Underfloor heating - is it working well for you?

[Wantarest]

If you have underfloor heating, has it worked well for you? Would you recommend it?

We are debating whether to go with wet underfloor heating for an area covering half of the downstairs (8m by 9m) or just nice radiators with sufficient BTU to heat the space.

What has been your experience so far of underfloor heating? Do you miss your radiators?

It's been bliss for us. We have under all hard flooring ie kitchen and bathrooms. The kitchen stuff is old and based on water pipes but still much more effective than wall radiators. The bathrooms are all electric matting which is much cheaper and less likely to go wrong and (to my surprise) is perfectly fine in rooms with water. It also means controls are seperate for each room not based on a house-wide thermostat. But to be clear, we are shoes off inside so perhaps we especially notice the floor heating?

Amazing for us. Nice ambient heat and house is warm for long after it kicks off. Get good thermostats. Insulation if possible. I don't miss radiators and would not have them again in any renovations I am doing.

We put it in under flagstone flooring in our kitchen and extension and it was great. It did not work so well when we tried to retrofit it under wood flooring in the livingroom. Not sure why this was, but we spent most of our time in the kitchen/family room so didn't do anything about it.

We have wet ufh for our hall and kitchen whilst it's lovely for both feet and ambient temperatures I'd also say it's difficult to manage the temperature. For example it's been relatively mild in the day but a little chilly at night ufh isn't as flexible as radiators to manage temperature changes. Christmas Day we have learnt from experience to turn the ufh down 2 days before as the increase in number of people in the house plus ovens on makes it too hot. We've also found it pricey given the energy hikes our engineer advised us to set a constant temperature and not mess around with the ufh which again can mean your usage is higher than with radiators ime.

Thanks.

I really want solid hardwood flooring rather than engineered but it does not work with underfloor heating.

It is so incredibly difficult to make a decision about flooring. The pros and cons never line up. The feel, look and versatility of solid hardwood but can't use underfloor heating. Engineered wood, more stable but not as luxurious but can use with underfloor heating although the results can be variable. Porcelain tiles great for underfloor heating but hard on the feet.

If we go for underfloor heating we can't have solid hardwood flooring. We are prioritising getting adequate heating in the space. The uptake in underfloor heating is fairly recent and I am wondering whether in time there will be more knowledge on how much of its stated advantages are actually realised over the longer term.

@mommybear1 your experience touches on some of my concerns. Also apart from weekends, we are only home during the the evenings after work and school. To work best, underfloor heating needs to be on at a constant temperature throughout the day and as such, I wonder if there really is much of a savings from underfloor heating (we would install wet underfloor heating, electric would be far too costly in terms of the running costs).

We were thinking underfloor heating in our new extension but are now going for some statement radiators instead as we like the look of the radiators. We are having LVT in a wood effect.

We have wet underfloor heating under karndean flooring. I wouldn't want to go back to radiators now. We don't have it on all day but it does take a bit more planning as you can't just turn it on and get instant heat like you would with radiators.

We have it set to come on around an hour before we get home or if it drops below 17 degrees.

We have it under wood and is brilliant - About to do the 10 year cleaning of the pipes saved a fortune on slippers!!!

Love our wufh. Have it with tiles in that kitchen and lvt in the living room. Don’t miss rads.
Sophie Robinson (interior designer) on Instagram had it with engineered wood floor, it didn’t work well and she’s now replaced it with tiles.

We have it in our kitchen and it’s now the warmest room in the house. We have it on 1.5 hours am and 1.5 hours late afternoon which is adequate for the whole day.

Make sure you have it zoned as ufh is slower to heat up so you don’t want it on at the same time as your standard wall radiators which emit heat immediately.

We had seriously considered porcelain tiles until very recently. Without the UFH on, it can feel really cold under feet and I read that many people find it hard to walk on or stand on tiles for an extended period. We plan to grow old in this property, if we are fortunate enough. I don't want to suffer with aching feet as I stand to cook or just potter around.

Very interested to hear that Sophie Robinson found that the UFH did not work with engineered wood. We would not have the funds to rip the floors out and start again if we found the UFH did not work with engineered wood.

We have it all over the house and with wooden floors and tiles. I prefer where the tiles are as it always feels cosy eg bathroom. We have a thermostat in each room so different levels of heat. But it goes on in October and off around April so it is expensive. Never off! If we want to heat an unused room it needs to be on at least 24 hours before hand.. kids coming for weekends.
We have no other expense around heating and the whole house is always warm and having no radiators frees up space.
So my suggestion is tiles.

