Underfloor heating - what do I need to know to consider this?

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Bog standard 3 bed semi.

I hate radiators and we do need all our flooring done

If theres a way of avoiding having a radiator system but still having heating it would be good

Is it workable, we have a combi boiler

Will I be toasty? We want hard flooring with rugs.

The bathroom would keep its radiator as it was done a few years ago and I dont want to change the flooring in there.

Following as we are considering for an extension.

Any underfloor heating gurus out there?

What kind of sub-floor do you have? What age is your house?

If you have suspended floors you can get insulation that hangs between your joists, then a system of click together floorboards with either electric wire or wet UFH going through them.

If your floors are a concrete screed (which will be likely on the ground floor of a 1950s onwards house) then unless you are prepared to have the whole floor dug up and relaid, you're a bit more limited because a wet UFH click board system will add quite a bit of thickness to your floor, plus flooring on top.

My recommendation would be to go into a DIY store and ask someone, or go on checkatrade and get someone round to quote (ideally a plumber if you want a wet UFH system running off your existing boiler).

The thing about 'proper' UFH embedded in 100mm of concrete screed (which is what I have) is that it's a much lower temperature than radiators and it just runs low all the time, so it has to be a separate circuit to your radiators. But electric UFH might be expensive unless you have solar and battery and can run it when your power is "free".

This is an example of "retrofit" wet Ufh. It is described as low profile but is 18mm at least - and if you have typical underlay and laminate flooring on a modern screed subfloor now, that's probably about 15mm already. https://underfloorheating1.co.uk/low-profile-water-underfloor-heating

You need to think about insulating below the Ufh so you don't lose the heat in the wrong direction! Our previous house (50s) had a concrete screed but it wasn't insulated to the ground below. Concrete is an excellent heat sink, so it would be warmed by the Ufh and radiate it out, some back up, but an equal amount down to the cold ground!! Whereas if you've insulated below your concrete it saves it and radiates much more of it back indoors.

Im not sure on some of the technicalities

We have a 1929 house which presumably has bog standard floor boards. Except the kitchen which appears to be concrete, the kitchen and dining room are open plan, the kitchen bit is miniscule, probably about 10 by 7 or so, perhaps smaller

We have horrible laminate throughout, including the main bedroom. A couple of the bedrooms are carpet.

Im wary of getting people round to quote, every single attempt at getting a tradesman round to come and look at stuff ends in nothing. Broken contact, not turning up etc etc. Someone was meant to be coming 'this weekend' (as precise as that), Messaged him yesterday, messaged him today, nothing, no response. This was a recommendation as well from someone who found him on checkatrade. I despair, we jsut cant get anything done

We would rather have electric as it seems more straightforward. Not too botherered about the cost as long as its not extortionate as I hate radiators so much

Electric underfloor heating for anything other than a small area is extremely expensive to run. Water UFH is much cheaper to run but costs more to install.

We have electric UFH in our up stairs bathrooms with tile floors but radiators and carpets in the bedrooms. Downstairs it's water UFH with ceramic tiles or engineered wood floors. We did a total renovation/extension so all the floors we either lifted, insulated and/or new plus a whole new boiler plus solar panels as part of the UFH
Personally, I think it would be very expensive to install UFH in a whole house just because you "don't like" radiators!

We had UFH installed when we had our kitchen extended. It's water not electricity-based.

It's toasty underfoot when it's on, but I've never been able to get it to a sufficient temperature to actually heat the room, despite the kitchen being triple insulated.

I wouldn't do it unless you have some other form of heating.

We had electric underfloor heating in a new conservatory and garage conversion. It was so expensive when we used it during the first winter that we ended up paying to have radiators put in there, so I would say go for “wet” underfloor heating rather than electric. This was before the prices went up as well!

Would thermaskirt be viable?
Uses skirting board style radiators.

I've not used them but about to buy a Reno and researching them to add floorspace.

