Amtico / Karndean with Underfloor Heating?

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We are planning on a renovation and extension project and plan to install water underfloor heating to our open plan lounge / kitchen (65m²). We realise that tiled flooring would work best with UFH but want something more comfortable and warmer also when the UFH is not being used. So we are considering Amtico / Karndean flooring. I know that the UFH temperature has to be limited to 27°.

I'm just not sure how well will the UFH work with LVT? Does it still give a good heating through it and doesn't damage the LVT long term? Is there much experience with this with combination?
 
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It’s fine but keep it under 27. You shouldn’t need to go over 23 I’d say anyway.
Make sure a good high temp adhesive is used by the fitter. I like using Uzin KE66 myself
 
It’s fine but keep it under 27. You shouldn’t need to go over 23 I’d say anyway.
Make sure a good high temp adhesive is used by the fitter. I like using Uzin KE66 myself

And get a good, reliable and trustworthy company to prepare, supply and install the floor, if they warn you of the pitfalls of acclimatisation, movement and occasional gapping, then they know there stuff. Make sure your confident that if there are any issues you have a comeback.
 
We are planning on a renovation and extension project and plan to install water underfloor heating to our open plan lounge / kitchen (65m²). We realise that tiled flooring would work best with UFH but want something more comfortable and warmer also when the UFH is not being used. So we are considering Amtico / Karndean flooring. I know that the UFH temperature has to be limited to 27°.

I'm just not sure how well will the UFH work with LVT? Does it still give a good heating through it and doesn't damage the LVT long term? Is there much experience with this with combination?

One additional quick note, be extremely careful of placing rugs over LVT on underfloor heating, I was witness to a colleague in the trade dealing with a well known department store group that had supplied and installed LVT and a rug for the floor in questions, suffice to say, the rug had encouraged the UFH to put out too much heat under the rug area, revealing a burnt, black area of LVT underneath. Whist the exact cause is still being discussed, its almost certainly an issue with the thermostat and temperature sensor in the UFH and the room. Either way, the floor is a right-off.
 
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Oh really! Is this a known problem with rugs over LVT and UFH or a freak one off? We were planning on having a rug over a small area. Could the rug burn if a rug was put over ceramic tiles and UFH?

I assume only the burnt area of LVT needed replacing?
 
What essentially had happened was the Rug was holding the heat in a confined space which resulted in the LVT scorching black under the rug area only. Obviously through the temperature exceeding the LVT specification in this limited area.

The reason for it over heating of course is the bit that’s debateable and when discussing with the colleague, I speculated that the UFH temperature sensor in the floor and the air temp sensor were not calibrated to each other or one or both wasn’t working or was abscent from the system for whatever reason.

Either way, the floor was over heating across its entirety to try and reach the temperature set on the thermostat sensor and/or the rug specification exceeded the parameters of the LVT over UFH.

Far less likely to have discolouration issues with stone or ceramic.

Replacement/repair of the floor was proposed but as is so often the case, the builder responsible for the UFH installation was struggling to provide the correct specs for the installation and where the sensors were etc etc etc.

So basically everyone was blaming each other and no one wanted to commit to replcement/repair unless they could guearantee it wouldn’t happen again.

When using rugs over any flooring, there’s always the risk of fading and discolouration of some description showing when the rug is lifted LVT is far more susceptible being a plastic/vinyl than ceramic.

This is an interesting thread on simple sunlight damage that can always happen but probably should have been discussed or researched more by the retailer/consumer https://theflooringforum.com/threads/harvey-maria-lvt-how-was-this-stained.17605/
 
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Thanks for the information, that's really helpful. We are having 5 roof lights in the area where the LVT will be and none will have blinds. Given the bleaching risk and rug issue I think it's probably better to go with ceramic tiles
 
Thanks for the information, that's really helpful. We are having 5 roof lights in the area where the LVT will be and none will have blinds. Given the bleaching risk and rug issue I think it's probably better to go with ceramic tiles

Good luck with your project!
 

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