Floor convector heating or wall-hung radiators?

[audrey01]

We are about to embark on a big refurbishment project of our newly bought doer-upper (a 1930s house). Downstairs we plan to have an L-shaped space as we plan to knock through the wall between kitchen and adjacent dining room (short side of "L"), as well as the wall between dining room and front reception room (long side of the "L").

We are now deciding whether we should have under-floor heating throughout the space, but from what I understand from previous threads, this only makes sense if you have tiles. As we intend to have one big open space, I would like to keep the same flooring throughout, and I'm not sure I particularly like the idea of tiled living room.

So, we are thinking wood flooring, which in itself is definitely warmer than tiles, but need to make sure the space will be warm enough (as kitchen/dining room will have large bifold doors towards the garden).

We don't have much floor and wall space to work with, so traditional radiators are problematic to install. We may have a small space on a 60cm wall next to the aperture towards the garden where we can fit some nice, stylish wall radiator (one for the dining room) and perhaps another one on a little remnant wall dividing dining room and living room. We would have a third radiator in the living room, as we will retain the original curved radiator in the bay window of the living room.

Would these wall-hung radiators be efficient / effective enough in warming up the entire space?

We also came across the idea of under-floor convector heating, which would fit into a trench about 20cm from the glass doors, and run along the whole of the bifold doors. Has anybody used this type of heating? if so, would you recommend it?

Many thanks in advance!

[audrey01]

Thanks PolterGoose - yes, I am aware you can fit underfloor heating pretty much with most flooring, but I was under the impression that the best floor covering is tiles / natural stone as these have thermal qualities and retain the heat. With wood, you will have to suspend the wooden floor to prevent contraction and expansion with the changing heat. And as soon as there is a gap between the underfloor heating and the floor surface, you lose heat.