Here are a few basic Do's and Do not's for hardwood flooring either reclaimed or new -
These are only my opinions and are based on twenty years experience in wooden flooring and should not be taken as legally binding facts.
Do- Always have some form of a moisture test done on the existing screed that you are going to install on, this could be as simple as taping a 1mt x 1mt sheet of clear heavy gauge plastic down really well and leaving for 2-3 days in the normal enviroment that the floor will be installed in. If any condensation occurs on the underside of the sheet please investigate further before installation, this is the most basic test, there are many others, I only use the Protimeter RH% box.
Do- Always buy the best quality flooring that you can and do not buy on colour, think about were its being installed and really ask yourself what will this floor have to cope with, for instance were there is going to be heavy wet foot traffic choose a wood with a very high moisture resistance and a good Janka resistance (a specific tset for hardness) an example wood here could be Iroko/Mahogany/Afrormosia but definetly not Maple/Beech etc. We do a lot of bathrooms with no problems!
Do- Always realise that a trunk of a tree is like a side of beef, when it is cut up there are many many different qualities, with the best cut (eg-Sirloin) coming from just off centre and the worst cut (eg-mince or worse) coming from the outer layers and branches with many knots and defects. The performance characteristics between the grades can be staggering and can be the difference between a floor performing really well for you or a complete disaster, there are many good web sites for you to fully research different woods and there qualities.
Do- Always use a really good fitter, this can make or break a good floor installation, try and visit at least one if not more of there previous installations and failing that a least call some of there previous customers. Remember that quality flooring is not general joinery and it is a skilled trade. I could write a book on the number of jobs that we have had to fix that joiners and carpenters have installed badly. Contrary to popular belief sanding is even more skilled than installations, it takes me approx 3 years to teach an apprentice for high end installtion and approx 5 years to teach high end sanding and finishing.
Do Not- Ever have a hard wood floor floated, it cannot work in the long term, this method of installation is cheap and cheerful and eventually the PVA glue holding these joints together over an underlay will fail. Did you know that when a floor is floated in cannot be sanded and sealed as the vibration and stress that the big sander puts on the floor only speeds up the break down of the adhesive in the joints, about 50% of our work is ripping this type of flooring out (that someone else has done) and installing a repalcement floor correctly, last year we took out 1125sqMts of floated flooring, you have been warned !!
Do Not- Ever wash a pre-finished floor with a wet mop, many of the major flooring manuctuers recommend that the wettest thing that you apply to prefinished floor is a baby wipe or similar, this is because the joints are not sealed as you would get with a site finished floor. the general rule of thumb is that if you have to wash a floor, it should take no longer than 1 minute for the floor to be completeley dry, any longer and you are using too much water. With our high standard of floors you can regularly hoover and mop with a little fairy or flash in the mop bucket (just ensure that your mop is reasonably well wrung out).
And finally yes you can fit a good quality hardwood wooden floor over under floor heating, we do it all the time and it works just great, the things that have to be just right are- Species of wood and densisty, Moisture content of wood and its behavior in humidity swings, Under floor heating maximum temp setting and controls, Type and nature of adhesive suited to the type of wood and most importantly in my opinion the % of the wood actually stuck to the floor, if you have an air cavity within the floor this causes thermal tension and in-efficent heat transfer leading to further boast areas.
In short have a good quality floor done by proffessionals who can prove there workmanship and standards.
If you have any questions or would like to comment on my web site either positive or negative please feel free to send me an email.
Many Thanks, Owen James