I am building a house for my family in Seattle. On the last house I built for us, I put carpeting upstairs. It was cheaper than hardwoods, but mainly we like it because it is quiet. Does anyone have a lead on green (recycled?) carpeting that is any good?
Also, we heat our floors with hydronics. We figured out how to do this with hardwoods (use quarter sawn oak or you will get gapping) but never found a carpet pad that wasn’t also a great insulator and inhibited the heat. Is there a carpet pad with built in air voids or holes for use with hydronics?
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Is there a carpet pad with built in air voids or holes for use with hydronics?
I'm not going to be a whole lot of help here but we did a house that had in floor heat and when they were installing the carpet the carpet layers put down what looked like a foreign looking pad. I asked about it and they told me it was specifically designed for in floor heat. So yes, there is a special pad that's available but I couldn't tell you anything about it.
Doug
Thanks. I will keep looking.
Your carpet suppliers should know, but if not, you want a rubber based pad system, it will transfer heat much better than traditional foam. It's denser with less loft so it's a little different feel underfoot, but will work much better. By the way, I have wide plank pine floors and medium width cherry floors over radiant heat and never had any serious cupping issues in 11 years now. Just make sure flooring is properly dried, and radiant temps aren't too hot.
Have you looked for carpet at The Environmental Home Center in Seattle? That's where we bought ours a few years ago. I think they changed their name about a year ago to "Ecohouse" or something like that, but they are across the street from Crosscut Hardwoods...on 1rst st, maybe?
I am alergic to lots of stuff so we bought wool carpet, wool pad. Been living with it several months now and haven't had any problems. It's not cheap, but after 25 years of 100% hard surfaces in our old house the wife really wanted carpet in the bedrooms in this house so we tried wool.
For green carpeting go for indoor air quality (CRI labeled) carpet first and worry about recycled content later. (see Bill McDonnough's book "Cradle to Cradle" about carcinogens in recycled content carpet)
For radiant I like blending high emissivity floor coverings with low emissivity to great islands of warmth in kitchens and hallways and cooler areas in bedrooms and rooms with wood stoves such as the LR and Study. Might be worth considering, don't get caught up in defining comfort as all areas of the house being within three degrees of the T-stat setting. Just my two cents here.
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