Just wondered if anyone has done this and has tips or thoughts. I'm looking at a small underfloor heat mat, like can be gotten at Lowe's, and do know hickory is one of the woods deemed okay for using with underfloor heat, and that we should never turn the heat above 85 to prevent the wood from being overstressed. Has anyone done this and got any tips before I start making mistakes? :-)

We're going to put some kind of sealant/lacquer on the floor since it's a bathroom. I don't know why that worries me; makes think about the wood needing to breathe when it's hot, which could be crazy thinnking on my part.

TIA!!

A friend has hot water heat system through tubing all under her floors, upstairs and down. She does not have hickory, but a pine. (prior owner installed this when home was new)
It works fairly well at keeping the place warm, but the flooring is cracking/pulling apart from the heat and it is in dry mountain air. She would NEVER recommend doing this again (under wood) for several reasons. The main one is any wood takes much longer to transfer heat (when first turned on). So if you don't want it warm all the time, then you may have to turn it on several hours ahead of use. A porcelain tile or concrete floor (with heat coils under it) would transfer the heat much quicker.

And not rot out like a wood floor will in a bathroom.
They also sell tile that looks like wood.

Thanks for sharing your friend's experience, Conrad. We're also in dry mountains. We've already got the hickory and can put that down ourselves; we don't have a tile saw... so that dictates material. Mainly, I want to get rid of the existing baseboard because it's a tiny bathroom, but last night realized that there is a whole new world of either smaller profile or better looking heating solutions since last time I looked, which was a good 15 years ago! So, looking at those today to see what other options there might be than underfloor and '70's baseboard. Thanks again!

Tile wet saws (necessary for porcelain and stone) can often be bought for under a hundred dollars (Also rented of course). Ceramic tile can be cut with score and snap cutters and nippers for around 25 dollars. Really not that expensive and really no more difficult than wood flooring.

So don't let that discourage you?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Conrad,

wood flooring in a bathroom... no. build for 30+ years, not 3.

use the hickory elsewhere, it's a beautiful wood. go for tile in the bathroom, and yes, heated floors are a wonderful thing. wifey didn't agree we needed to spring for it upstairs, but didn't argue downstairs.