I have some questions about underfloor heating...

[GreatFox]

Im thinking about it for my kitchen.

I currently have no radiator in there as I have a chest freezer in front of it so had to turn it off.

There is no other wall space for a radiator and its absolutely freezing.

Can you do it for just 1 room? Is it expensive? Do you have to get a fitter/plumber in?

It depends what kind of underfloor heating you are considering, water or electric. I have electric underfloor heating in my kitchen and downstairs shower room and I love it! It was put in when we were having a lot of other work done, and by a professional. It would involve taking out your original floor, putting down heat resistant stuff (sorry don't know what it's called but it was like insulation boards, putting down a plastic grid, winding the cables all around the grid so that the entire floor is covered, covering that up with something (sorry don't know what) and then putting down your final floor, which would need to be suitable for underfloor heating. You would need an electrician to put in thermostats and do all the electric joining up and controls, but the grunt work needn't be done by professionals of you are willing to be very hands on.

We have ceramic tiles in both rooms and they get nice and warm (or just off cold if we turn the thermostat down) and keep the rooms nice and warm. A benefit is that they keep warm for a while if you turn the heating off or have it on a timer. Electric underfloor heating isn't the cheapest option, but we're all electric so don't have a boiler and no central heating.

If you have a wet system I guess you would need a plumber?

Unless you're taking the floor up anyway it will be expensive.
I would look at other options such as very slim radiators that are the full height of the room, or even mounting a radiator higher up the wall if that would help.

I should have added that if you are considering mounting the radiator higher, you might want to consider a stylish radiator! They come disguised as artworks and all sorts. Google "pretty radiators" for an impression of what I mean. They are more expensive than a bog standard radiator, but much cheaper than ripping up your floor.

When I bought my cottage the previous owner had installed electric underfloor heating in the bathroom. Gas central heating in every other room. Like most of the work she had done it wasn't done very effectively.

The single biggest mistake was that she put very thick ceramic tiles over it and so it takes an age to heat up. It's just on an on/off switch so you have to put it on about an hour before you want to use the room just to take the edge off of freezing - not much use if you're just nipping in for a pee or a quick shower or in the mornings.

When she added the ceramic tiles on top of the electric wire gubbins it raised the height of the floor in the room so there is now a little step up that is a bugger to join to the flooring in the landing.

It's the last room I have to decorate in the house and I'm ripping it out and extending the gas central heating into the room with a towel dryer and radiator.

I'm sure a better job could have been done, but it wasn't here. If you're doing it I'd say research thoroughly finishes, floor levels and how useable/practical it will be.

Yes you can do it for one room,

we did our kitchen a few houses ago,

it was quite expensive but we were extending anyway. It’s not great, honestly. Takes the edge off but not really warm. Nice in bare feet though!

I'm in a HA house so its probably no feasible if you have to actually dig up the floor. I thought it was less invasive.

There is literally no wall space, even higher up.

Okay. Well it's pretty hard to help if we don't know what the room looks like. Would you share photos (understandable if you don't want to)?
Or is there an alternative to the chest freezer? Something you like less but is better than a cold kitchen?

I would rather have a working radiator than a chest freezer! Do you absolutely need the freezer?

Yes, my daughter has ARFID and I don't drive so I have to bulk order her food when it is available/on offer.

Red = fixed cupboards
White = fridge
Green - doors
Purple chestfreezer (with disconnected radiator behind)

Above all the red cupboards are tiles then upper cupboards

Its a small kitchen

My mother in law put vents in the kick boards of her kitchen units and put fan heaters underneath the cupboards and behind the boards. Could that work for you?

I second PP with the suggestion of kick board heaters. Shouldn’t be too expensive to install either

Kickboard heaters would work, good idea.

What's on the wall above the chest freezer? Can you put the heater up there? Shouldn't cost too much because the plumbing is already directly underneath for the existing radiator.

I hadn't thought of that. Would a radiator be able to be mounted up above a chest freezer like that? Would it affect the freezer beneth?

Cheapest least invasive option for you would be kickboard electric heaters under the units.

If the room is cold, particularly the floor, a radiator mounted higher up would be a waste as the heat is radiated horizontally then rises up from the radiator. You’d still have a cold floor! Plinth heaters are what you need.
https://www.plumbworld.co.uk/plinth-heaters-1302-0000?fil&o=3&c=84&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=14386304833&gbraid=0AAAAAD_lDOg0EasNW3Ls5RxQG_yV6alt1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9Yu-jIyVkgMVTI9QBh1ZjThKEAAYAyAAEgLoafD_BwE

Yes thats what the while thread is about, I don't know if they can be plumbed in with my radiator valves being on the other side of the room

Apologies!

I thought that I wasnon this thread I also started about plinth heaters!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5477510-any-plumbers-about-to-answer-a-question-please?reply=149942658

It wouldn't affect the freezer. You would just need to mount it high enough so that you can still open the freezer!
It would involve cutting the plasterboard in that position only, and running the existing pipes up vertically to the new height, so not much work.
However it's not AS good for heat circulation as a radiator mounted low in the room, so some of your heat will disappear upwards.

BUT low placement is the ideal, and not all of us have big enough rooms to choose. I have a heated towel rail (on central heating) mounted 40cm above the bath, so a similar height to where you would mount above your chest freezer. It heats the room just fine, even though it's technically too small for the size of room.

A heated towel rail might be pretty handy in your kitchen anyway, and they look much less strange mounted high up than a conventional radiator.

Worth considering for sure. But perhaps the fan heaters in the plinths are better (I don't know anything about those). Good luck choosing!