Cherry Mercier Over Quick Track Radiant Heat

ApgarNJ

hey guys,
the job i'm doing now, we installed about 2000 sq ft of mercier brand(canadian) 3 1/4" cherry flooring, prefinished, over Quicktrack brand radiant floor heating system. this is where their is 1/2" ply with alum backing on it, it comes in staggered sections and nailed down, 3/8 tubing put into the channels. we were able to nail down all of the flooring right over the 1/2 ply, but didn't use any kind of underlayment paper, like i have used in the past on applications where there was no tubing.
is this going to cause a problem down the road? we installed it in feburary, and it's now may, and it looks great. the heat was up and running for a few months, and now it's turned off. there is a central a/c system in the house now, and that hasn't been turned on yet. it will be once it gets hot enough.
what do you guys do when you encounter the exposed tubing in the quick tracks style heat? no way to put any paper down, because you'd surely hit a tube. it would take forever to mark all the tubing on the paper. we were constantly double checking ourselves to make sure there wasn't a return bend at the end of a row or an odd change of the tubing. we didn't hit any tubing at all, which was good. i'm just worried that without any paper under it, the floor may have some issues later on. at 8 bucks a sq ft just for the material, i hope it never has to come back up, on my dime.

any input guys?

Thanks
Dan

specwood

This summer humidity may make the wood swell and the radiant heat underneath will dry it out quickly in the winter. This rapid drying may cause problems.

ApgarNJ

i've read on a few sites where the aluminum backing of the quick trak system should act like a vapor barrier, helping things out, and not requiring a vapor barrier under the flooring directly. i expect these people not to be opening their windows that often during the summer months. the walls are all spray foam, so it's a pretty efficient house. just hoping that there aren't any problems down the road.

Donedat

Is there a standard sub-floor under the Quick Track? If there is, this is exterior rated combined with glue and nails and insulation, you should be ok. That said, it would be a good idea for the homeowners to install a dehumidifier that is set on an automatic setting with the humidity locked no higher than 50%.

Rule of thumb for me is that I never do a job like this period. Quartered wood only for radiant heat and no softwood like pine fir etc.

Oh, whenever the heat is turn on and off, it should be done gradually. And, you can check this out, but, I would never turn it totally off. Always maintain a certain warmth in the system.

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ApgarNJ

there is a 3/4 subfloor under the quicktrak. i think the a/c system will maintain the humidity levels quite well throughout the summer. i will talk to the homeowner about keeping the humidity steady year round

jgmillzy00

I dont really foresee any problems. I've done a floor at a friends house that we did every thing from laying the pex for radiant to putting the hard wood down. He used the poor method. We layed all the pex then we put sleepers down so you can nail the hard wood to them. Then we had a company come in and poor light weight gypsum concrete over the floor (wich is the better method because it radiates better) Then we brought unfinished quartersawen oak in and let it acclimate for a month(just to make sure) then we installed about 2200sq. We didnt use any resin paper anywhere. And so far after 4 full seasons of NewEngland weather there has not one sweak or bow anywhere. He has the foam isnulation everywhere and his basement is heated so that helps alot. I would not recommend any prefinished hard wood flooring over any radiant especially over a poor. I've seen one that someone else did and it is horrible is sweaks and its wavy. The best flooring for radiant is tile, quartersawn or that engineered floating stuff. Quartersawen expands horizontally rather than vertically. And Carpet is not so good for it either. In my opinion paper doesnt really do anything but im not a floor guy. I just know this because we did alot of research on it so we dont screw up 20k in wood.

maj

Dan, Do they have a HRV or some other type of air exchanger in the house? Since it is so tight with the icynene foam, the house MUST have a fresh air exchange.

Also, I am not a flooring contractor, but I thought the reason for the rosin paper was to eliminate the potential for squeaks. Does it really do anything as a vapor barrier?

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ApgarNJ

well. the old part of the house on the second floor and attic is just either blowin, in the walls, because we didnt' remodel that part, or fiberglass in the attic,. plus the roof of the addition i built, we did r-30 fiberglass, so that it can help breath a little. foam in the addition walls and the first floor walls of the main house, which were gutted to the studs.
i'm going to suggest that they get a dehumidifier for the basement area, to keep the boards from pushing or shrinking as much.

jgmillzy00

yes he has two e-z vents sucking in all fresh air, those are some massive units.