What would you say adequate compensation is for broken underfloor heating?

[Movinghouseatlast]

We had our ensuite bathroom totally refurbished last year. It was a big job, with structural changes and soundproofing. It cost £10k all in.

The builder cut through the underfloor heating when he fitted the floor mounted tap. He admitted he did it.

He has been back 3 times to try to fix it but can't. We bought a repair kit from the manufacturers but that didn't work either, mainly I think because he had tried soldering it before he told us.

The room is unusable as it is unbearably cold. It is in the eaves of the house so bound to be cold, hence the underfloor heating. The 2 weeks the heating worked ( last January!) the room was warm.

The heating itself cost £350 plus however much to fit it (it was lumped in to the whole cost so I don't know)

The builder has said he would have one more try- he asked us to buy some more tiles so he could damage some of them. He said if he can't fix it he will take it all out, the whole bathroom, and replace the heating and tiles at his own cost. That was 3 months ago, he went to Spain for the lockdown.

I can't face the upheaval of having the whole bathroom done again, but then again I have a room I can't use for half the year at the moment.

We have an electric fan heater in there at the moment, which eats electricity at an alarming rate. I have seen some nice electric stoves with timer functions that would be an alternative. It is a big room so we have a plug socket.

The bathroom was done to a very high spec so having a chappy heater in there would spoil it. The ones I'm looking at are £700 plus, but would look good. Obviously they wouldn't solve how cold it is underfoot.

I want to ask him for the money for the stove and reimburse me for the underfloor heating instead of ripping out the bathroom. I don't know whether this is reasonable.

You would need to be put back in the position you were before with underfloor heating and a bathroom you paid for so you need a quote for this

Do U have other forms of heating in there? I had electric underfloor heating out in my en-suite, but we don’t use it. We have a very large dual fuel towel rail which is on all the time, makes the room much warmer than I’d previously thought it would be.
Otherwise I would want the ufh heating replaced and retiled, short term pain for long term gain.

Adequate compensation is an a working repair or complete replacement. If this means ripping up the floor then relaying or replacing it, so be it. If you trust him to do it, great, if not he or his insurance can pay another company to do it.

@NachoNachoMan

Adequate compensation is an a working repair or complete replacement. If this means ripping up the floor then relaying or replacing it, so be it. If you trust him to do it, great, if not he or his insurance can pay another company to do it.

This.

Agree with NachoNacho.

Do you know if he has insurance? It is a straightforward claim - he's admitted liability and its a question of getting it replaced. Get a quote for the underfloor heating and installation, the cost of the tiles which will have to come up and replaced, and the cost of labour (get 3 quotes if you can albeit I appreciate thats a bit difficult at the moment).

Say you've given him every chance to put it right and unfortunately it hasn't worked. You have lost faith in his ability to do so and are now arranging for someone else to resolve the issue at a cost of £X. Say you'll take him to the small claims court if he doesn't pay within 14 days.

Also think about what happens if you sell the property, would people be put off by an electric stove?

Your house insurance may be able to assist in chasing him, I would want it replaced to as you where

Is this electric UFH?
If it is there are only 1 or 2 people in England who can fix this.
I had a similar situation. Heating engineers fitting a new boiler used a Stanley knife to cut the grout to lift a floor tile. This cut through the electric UFH wire. They came back numerous times to try and fix it. It involves 'soldering' the joint. When they showed up with a hairdryer to do this. I called a halt, Googled and got in touch with one repair person located in the Midlands. He told me when he would next be in the South were I am. Came fixed it. I sent the bill (c£350) to the useless heating company who thought because they are blokes they can fix specialised electrics.
The owner of the company Glow(Sussex) sent me a shitty email saying I had to expect some minimal damage when work was done, No dickhead I don't expect to have to potentially rip up all the flooring in a 30 ft kitchen, which is what I'd have to have done if I hadn't got it sorted myself. But they did pay.
So don't despair. PM me if you want me to tell who we used. He was great. He also said the heating company were stupid and unprofessional for what they did and how they handled it.
I have obviously bad-mouthed them to anyone who talks heating/plumbing to me and they have lost the 10 year maintenance contract which has cost the £1k. Ha!