequence, start to finish
- Identify the radiant assembly explicitly before any product is proposed.
- Moisture-test substrate and material; document both readings.
- Acclimate a minimum of 72 hours in the actual conditioned space, with the system at normal operating temperature.
- Floating installation, with expansion gaps at every wall and fixed object.
- State the safe operating humidity band and who maintains it, in writing, at handover.
Failure modes
Where this goes wrong
- Solid hardwood over radiant is the specification error with the longest delay before it shows.
- A floor handed over without a stated operating range has no defensible warranty boundary in either direction.
- Thermal cycling compounds the seasonal RH swing rather than replacing it.
Answer
What we recommend
Engineered construction, floated, with the humidity operating band and the responsibility for maintaining it written into the handover.
Provenance
Where every claim on this page comes from
Framework pillars this bears on
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