Flooring dilemma - where to compromise?

We are building a modified version of this floor plan (front two bedrooms pulled forward to mirror garage and some minor internal tweaks).

We are using a hydronic slab with geothermal heat pump for heating. We REALLY wanted solid hardwood floors (long and wide) BUT have not been able to find anyone willing to install over the heated slab.

Our options seem to be engineered oak, hybrid floating (probably Proline Rigid Plank/Abode Prime or Godfrey Hirst Napier, Karndean Korloc) or some vinyl (Karndean longboard looselay)

We ideally don’t want tile everywhere if we can avoid it

The problem with the floating floors (oak and hybrid) is how to get a nice finish around kitchen islands and cabinets? I hate scotia/beading and the end profiles aren’t much better.

We could compromise on island design (to have skirting/kick airs all around) but still have problem around the cabinets either side of frestanding oven

Vinyl/LVT gives a nicer edge finish BUT worried it will
seem cheap (it’s not a cheap house and we are trying not to cut corners/quality). We plan to be here for 15-20 years but never know when things will change and we might need to sell

Other option is to have tile in the kitchen (southern cross ceramics artisan range would be my choice)BUT still have the issue of how to transition between floating and tile in an open space.

Any ideas? Photos of nice transitions or edge finishes?

We have real timber boards over hydronic heating. What is your boiler boosted by?

We will probably be using a Waterfurnace geothermal system.

What type of floorboards did you use? Jarrah or Oak? they were the only one that one place said they might consider.

All of the Australian species we really wanted (such as Spotted Gum or Blackbutt) were considered to unstable for heating.

The geothermal part of your system would not raise the temperature sufficiently to cause damage to real timber, so the concern must be the booster (gas, electric, wood burning, etc), so what is the booster?

We used blackbutt.

Thanks

we are only going to boost for our hot water service not for the hydronic heating.

Interesting on the Blackbutt - I spoke to 4 different hardwood floor manufacturers or professional installers and they all advised no to Spotted Gum and Blackbutt. One of the big names had warranted it until very recently but stopped due to ongoing issues

We were looking at between 300-400 sqm of timber flooring so would have been a nice sale for them

Can I ask if the Blackbutt was from a specifc manufacturer/producer - I would be very interested in getting the detials so I could speak to them - may we can have our hardware after all!

The blackbutt was re-milled timber from Thor’s Hammer in Canberra. They don’t warrant the timber, they just supply it and what you do with it is up to you. The issue is this: most hydronic heating uses gas fired boilers, and the temperatures can get very high, especially if a mistake is made in setting thermostats. Our hydronic installer told us a horror story about a school where a new floor was laid in a school over gas-fired hydronic in-slab heating. Someone accidentally set the thermostat to high over a weekend, and when everyone got back on the following Monday the floor was buckled and a write-off.

Our hydronic system is heated by heat pumps, so the water will never get above 55°C. Our discussions led to the conclusion that will not hurt the flooring. In order to do the same you'll need to get your timber supplier, builder and hydronic supplier in harmony, and you may need to take on the risk liability.

We spoke to the local timber supplier again and they again strongly recommended not doing timber over the heated slab.

We met with the heating/geothermal/sustainability engineer and have decided to go with tile - when we found out how much the other options (e.g. engineered oak and hybrid) were going to reduce the effectiveness of the hydronic slab it just didn't make sense.

Will use rugs to soften the living areas