underfloor heating in kitchen

[clangermum]

Have seen lots of comments about underfloor heating in kitchens, and it sounds lovely. It would also free up a lot of wall space by getting rid of radiator. But (and suspect this is a dim question but i'll ask anyway) is it possible to just have underfloor heating in one room? Or do people have it throughout? I just keep hearing people say it's the thing they'll have in their new kitchen, as though it's a stand alone thing.

Also, what happens if it goes wrong? Presumably you have a certain type of flooring done to make it easier to lift?

I have it in the conservatory (open to the kitchen) but not in the kitchen itself (a mistake!).
Ours is separate to the rest of the heating system, it is a dry (electric wires in a screed) system which is then tiled on top - definitely not easily accessible.

The cost of putting underfloor heating in a new build is similar to that of installing a radiator system.The cost of retrofitting in an already existing floor is very high.Means digging out current floor [in my case edwardian quarry tiles on top of solid rock] so not worth it.Hence we are having hot water underfloor in extensions either side of the kitchen but not in the original kitchen.Hope this helps!.

"The cost of retrofitting in an already existing floor is very high."

It depends what kind of system you're having.

We had underfloor heating installed in our kitchen and it's LUSH - I love it! But we had the electric kind which is literally just wires which go down along with the adhesive. It's no different to laying an ordinary tiled floor and you can have it in as much or as little of the house as you want (although only if the floor can take it, obviously. It's not suitable for all flooring).

The water kind is cheaper to run but much more expensive to install.

In our case we have it as a top-up to the existing heating (we still have a radiator in the kitchen) - it's mainly to take the chill off the slate floor and make it comfortable to walk on. Using it to heat the whole kitchen would be more expensive, and we didn't want to remove the radiator so it wasn't a problem for us.

If part of it ever fails then we've already decided we'll just live without that section - it's not easily accessible, you would have to rip up the whole floor to access the wire, so the options would be basically new floor and new heating system, or turn up the radiator and cope. Having said that, I believe it comes with a lifetime guarantee - not sure what that means in effect, but I guess we'll find out if it ever goes wrong!

If you are planning on using it as your sole heating system then I would do a lot of research and be prepared to pay quite a bit.

If you just want a nice warm floor so you don't have to wear slippers, then a cheapo electric version is very easy to install and just the job.

oh - I should have clarified - my point in relation to teta's post was that we had our electric system retrofitted on top of an existing Edwardian tiled floor and it was no more expensive than having it done from scratch.

The builders just nailed down ply-wood on top of the existing floor, laid the wires (which are tiny) and then put new tiles over the top - so the whole floor was a cm or so higher than previously, but we didn't care.

oh and top tip from my cousin who uses it as a sole heating method - make sure your installer leaves a cold bit for the bin! They now have a super-heated, super-stinky bin.

Yep,i didn't discuss electrical underfloor because its expensive as a sole source of heating for kitchens [ good for bathrooms !].Having said that i am thinking of fitting this in my kitchen too as we are also retiling the whole area .Good tip about the bin though!.

Look into kick space plinth heater which runs off central heating, we have this and underfloor electric which runs on a timer.

When we bought our house the bathroom was a mess, so we saved up to have it re-done. My Dad used to run a decorating firm and used to work with plumbers and heating engineers, etc. We asked his advice on underfloor heating, and he warned us against it. Apparently, when it goes wrong {which he claims happens more often than with normal heating) it is time-consuming and expensive to put right, as you need to remove the flooring in order to get to the fault. Even if it is still covered by the guarantee, the engineer needs to take up the flooring, fix the fault and then put the floor back in a suitable cosmetic condition; it's much easier to have a guy tinker with a radiator.

brilliant and useful answers here - thanks v much!

loved the comment about the bin - that's the type of common sense advice you only get on mumsnet