Talk to me about under floor heating...

[SarkySpanner]

At some point soon we will need to replace the cheap laminate floor that runs throughout our downstairs. Does it make sense to put in UF heating at this point?

How much hassle would this be?
Is it worth it?
Would it raise the floor so much that we'd need to adjust all the doors?

Thanks :)

Depends what you're putting on top. For tiles, I think it's worth it - they are very cold without, and with it they heat up and then retain their heat for some time after the UFH goes off.

For wood floor you have to be more careful to get the right type of engineered wood and the thermal transfer is different.

Also it depends what your underlying floor is - if its concrete then I think it wors beeter as you have a larger solid mass - for suspended wood floors I think the installation is harder and would have to be very carefully done to avoid heat loss into the void under your house.

Large areas - water based UFH - slower to heat up, more cost efficient
smaller areas - eg bathrooms then electric UFH is more responsive so better for a room that you are only in for short periods, but more expensive to run so you wouldn't want it in a large area.

Only way to get a proper answer though is to talk to a few heating engineers...

Thanks. Really helpful.