13/14mm or 20mm engineered oak planks above wet UFH on new concrete for our Enerphiti'sh renovation?

[offthepiste]

Have read through all posts that I can find related to my question. However, not found anything that exactly helps my head scratching. Also, wonder if anyone has had more experience with their own situation. 

 

We are about to select engineered oak wood flooring – planks @200m width +/- 10-20 to be fitted on out ground floor above a newly laid concrete floor with wet UFH taking into account humidity etc. Concrete floor will be well insulated along with reasonably airtight and insulated house done as part of our Enerphit’ish renovations. UFH will operate at “low”, temperature, e.g. average equal or just below 27 degrees, as per wood supplier advice and to optimise the ASHP.

 

My dilemma is whether to go for 13/14mm or 20mm thick planks. The 13/14mm will only have top layer 3mm Oak and the 20mm will have 5mm. 

 

I will sort of feel safer with 5mm than 3mm in case of need to re-sand. However, there is just the two of us with no kids or animals and we are quite careful. Also, appreciate that 20mm will be more thermally insulating than 13/14mm but we plan to run heating almost 24/7. But 20mm costs more than13/14mm.

 

Also, probably have a couple of large oriental rugs in front & rear living rooms but assuming that this will be OK.

 

Any advice or experiences gratefully received, cheers to all.

[Conor]

You're over thinking it. Pick the board you like the look of, and set your thresholds accordingly. You'll likely never resand and treat the floor.

 

Make sure your screed/concrete is well dry and heating on before laying. 

[markc]

+1 never re sanded a floor yet, even when I had a farm and loads of people used to walk in and that was engineered and much softer than oak … and a fairly dark finish that would show up scratches if they were deep

[joe90]

I have engineered oak flooring with UFH ETC as wood is an insulator then I guess the thinner the better (can’t remember what mine was), mine has been down a few years and still looks new. Are you going to glue it? ( I can’t stand floating floors 🤯).

[JohnMo]

13/14 for me glued to concrete.  No issues so far.  Just follow the recommendation of the manufacturer.  UFH performs well.

 

You are unlikely to sand, our last house looked great after 10 years.

[offthepiste]

23 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I have engineered oak flooring with UFH ETC as wood is an insulator then I guess the thinner the better (can’t remember what mine was), mine has been down a few years and still looks new. Are you going to glue it? ( I can’t stand floating floors 🤯).

Hi @joe90 yes will be gluing down. Thank you

[offthepiste]

Thank you to all, 13/14 it is then, cheers

[Temp]

We went for 20mm engineered oak because its on battens rather than screed. Our rugby playing muddy twins have grown from 5 years old to 19 years old in this house. Only a few minor scratches. It's in our hall way, dining room and downstairs WC. The only place we have any actual wear is on the bottom step of our staircase as it gets used to help put shoes on. That might need recoating in a few years. I'm not really expecting to have to sand it anywhere. On our experience I reckon you can plan on recoating after 15+ years and perhaps resand some time after 30+ years?

 

I strongly recommend viewing samples in natural light at home. I picked up lots of samples at building shows. At the show they all looked good but back home some were very strange colours, nearly orange.