Underfloor heating: tell me more...

[Officebox]

Never had underfloor heating. Is it worth it? Pros/cons?

Do you still keep your radiators?

How does it impact your heating bills? Notice any differences?

@HBGKC we have engineered wood in the living room and the floor feels normal not hit or cold.

Hmmm more food for thought... our extension needs to house kitchen + dining area + living area, and I really don't want to have half the room one flooring and half another... so it's either all engineered wood (hopefully herringbone parquet) or all some kind of tile...

All you with tiled floors, aren't things (glasses/bowls/plates etc) always getting dropped and smashed?

And I've remembered another important reason I don't want tile - noise! We're a big family, this will be our only communal living space so it will always have lots of people in it, and I'm noise-sensitive at the best of times, so I'm thinking wood would give a better acoustic...

No. I don’t drop things! My DD was just commenting on my dinner service which is 40 years old in March. In daily use and it’s all still there. If you drop things, they would break on wood too. It’s just best to be careful.

We have ceramic tiles in the kitchen, cloakroom and our huge L shaped hall and engineered wood in the other rooms. I’m not a fan of ceramic tiles or stone in living rooms. We have semi open plan between lounge/kitchen and the join is perfectly liveable with. I prefer wood in living areas.

Yes wood is quieter but you really can zone wood and tiles. Tiles are better in kitchens I feel.

Our extension encompasses a large kitchen, living area etc. It all has the same laminate and looks great

What are the options if it breaks though? Do floors have to be ripped up?

Spot on LittleEsme floors have to be ripped up if underfloor heating fails. Will never have it again for that reason alone!

@Bills2pay is correct, but I watched all ours being laid. The piping is extremely strong with no joints in it. The whole lot was also pressure tested to something like 5 times what pressure the heating system would put through to check for leaks.

Love ours, we have a wet system all throughout downstairs. It's been down for two years now, zero issues. We removed all downstairs radiators.

It's lovely to take your shoes off by the front door and be warm immediately. If we ever moved to somewhere without it, DH and I have agreed it would be the first change we'd make.

What sort of floor do you have underneath? Our house is on a slope so the front has concrete floor and the back is suspended floorboards. I think if we were to do it, I would want all of the downstairs done. Currently we have bare floorboards in the kitchen & office, manky old carpet in the lounge (over floorboards) and crappy 80s parquet in the hallway (concrete).

@BillyAndTheSillies what kind of flooring do you have over it?

We have electric underfloor heating (no mains gas) in a large ground floor extension and it’s great. It was fitted as part of a complete new floor (concrete base, laying, screed etc) - I think UFH of any kind is very difficult to retrofit and needs to be done by people who know what they are doing. Lovely underfoot and the room temperature is constant. We just whack it on the thermostat and it sorts itself out from about 6am to 10pm. It’s zoned so the kitchen, utility and main living space are controlled separately.

We have electric underfloor in kitchen and utility room, love love love it BUT then we got an owl and I saw how much it was costing so switched it off !

@HBGKC Swiss krono click laminate. Really economical but looks great. It was a good option especially for the kitchen because it doesn't swell like wood would if there were to be a leak - either in the underfloor or the plumbing. DH is a building surveyor and lots of his clients use it.

Anyone got bamboo flooring with ufh? I'm liking bamboo parquet.

Thanks, Swiss.

I've heard that bamboo is actually a pretty good conductor, so a good choice for UFH. I can't find one I like the look of though; either the colour or the grain is just not quite right for me.

Lol, not Swiss - Billy!

Yes @HBGKC, I think the colour would be a slight compromise vs oak parquet, but offset by environmental, price and ufh positives. Decisions!

What would my options be if I want to avoid electro UFH but will be relying on LPG or Oil or a ground source heat pump?

wet heating (pipes of warm water in the floor)

it is impractically expensive to install unless you are building the house or laying a new floor anyway.

We have electric in the bathrooms with towel rail rads. Doesn’t cost much to run. We knocked through from our kitchen to our conservatory so took all the floors up, insulated and then put a micro wet system in as it doesn’t take up much room and we didn’t want steps in the floor between different rooms. It has Amtico on top. No rads. Works on a smart home stat system so comes in and off depending on set temperature being reached. It works well and runs at a low temp so doesn’t appear to have added much to the bills.

@PigletJohn but in a new extension, what do you reckon re wet UFH under engineered wood..? Any and all tips welcome!

If the floor is being laid, and the UFH is incorporated in the build, should be fine. The plumber needs to co-ordinate with the builder so it is laid and tested before they pour the concrete. You will want an insulation layer so the heat does not go to warm the worms, the builders will know about that.