We made a dreadful and expensive mistake and had electric ufh. Under ceramic tiles. We can’t afford to have it on and the floor is always freezing. It’s been laid in such big areas you can’t have one room on at a time.

we try not to think about it too much and always wear slippers in the house and have the log fires on

Very sorry to hear that @LunaLovegoodsLeftEyebrow and it does not help that over time energy bills are set to rise as we pay for the UK's move to Net Zero.

The space we would have UFH is 72sq meters. Other areas zoned out and we are not having it upstairs.

We don't have underfloor heating, or ceramic tiles, but we have tiles and I hate them, they are totally impractical and gawd knows why anyone thought tiles in a cold damp country would be a good idea
Slippery when wet, cold to walk on, in the kitchen if anything falls on them (China, jars, etc) it breaks and shatters into a gazillion pieces. A pain in the backside to keep clean, the dog slips over if she tries to walk on the non rugged areas. I can't think of anything positive about them. I keep hoping to win the lottery so we can take the buggers up and lay different flooring. But ceramic tiles might not have these issues.

We had electric UFH put in our kitchen earlier this year, under vinyl wood effect flooring, 12mm thick. Such a waste of money as it can be on for hours and you still can't feel it. Wish I'd never done it. We know it's on as if you lift the kick boards away you can feel it's hot on the floor not covered by the vinyl laminate. Just can't get through our flooring.

Absolutely love wet UFH, pushed out for it in a barn conversion. This was our old house with UFH.
The floor is engineered oak boards.

Currently have UFH with tiles on top. In hindsight wish I'd gone for engineered oak floor again.

We have wet underfloor heating in our open plan kitchen diner and electric in the bathrooms - would not be without it! The kitchen is by far the best room warmth wise to be in, we spend the majority of our time in there.

We have wood effect tiles (everyone always assumes they’re wood) and are always barefoot - never had issues with sore feet. We have it zoned but overall a similar size to you and have not materially noticed a difference to bills (the house is generally well insulated though).

It’s the one major thing I’d definitely do again and it puts me off houses which are ‘done’ without having bothered to install underfloor heating, as it’s impossible to retrofit. To my mind it would be like replacing in the windows but not bothering to go for double glazing.

We have UFH through out and a mix of tile, engineered wood and carpet. I love it. You don't get cold spots like you can with radiators and 100% free wall space. The house has to be well insulated and you do need to adjust how you use it. No point switching it on for an hour. We are both retired and so in the house most of the time. However, if you have smart thermostats in each room you can set them to low during the day which will mean the system will stay warm but just fire up when you need it. I find it's better to front load the timing as it can take a while to heat up but then stays warm after it has gone off.

Seems very risky from this thread then, guess the ones that work are very high end so only do it if you can afford the best stuff and high heating bills.

We have it under wood upstairs and under porcelain tiles downstairs. I absolutely love it.

Exactly the same here - thank god for the woodburner! Haven’t got cold enough to turn it on this winter yet…
I think water UFH would have been okay, but ours was a renovation not a new build.
It is great not having radiators though.

That's interesting that people can't tell the difference between porcelain wood-effect tiles and actual wood flooring. Do you mean by sight or by feel? I think it is obvious for both? I recently saw some porcelain tiles that looked the closest I have ever seen to wood. Really, really gorgeous but I did not mistake them for actual wood.

@user14699084787 I so want a wood burner but heard that they are a health nightmare and in time people will regret putting them in.

@user14699084787 I so want a wood burner but heard that they are a health nightmare and in time people will regret putting them in.

@Wantarest love ours, but we live in the sticks with no neighbours…its a joy of my sad middle aged life to sit and read a book by ours! With lovely warm feet where it warms the cold bloody tiles up!

@Wantarest Oh just by sight and by guests, who don’t spend long looking at them! I agree, up close there’s really no comparison. We needed tiles from a practicality point of view but wanted something warm looking (if that makes sense).

I’m surprised to read up thread that composite wood is no good - we had solid floor laid recently (in a room with rads) and the tradie (a separate installer not linked to the purchase of the floooring) said that composite would be fine with UFH. Appreciate it’s a costly mistake if it goes wrong through - something like Karndean could be an option?