Underfloor radiators

[DreamboatDaddy]

Hello,

On a recent thread someone mentioned they have underfloor radiators. We're rebuilding our house and this sounds like it could be an ideal solution.

Can anyone advise on companies that could offer this?
Are UF radiators good?
Expensive to run?

Thank you!

[burnishedsilver]

As it's a new build I'd have thought proper underfloor heating would be the way to go.

[PigletJohn]

yes, a wet system (hot water pipes) laid in the concrete floor and heated by your gas boiler. Electric is much much more expensive to run.

A good heating engineer will be able to design and install it correctly, but it is not very common so some may have never done it before. Bad design or a leak will cost a fortune to correct if it is not identified before the floors are poured and laid, and will be very disruptive.

You can also lay pipes between the joists of a wooden floor, the whole floor has to come up, and insulation and spreaders added.

A tiled concrete floor will stand up to the heat and humidity fluctuations much better than a wooden floor.

[DreamboatDaddy]

As we're rebuilding most of the house has a concrete floor in place. So it would be very expensive to rip this up and install underfloor heating (although this would be my preferred option if cost allowed).

However, as we have the extended sections that do not currently have a floor I figured we could put in underfloor radiators. We'd need to take up some sections of the current concrete floor but I was assuming this would be much, much cheaper than taking up the whole thing. (For which we've been quoted about 6-7K).

The other UF heating option would be a thin system - 18mm - that sits on the concrete. But we're looking to have this put in upstairs as well and this would make an already tight headroom situation more so.

So I'm thinking UF radiators might be a good solution. But I only heard of it in the recent thread. So any advice on where to go to find out more about this would be much appreciated.

[PigletJohn]

are the upstairs floors concrete?

[DreamboatDaddy]

No, only downstairs. I was thinking if we go radiators we might think UF radiators downstairs and conventional radiators upstairs.

[msmorgan]

We have wet system UF right through and its great and cheap to run, it was put in when the house was being built. From your description of your floors I'm not sure you would be able to fit a wet system, or it would be very expensive.

Personally I would only put electric UF heating in a small area such as a bathroom or conservatory as it would cost a fortune to run.

[DreamboatDaddy]

Sorry, think maybe I've not explained myself properly.

I'm interested in underfloor radiators, not wet/electric underfloor heating. My understanding from reading the other thread was that this was something different from UF heating. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? :-)

[PigletJohn]

I think I have only seen underfloor radiators in Victorian churches and stately homes.

They are a great idea but I don't know where you'd get the parts and the installation design.