Have a lot trouble with marbles? One has to be careful to avoid getting the sound attenuating material between the radiant panel and the room it serves. High-density fiberglass is the most cost effective sound deadening material that will usually serve well as the requisite insulator below a radiant panel. Though cork is a wonderful flooring material, with excellent sound attenuation, durability, water proofing and unfortunately a great insulator. I have a cork floor in my own bathroom but did the math so the the floor PEX tubing below (with extruded aluminum plates) has a chance to drive heat into the room and satisfy the heat load in the coldest Minnesota weather. Any cementious material over PEX, plywood and sub-floor insulation will be reasonably quiet, but the first order of business is the final surface floor covering. This process starts with a proper heat load analysis, which dictates pipe, insulation, design water temperature and most importantly final foor covering. |