Underfloor heating removal

[FunPinkSwan]

Looking at purchasing a house ( East Midlands area) that has underfloor heating downstairs only- not sure what system is used yet, will find out tomorrow.

Would it be expensive to remove this and put back radiators on the wall ?

The house has a conservatory- is it possible it runs in there too ?

TIA

You don't need to remove it. Just leave it in situ and put radiators in. However If the floor is a solid floor then you will need to dig the floor up to put radiators in which will be pretty disruptive.
It could be in the conservatory too.

Can I ask why you want to remove it? It has a lot of advantages over radiators.

You don’t need to remove it, just get a plumber to isolate it / drain the system and then put radiators in, though this does take a fair bit of hassle - re wall & floor damage and then making good.

Why on earth would you want to remove UFH???

Put in a heated towel rail or whatever and keep the UFH. It's wonderful in my house.

I’ve read that it can be very costly and takes a long time to heat up. As it happens I really don’t like the floor and wanted to replace this anyway.

The other reason why is because it limits the choice of flooring you can have.

if I leave in situ could it cause any long term issues ? I believe there’s a choice of either a water system or an electric system.

heres the pic of the floor… I imagine it would be tough to replace …?

If it's wet heat it's the same or as cheap as a radiator. It's basically a radiator in your floor. It's in the subfloor, not the tiles - you can change those.

The electric mats are the ones that cost a lot.

With underfloor heating you can have carpet, tiles or wood so it doesn't really limit you at all, you just have to buy appropriate floor types so low tog carpet and underlay and engineered wood.

Also, they are supposed to be left on all the time, so ours is on low overnight, say 15oc and then higher in the evenings or at weekends when we are home.
It is more expensive to set it to super low over night because it takes loads of energy to heat it back up where as leaving it ticking over at 15 just knocks the boiler on the a few mins when it drops below 15 and then it switches off again soon after.

Underfloor heating tends to be cheaper than radiators as it runs on a lower temperature. Yes it is slow to respond but you quickly get used to it and how to set it up.

You can replace the tiles (wouldn’t be my choice either) without needing to change the heating and you can put down most floors. We have porcelain tiles that look like wood, really practical and have the warm look of wood.

If it’s wet underfloor heating (not an electric mat which is the expensive one). Then it looks something like this typically.

It is laid within the screed and you can easily change the tile or floor surface. It usually supports, carpet, tile, wood etc.

No issue at all.

You might be able to lay a new floor over the tiles and keep the heating?

Thank you so much everyone - definitely made me think differently about it and very helpful to see the pic @Bettergetthebunker - always good when you can visualise 😁

We've got rid of our radiators and gone for UFH throughout and it's considerably better. You don't get the hot spots you get with radiators as the heating is more evenly spread and it's lovely to walk on!

The key thing is whether it's a wet system or electric. Electric is expensive. We have a wet system powered by an ASHP.

It's in the screed so you just change the floor covering above if you don't like it. We have tiles, LVT or carpet, depending on room. You just have to check it's suitable eg carpet needs to be a lower tog rating which tends to mean avoiding the thick luxury pile type carpets. We had to remind the fitters to glue down the carpet tracks rather than nailing them down!