Cork flooring installation - the eco-friendly flooring choice, with "how to" video

Marmoleum does come in rolls just like Linoleum, and it is easily cut with a utility knife.Marmoleum is an eco-friendly non-toxic alternative to linoleum它是用来粘在底层的。

If the floor already has linoleum, are you able to remove it easily? It would be best to glue it directly to the subfloor since an adhesive will generally have a list of materials that it can successfully bond with. So, if you decide to leave it, I would check with the manufacturer of the adhesive you choose to see if it will bond properly. The other thing is, if you glue it to the linoleum rather than the wood subfloor, it's adhesion would be reliant on the linoleum below. So if that ever became unadhered, the Marmoleum would come with it.

Installing a radiant floor under wood works fine, but here are some considerations:

The best flooring materials with a radiant floor:

Inert materials such as ceramic, stone or concrete are the best from the point of view health and effectiveness, they have the quickest heat transfer and they don’t contract and expand with changes in temperatures. Installing a wooden floor is not a problem, but as you suspected, you will need to be careful about product selection.

Radiant floor performance with wood:

There will be a small difference in heat delivery with a wood floor, wood is about R1 per inch, so it will slow the heat transfer slightly. You would notice this most if the floor is dead cold and you activate it, as it will take a little longer to get up to temperature than it would if it were masonry or concrete. But if you keep your house at a balanced temperature you wouldn't experience any discomfort.

由于热量是在隔热的建筑围护结构内，它最终会到达空气中。所以不要担心像一些安装人员建议的那样缺乏效率，热量最终会到达那里。如果你不喜欢真正的“热”地板，木材实际上会增加你的舒适度，因为热量传递不那么明显。

For your above grade floors, some heat will be lost downwards, but this is not a problem as it will simply be adding heat to the room below. What is important, is to have sufficient insulation below the basement slab floor. The greater the temperature differential between the floor and the ground below, the greater the rate of heat loss will be. Therefore, heating a floor is not a reason not to insulate it, that is a reason to insulate it even more.

While Building Code will let you get away with less, we would not recommend heating a slab on grade in any Canadian climate with any less than four inches of foam insulation. Six inches and sometimes more, depending on your specific climate, would save you energy and money in the long run.

As for damage to the wood with radiant heat:

It is important to first check with the manufacturer of the flooring you are considering to find out if any warranty is still valid when installed over a radiant heating system. The floor must be able to expand and contract without cracking due to changes in relative humidity.

Some hardwood species perform reasonably well in this capacity, but we would recommend that you first consider engineered hardwood for added durability. Some bamboo or cork flooring materials are also suitable. Be conscious of the chemical make-up of the finish, heating wood with VOCs increases the rate of off-gassing. To sum all that up, our choice for wood on top of a radiant heat source would be an FSC-certified, pre-finished engineered wood with low or zero VOCs.