I have approximately 400sf of engineered wood to install on a concrete slab w/radiant tubes embeded. The issue is the boiler for the radient heat will not be installed this winter due to $$ flow and therefore the radiant will not be fired up until next winter. The house is currently passive solar heated with a woodstove for cloudy/COLD days. I need to get the flooring installed so I can move in, but everything I read says to have the radiant going for at least 72 hours prior to install. Will installing the engineered wood now and firing up the radiant next winter cause major issues?

Thank you for any input.

Other info:
Slab is over 60days old, moisture is OK per polyflim test
Location is in Idaho; cold, dry, high altitude
Floating floor installation

If you need to cover this floor before the radiant heat is turned on I would expect that there is a high probability of problems. But then again as a professional I am trained to worry about what might go wrong. If it were me and I had to install this now. I would consider buying some $1.00s.f. laminate from Costco now. then after the heat is turned on you could install the real deal.

Seems like a good $400 insurance policy. And if you buy a tip and lock laminate you could re-sell most of it for maybe another $100.

I kinda like the idea Barquios suggested, who knows you might like the laminate so much that you will be looking for a buyer for your engineered floor.
On the other hand, I believe that if you go ahead and install the engineered, and remember to bring the heating system on line slowly over a period of a few days next winter you probably wont have any issues.
I would take the chance, I think. Sometimes ya just got to work outside the box, so to speak.

I was thinking of bringing the radiant up to temp over 2-weeks next winter. I am not sure how much we will even use the radiant zone under the wood flooring as it is adjacent to the wood stove and in the are of maximum solar gain. The concrete sub-floor is designed as a solar slab so it never gets real cold. I got the engineered wood at a SCREAMING deal and the nearest Costco/Big Box store is over 2hrs away so think I will put it down a take my chances.

Thanks you for all the input, good ideas and very helpfull (additional input is always welcome).

How are you installing it? Glue down, or floating. My concern would be moisture releasing from the slab. If you glue it down now, the slab is going to emit moisture at it's regular rate; but when you turn on the radiant heat, you can expect it to drive off moisture at a rapid rate, which could definitely cause a failure when the wood takes on all that moisture in a short time. If you float it, you can install 6 mil poly or some other moisture barrier which at least would take the excess moisture out of the equation.