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?

@LondonNQT Nearly all engineered wood is fine with UFH. We have had it for years. It’s stable and no one can tell the difference between engineered and solid wood. Engineered has a much wider choice of finishes.

OP: you can have solid wood and UFH. However engineered is so much better. We have wet UFH and we had a leak in one room. That messes up any wood!

We have ceramic tiles in the hall and kitchen - both with UFH. Works well. Most hard flooring is slippery when wet. Plus dropping things won’t be great on any floor! We have no issues with heat but have a fire when it’s below freezing - we just like one!

I meant to say, get the thickest veneer on the engineered wood and you won’t know the difference between that and solid. I still have solid in the old part of the house with radiators. Where we had the leak was new solid wood. I really cannot tell the difference between the two and solid isn’t more luxurious because no one can see below the surface!

We did this, but it is noticeably cold underfoot. Especially by the new wine fridge! I am fine with it but dp now regretting not putting the underfloor heating in and making noises about seeing how much it would be to add it now (not going to happen!)

We have electric under floor heating in our big kitchen/dining room.

We haven’t turned it on either last year or this because it’s become so expensive to run.

We've had it since 2011, and up until last year, I would have said it was great.

We have an old house and retrofitted an ‘overfloorboard UFH’ system. It is attached to an oil boiler but we are changing to renewables in the coming year during a remodel. The company zoned every room so each has its own thermostat. It is very responsive so no need to wait for the room to get warm. Compared to a similar sized and aged house that we used to live in, it is waaay cheaper to run and the house is never cold. Plus we never need to worry about where the radiators are so can place furniture wherever we like. As the system is topped with plywood I don’t see why you couldn’t use wood flooring on top as long as the tog ratings are below a certain level. The company was called ‘wundafloor’ and was very helpful in giving advice. Perhaps call them?

Agree with pp, we have it in our bathroom and kitchen but find it really expensive to have on so rarely use it. As we have ceramic tiles, the floor is freezing!

There are 2 things we have recently had done that I would never do again, underfloor heating and real wood work tops!

I have ufh in the new portion of the house that is about 80 sq m in total, though I also have wall hung vertical radiators, as I have a lot of glass in the new part , big roof lights , and big glass doors, so wanted to be sure it would be warm enough.

I have porcelain flooring and ufh works v well with that .

I have a toddler and so spills etc are v easily wipeable .

But since having it done ... ive not used the radiators.

Have you got a tumble dryer? If not then don’t get rid of the radiators. I had electric ufh in my last flat in the bathroom and it was lovely when the floor was on and my feet felt so cold when it wasn’t! I would never put in tiles without it as they’re so cold, but I don’t think wood needs it. It wasn’t designed to heat up the room as we knew we’d want a heated towel rail too for cosy towels, and at the time the advice was that electric wouldn’t be enough to keep the room warm by itself, but perhaps that has changed now.

Are you sure your thermostat is set correctly? Definitely explore this as electric should work a lot quicker.

We had electric ufh installed in the loft bathroom and it comes on pretty much at the same speed as a radiator. I have read elsewhere that electric does come on quicker than water ufh but obviously more expensive.

Our plumber did make a mistake when they laid the ufh as they forgot to add the thermostat cable so it wiuld have come on and carried on getting very hot. Electrician pointed it out and Plumber had to break out a couple of the floor tiles to install it properly. It now works very well.