Underfloor heating or save the cash?

[legfaced]

We’ve just started our side return extension on our Edwardian terrace. We thought we didn’t have room for radiators so we’d go down the underfloor heating route. We’ve now worked out a way to have radiators without losing anything else so now wondering if we should save the c£4K on underfloor heating.

Tell me the pros and cons and if you went radiators over underfloor - do you regret it?

are you laying a new floor? If so, now is the time to do it. You will have all the cost of new concrete, insulating slab and screed. the cost of running the pipes and controllers will not be a big proportion of the build price.

Adding UFH afterwards is not really worthwhile because of the cost and disruption.

I like radiators personally especially the really lovely decorative ones.

I'm not keen on underfloor heating. I don't like the idea of heating the underneath of my sofa/furniture and cupboards/sideboards. It seems a big fire risk if my furniture heats up too much. Especially as I have a lot of cheap crappy furniture that's synthetic. At least with a radiator only the air is warm.

We have underfloor heating and I hate it! Maybe it's just ours, but you have to switch the heating on about 6 hours before you want to actually warm the room. I just find the heat is not very controllable. I would prefer to have radiators, personally.

Underfloor heating is slow to warm, so its a turn it on in Nov and turn it off in March kind of a thing. If you had a timer on it, you could try to see if you could trend it up in the v early morning and down in the late afternoon, but thats not really what its designed to do, especially if its set in concrete. If you had the electric mat variety, its a little more responsive, but I wouldnt recommed them as they tend to get more faults and repairing anything underfloor is almost impossible.

The other consideration is your flooring. It works best under tile or wood. If you are thinking of carpet, then it wont be as efficient.

Thanks - yes it’ll be a new floor and yes it’ll be under engineered wood.

We have underfloor over engineered wood in open plan part downstairs

Love it

Pros:
more space in walls for other stuff, no ugly rads
Even hearing of entire space/room
Cat lives lying on it in winter

Cons:
Takes a few hours to warm up

We put UFH in all the rooms of our house that needed new floor when we did a major renovation about 15 years ago (water, not electric). The floors are stone slab and we love it. With UFH you don’t switch it on and off, you have it on a thermostat and switched on all the time except in summer as it takes many hours to warm the concrete as stones but once warm it radiates gentle warmth- the room should always be at your chosen temperature...
I would absolutely chose UFH again for any room needing new flooring.

" It seems a big fire risk if my furniture heats up too much."

I am pretty sure that pipes containing water at the temperature of a teacup won't start a fire.

We've got electric underfloor heating in addition to radiators. As PP explained, you don't turn it on and off - you just keep in on through the winter. It's lovely and warm underfoot- I like walking bare foot in the house so it's ideal. Certainly has never started a fire as it's usually set to about 25 degrees. It was handy to put it on full blast when the boiler packed in, though.
Anyway, we've got rads too but I suppose they're redundant with good insulation and efficient UFH.

Underfloor heating is also fab for drying wet coats (if you have a tile floor) and warming your towel while you are in the shower. I have even been known to lay my clothes for the next day on the floor over night and then they are cozy to get into the next morning.

Yes Sea! Also great for laying out wool or cashmere jumpers out to dry flat (clean floor obviously!).

OMG! Can't believe it's never occured to me to dry cashmere jumpers on the floor! Seems like the perfect place!