Natural fibre flooring (eg sisal) and underfloor heating?
Thu 18th September 2014 by Burts Carpets | posted in carpets
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Can natural fibre flooring such as sisal be used with underfloor heating? This is a difficult question we are asked from time to time.
Unfortunately there is no simple answer! We have discussed elsewhere the use of normal carpets and underlay with underfloor heating and this can be seen by clicking here.
When it comes to natural flooring such as sisal carpet the simplest answer is that you cannot lay these produtcs over underlfoor heating systems - BUT this is a bit of a "cop-out".
The reason for a NO is basically because the suppliers, such as Alternative Flooring, Kersaint Cobb and Crucial Trading have not had the product tested for use with undefloor heating so there is no tog rating and they do not know how the product will react over time.
So what do you do if you desperately want a natural flooring product and you have underfloor heating? There are 2 options -
- 1 - Use a synthetic sisal alternative that is suitable
- 2 - Risk fitting a traditional sisal.
Risking it is un-chartered territory and we can not offer any peace of mind or guarantee but many people have done it without consequence.
If you risk a traditional sisal what could go wrong? Assuming that the product is fitted following the usual guidelines we can only think of worst possible scenarios which would include -
- The heating system may not work as efficiently - there have been no tests on sisal for the tog rating so it is possible that the thermal insulation of the product might be too much and cause the system to not give off enough heat or overheat and damage the system. You could reduce the thermal insulation by not fitting the product onto underlay.
- The natural flooring may shrink or stretch due to be being heated up.
These are the worst case scenarios and we have to re-iterate that many people have fitted sisal and other natural carpets over underfloor heating without issue BUT it is beyond either our or the manufacturers recommendation. In the words of Alternative Flooring's guide - sisial "in theory, should be usable with underfloor heating" but they stop short of recommending it.