Can underfloor heating go under laminate flooring?

Why laminate is the easy one

One of the problems homeowners run into is that they are told which heating system they need before anybody asks what flooring they want. The floor covering should be one of the first things discussed, because laminate, engineered wood and LVT are not installed in exactly the same way.

Laminate is normally fitted as a floating floor, which means it is not glued or fixed down to the subfloor. That makes it the most straightforward of the three.

Our insulation goes over the prepared subfloor. It is 6mm Therm-All, which is acoustic, thermal and a 1000-gauge DPM in one. The Ribbon at 1.8mm is rolled out and secured over the top of it, and the laminate floats over that.

There is no screed. There is no self-levelling compound. There is no overboard. And there is no wet layer that has to dry before the flooring can be fitted.

What the finished build-up comes to

Temperature, and what the boards have to be rated for

With most underfloor heating you have to check that the flooring is approved for it, because cable and water systems run hot enough to damage a board.

The Ribbon operates at 27 to 28°C, averaging about 27°C, and the floor surface ends up at 24 to 25°C once the heat has passed up through the floor finish. No floor surface should exceed 27 to 28°C, so the Ribbon is already inside the limit rather than needing a layer of screed to cool it down.

Glue the laminate joints with glue the joints with a D3 or PVA waterproof adhesive. Leave the expansion gap the board manufacturer specifies, and if the laminate comes with its own integral underlay, do not add another layer on top of it.

Can it be the room's main heating?

The Ribbon runs at 150W per m². When at least 70% of the floor area is covered, and the room and flooring are suitable, it is designed as the primary heating for that room rather than a warm surface.

80% or more is better again. Below 70% it is a supplementary heat source, and we spec an infrared panel to make up the gap

That is the difference between a system installed to take the cold feeling off a floor and one using the available floor as a broad heat source that warms the room above it.

What goes wrong under laminate

None of these are laminate's fault. They are all avoidable.

• An integral-underlay board with a second underlay added underneath it, insulating the room from its own heating.
• No expansion gap, so the floor lifts as it warms and cools.
• The heating element must never be cut, shortened or overlapped
• Never put additional insulation, Kingspan, foam, beanbags or a mattress on top of the Ribbon. The heat has to escape upward. Trap it and the element keeps climbing
• Skipping the insulation underneath, so half the heat goes into the subfloor.

Underfloor heating under laminate FAQs