Underfloor heating for kitchen , yay or nay?

[Borderterrierpuppy]

Hi we are knocking existing kitchen, dining room and utility into one space. It's going to be a full building job knocking out supporting walls ect.
Floors need levelling and room sticks out from back of house with only one party wall to a cold entry hall.
Builder doesn't think we will need underfloor heating but I am concerned space might still be cold.
Space will be approx 8 m x 5 m ceiling height appro 3 m.
Any advice experiences welcome.

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

Yes. I have it in a big open space and wouldn't be without, in fact it is throughout the ground floor of the house (no radiators). It is lovely to walk on, no frozen toes in winter. You could buy slippers and save a fortune but tbh, I'd go for ufh, you'll need heating anyway so why not go for one that hides all the workings and doesn't uglify (!) your walls? Go for a wet system though. Though I assume you will do as is not being retrofitted, electric 'mat' type ufh costs a bomb to run and would be madness, especially in a room that size.

[dinkystinky]

Yay - I love our underfloor heating in our kitchen.

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

It's a bit of a ballache if something mega goes wrong as it all has to be dug up, whereas obv if your heating is above ground in rads is much easier (in theory) to get to and sort but ours has been v reliable in the 10 yrs we've had it in (retrofitted wet system - nightmare to put in but great). Each room is zoned and works off it's own thermostat, all of the plumbing guts terminate in a cupboard in our utility room. I'm sure ours is outdated now and your can get v clever digital things that you can work from your iPhone.

[stealthsquiggle]

Are you thinking of it as the sole means of heating or as a supplement? We have electric underfloor heating in our kitchen and it is very effective at keeping the chill off - there is a radiator, but with lots of outside walls and a tiled floor, it can seem chilly especially first thing. If we had the ceiling height I would have been tempted to go with plumbed heating as the sole means of heating, since we were stripping everything back to brick and concrete anyway, but the ceiling is very low and there was no way we could spare an inch or more. It's quite expensive to run, but I think we would be running the central heating a lot more without it as the kitchen would always feel cold IYSWIM.

[Borderterrierpuppy]

Thank you all for replying, yes I was thinking of it as the only heat source as there are not many natural spaces for radiators without loosing furniture positions.
My builder seemed dead against it when I mentioned it so will ask him why.

[crispsarenotoneofyour5aday]

I can see why your builder is against it. I absolutely loved ours for the ten years it worked - it has now gone wrong in two rooms on different floors within a few months of each other and is going to cost ks to put right - quite aside from the inconvience of having to dig up the whole kitchen amnd bathroom floors... but it was lovely having toasty feet while it lasted

[Pagwatch]

I had a kitchen designer and builder who were very emphatic that it was the best option and I love it.
I have the hot water system. It's bloody brilliant. If your kitchen needs extra heating then you have a problem with the system tbh. My kitchen is massive with two sets of French doors and a big window and it's never, ever chilly.
It's especially gorgeous first thing in the morning.

[PigletJohn]

if it is a new, insulated, concrete floor bring laid, I'd say yes. It must be professionally installed, the water is blended to prevent the pipes getting hot enough to crack the concrete.

Be sure to have a system filter fitted to your heating pipes to prevent any sediment.

Electric is ridiculously expensive to run.

[MillyMollyMama]

We have air source heat pumps and run electric underfloor heating in an oak framed orangery style large kitchen. About the same size as yours. We have a wet system elsewhere in the house. The electric was easier to install and we prefer it. We have two glass walls and the other two walls have cupboards so no radiators. We have had more problem with the wet system not maintaining the temperature.

[321zerobaby]

We have had electric UFH recently put in our cold kitchen (north west facing, one small radiator) and its lovely. The tiler laid insulating boards down first on top of the concrete, and it works a treat, and takes a very short time to warm up (20-30 mins maybe?).
Years ago we had it laid in our hall under tiles straight on to the concrete, takes more than a day to heat up and is to very efficient. So definitely have insulating boards put on top of the concrete first (off the top of my head, I think they were 6mm if that helps).