Should I redo floors and add underfloor heating. + How?

[SoTiredNeedHoliday]

Our house has a kitchen extension which is warm and all modern insulation, but the front reception room & hall is old and while updated cosmetically it is freezing. I am wondering if I should have the floors (About 7 years old from previous owners) pulled up and put in insulation and underfloor heating and then replace the floorboards.
I think I should as it is unbearably cold in there for most of the year. It gets afternoon sun and is a really nice room but we never use it as its simply too cold.

How would I go about doing the works? I've been looking online and I can't see a company that does it all. Would I need separate contractors?

Additionally our home is built in approx 1940. Its brick, would they have had no insulation in the walls in those days? Or a cavity at least?

@PigletJohn maybe you know about this?

With the price of gas and electric I wouldn't be putting underfloor heating in at the moment! Insulate it as much as you can. Insulate under the floorboards, then thick underlay and thick carpet would be the way to go.

Does it have carpets? A fireplace? Draughty windows? A long external wall?

Measure the thickness of the external walls, at an opening such as a window or doorway. It will probably be about 9" plus plaster.

Photograph the pattern of the brickwork.

We have a fireplace, its a log burner not an open fire.
All the houses in the street have a fireplace all have cold front rooms & front halls. One house has done what I suggested and they love'd it. but they've since moved to a larger house so can't get any info from them unfortunately.

We have floorboards and like the look of them so don't want to carpet.

We have pretty new double glazed windows (10 yrs old) so they are not drafty at all.

I measured where the front door is and its about 10 inches but I couldn't tell where the plaster started. At the windows it looks about 9 inches.

I'll get a shot of the bricks and upload

If you have bare floorboards, cold air will be coming up through and around them. It is probably worst at the edges of the room under the skirting.

If you can afford the effort or cost of lifting them and insulating underneath, this will make a big improvement. Some original boards will be damaged. You may be able to obtain replacements from a demolition, if not, a carpenter or wood workshop can plane down thicker boards to match.

If you are lucky there will be a roomy crawl space underneath. Clean it out, remove rubbish, insulate pipes, do any wiring or plumbing work while it is open, add an access hatch in a corner away from the door or window where people will not walk much. Clean out the airbricks.

Mineral wool is more suitable than plastic foam insulation slabs as it can be stuffed into irregular gaps between the joists with no cracks for draughts to get through. Pay extra attention round the edges of the room.

If you are lifting the floor, this would be a good time to add UFH if you want. Not electric, obviously.

You have solid walls.

We had that in our front room, we had a company in called Q bot, they sprayed insulation under the floor boards using a remote controlled little robot. It has made a huge difference to the feel of the room and the house. We just have a very large rug over the floor boards. The room is definitely much warmer.
As others have said if that is not enough, it’s then underfloor insulation and carpet. It’s no good having a lovely room that is too cold to use.

thank you. I had Qbot come and view but they said there was not enough space for their machine, the joists are the problem, otherwise there would have been enough space.

What type of company do I look for to do the work?

@PigletJohn when you say solid walls do you mean double brick with no cavity? Will we need insulation on those eventually too?

bricks

It's a solid, 9" brick wall. No cavity.

Because it's thickness is the length of one brick, it's called "one brick thick"

a person who takes up and relays floorboards is usually a carpenter or a DIYer. Once the first two or threee are up, you can bang the others up from underneath and most will not be damaged.

any builder can do it but some will not mind smashing the old boards

do not put chipboard down.

So I need a someone to lay insulation (or can I do that myself it doesn't sound hard) then an underfloor heating person and then someone to put the floors back down?

When you say don't put chipboard what do you mean? I would intend replacing the flooring as it.

I mean chipboard is cheap rubbish and not durable as a floor

it is favoured by builders because it does not usually start to crack until after the cheque has cleared.

If you can do rough dirty DIY you can clean out under the floor and lay insulation between the joists. Garden netting is often tacked to the underside of the joists to prevent it sagging or falling out. I don't know if there's a better material now.

@SoTiredNeedHoliday I have a wet overfloor underfloor heating system which is designed to work with floorboards. If you have the ability to absorb the additional profile fitting it requires maybe look at that? We used Wundafloor. My very old house is much more efficient and considerably warmer than my previous old house which had rads.

@Netaporter thank you. So you put this over your existing flooring?

Yes. It is a multilayer system, a thermofoil layer with spreaderplates then the piping goes on top of that, then hardboard then your choice of flooring (making a note of the max tog rating) we have full tiles downstairs and carpet upstairs. All skirting and doors have to come off when you fit it. It is ultra low profile though.

We had our floorboards taken up and celotex put underneath. Made a big difference - used to the coldest room in the house, but is now the same temp as the rest of it.
It is a job you can DIY, but pretty back breaking to even think about if you're an office worker in your forties!
We're Bristol based, and used Eden Hardwood Flooring - am sure you will find similar companies wherever you are.