Any way you can take a picture of your floors? It is my first choice to put in the tiles that look like wood. Tile is a conductor of heat. We have porcelain tiles now and we all love to walk on the floors in the winter especially the dog!

This question pops up a lot. Honestly, there is a heating system out there for most any flooring type. We regularly heat wood, carpet, tile, stone, and many others.

Electric radiant heat can go under just about any flooring type, but ceramic tile is a good choice because of its durability and low r-value. The lower the r-value of the flooring product, the faster the floor will heat, and the warmer it will get. The last thing one wants to do is put a floor with a high r-value over a radiant heat source. High r-value flooring can impede the progress of the heat through the flooring. Other low r-value flooring types are vinyl (sheet and tile), linoleum, and engineered wood.
You can take a look at our profile to get a better idea of what radiant heating systems can be installed under a certain flooring surface: http://www.houzz.com/projects/120203/electric-radiant-floor-heating

We are considering radiant heat throughout in a new build and trying to decide best finished surface, wood or tile. A related question: is it best to run radiant tubing beneath subfloor (ie ceiling of floor below) or directly beneath the finished floor?

tile, stone, cement are the best as their thermal mass is greatest. then wood.

Tile, stone, concrete but not wood. All the suppliers touting their new products where it can work with wood is just baloney. Wood is an insulator.

@Verve

Hardwood's R-Value (Thermal Resistance) is around 0.71 (via the U.S. Department of Energy).

While this is greater than Ceramic Tile's R-Value of 0.02, it is nowhere near that of the recommended thermal resistance of insulation in floors which is R-25 to R-30.

Wood works great with radiant heat, because heat will follow the path of least resistance. Radiant heat is also a great choice with wood because it does not alter the humidity of the wood as forced air does.

We have systems installed under wood floors that have effectively operated for 30+ years without issues.

Per my experience I would not do wood or carpet. Actually, i don't think I'd do radiant heat again, period.

considering electrically heated tile floors for our 1 floor family room. Any new comments or suggestions?

@valeriemakrak

As previously stated you can heat just about anything. For Tile, I'd look at either a Floorizwarm low voltage system, or a Heatwave Mat.

Slippers are cheaper. :-)

I see the discussion about using radiant heat with wood flooring without issues. Are most of the applications using electric radiant options vs hydronic radiant? We will be using hydronic radiant heat and can't decide between wood and tile. Worried about what the heat will do to the floor and we are in a dry climate.

In our new home, we had many choices but went with polished acid stained concrete.... we have hydronic radiant heat in the floors with two sources (outdoor wood boiler and electric high efficiency on demand boiler inside).

We love the rustic-industrial look, and it feels wonderful in cold weather...you never have to worry about pulling up tile and grinding surfaces, but could add other flooring later... costs; 3,000+sq ft. about $22,000.. I do have handscraped wood floors on the second level.

@jojogr...hydronic is the most forgiving system when it comes to flooring options. Some floor manufacturers will NOT allow their products over ELECTRIC yet they are OK with hydronic.

If you want wood, then you will want to look at engineered hardwood in a narrow plank (4" is about as wide as you want to get). You will investigate the INSTALLATION instructions of the wood flooring you have decided upon. If they allow in-floor radiant, it is most likely hydronic that they will say "yes" to.

And...you get to find a way to control humidity. Radiant heat can be drying - especially to wood that is sitting right over top. That means you will need to control humidity with accuracy (whole home humidifier/dehumidifier = expensive system). It depends on your climate.

So your expensive hydronic heat system becomes even MORE expensive. To avoid this extra expense, you need to avoid wood flooring. Sigh...now we are back to carpet, concrete, tile or stone. Not what you wanted to hear...but it is the reality of in-floor radiant heating systems.

Good luck. Add the humidity control if you want wood. It will stop the heart ache of full wood failure.