Retrospective UFH

[Fretfulmum]

Anybody have any tips or things we need to be aware of please? We want to replace all of the flooring in the downstairs and decided to place wet UFH at the same time. Half the downstairs is joist floor and the other half screed. I understand the screed would need to drilled out to lay the UFH. Is retrospective UFH in joist flooring easy to do? Thanks

Depends on your ceiling heights. We had high ceilings so laid ufh straight onto the existing concrete and covered with mats and self leveller and then stone floors. Not sure how it would work with suspended timber floors. We were told that would only work with electric, but there might be products out there I don't know about. Another option we looked at for timber floors were wet skirting board heating systems.

Look at Wunda Floor

I have lived in two houses with UFH and unfortunately have suffered in both where two zones meet; I guess they double up on pipes and you get twice the heat out of them. Sod’s law of course, they were the only place to put a sofa. One of them became so impossibly hot under the sofa that it was really uncomfortable to sit on. The other becomes a bit uncomfortably hot in the floor area around it. So, ask the contractors to take care where two zones meet.

In our current place we have thick tiles like patio tiles on the floor, possibly sandstone? Used in farmhouses. It takes five hours for the heat to get through and when it gets too hot it takes days for a room to calm down.

I am quite wary of UFH as a result, but they have both been rentals and maybe they have been poorly installed.

I disliked it at my parents house because it made my already dry skin impossibly dry.

Sorry if that’s not what you want to hear! I am a bit of a snowflake when it comes to the environment around me.

@KievLoverTwo oh I already love UFH as I grew up with it and parents still have it so I know it’s right for us. but it’s good to know about where the 2 zones meet as I hadn’t considered that, thanks.

thanks for the other options. I will look into those. Our builder told us that to be properly insulated, the screed should be drilled out and UFH laid under that- it’s the best way to retain heat in the house. I will need to do some investigating if this is the case

One wouldn't think of concrete as a good insulator. Not sure what your builder plans, but by lying ufh on top of screed rather than chasing in we could put insulation Styrofoam mats onto the concrete and underneath the pipes.

I think that is what the builder means? Drill out the current concrete slab. Then new floor is subject to building regs so will need lots of insulation and then the UFH pipes laid in screed. I'm interested in how much that would cost. I have a concrete floor and looking at extending to make a family room, so would be good to have UFH in the old bit as well as the new bit of the new room

@Rollercoaster1920 that is exactly what the potential plan is. They said cost is dependant on the thickness of concrete they find when they dig it up but not to expect much change from £30K all in. This is for high end quality flooring, l grounds floor levelling, 1200sq ft and moving the kitchen island to lay new flooring underneath.

We have ufh under suspended floors. They lift the floors , insulate with moisture permiable insulation like sheep's wool and lay metal spreader plates between the joists. The pipes are then places into grooves in the plates and the floor is laid back on top. Quicker to heat up than the embedded in concrete type but works well.