Get wet under floor heating for that size of space, electric will cost a fortune. We have electric in the bathroom, PIL have wet in the kitchen and extension which just comes on when the heating does

ETA when I say costs a fortune, I mean to run not install. Electric is the cheaper installation. Also neither will heat your house unless it's a brand new sealed unit, like a passive house

Yes we were looking into the skirting board thing as well, OH is more keen on that but Im not sure I understand it in terms of how does it work across thresholds and doorways etc?

We have wet underfloor heating throughout in an 1815 house that's newly renovated, so well-insulated, but definitely not air tight, and have no problem getting it to heat the house. We love it, it's nice, consistent, ambient heat. The one thing I'd say is that it's important to get a zoned system so rooms can be set individually. We're in London, though, so not somewhere really cold.

Do not bother with electric or skirting board UFH. Former is extortionate to run and the latter provides insufficient heat and you’ll still need radiators.
UFH will only work well if your floor is insulated. First, find out if you have insulation in your current floor. Second, is it a wood suspended floor or concrete? If it’s concrete with no insulation, UfH won’t be worth it as you will lose all the heat down to the ground. Third, you need to consider floor height. You will be adding UFH boards and possibly screed, which will raise your floor levels by around 5-10mm. Your doors may need shaving/skirting changed etc

We have wet UFH and it’s wonderful! Haven’t noticed our bills going up and it gets lovely and toasty underfoot

Probably better to learn not to hate radiators. The expense of WUFH is going to be significant to install, although probably no worse than radiators in terms of costs to run.

As others have pointed out, to install it you are going to have to insulate the floor beneath to stop half the heat going into the ground if your floor is not prepared. That is going to be expensive and you are going to have to raise the floor or dig it out. The problem is that the whole think is fixed in, so if there are any problems either from the installation or in the future then digging it out is a major hassle.

Electric is a lot cheaper to install but generally ruinously expensive to run over large areas.

If it is not your forever home and you intend to sell at some point in the future you also need to think whether it adds value. In a big detached run by a heat pump it probably does. In a standard 3 bed semi you are probably unlikely to recouperate the massive installation costs of a wet system when you sell it.

Edit : And at some point no matter how wary you are of getting people to quote at some point you are going to have to get someone in to price it if you want it.

Get some nice radiators! Electric UFH costs a fortune to run, and you might not be bothered by the cost now, but you will when you get your first bill. Plus the cost of installing it in the first place.

There's a reason why 90% of the homes in this country have radiators - yes, they're not the most beautiful thing in the world, but they do a job and (in the main) they do it well.

We have wet underfloor heating. Early 1990s build so concrete floor - we just raised the floor ever so slightly to accommodate. We tiled on top as they're apparently best for retaining heat once turned on. I hate the tiles because I feel like I spend my life hoovering and mopping but love the UFH.

I've got quite a big open plan house and never have any issues with getting warm or retaining heat. I've not noticed a difference in cost either.

We're moving soon and will definitely install UFH in the new house.

We put in electric underfloor heating downstairs when the rooms were done. I do love it and the warm toes feeling is luxurious. It wasn't too expensive to install, even with the need for insulating underneath.

BUT in the past couple of years the cost to run has shot up. If I turn it on, I end up just watching the smart meter and crying. We have solar panels, but at this time of years there is very little generated, certainly not enough to run the floors. Also, wood is very insulating, so if you want hard wood floors, you won't get much heat coming through. Certainly couldn't just have it and do away with the radiators.

We have electric underfloor heating in our bathroom. It's so expensive to run, but the tiles are really cold underfoot without it. I wouldn't have it again, especially in a larger area - I'd either get a wet system or no UFH and a warmer (wood or vinyl) flooring.

We have hardwood floors throughout, no radiators, with wool rugs in a lot of the rooms, and don't have any issues with not getting enough heat.

That's good for you. I have laminate in one room and engineered wood in the other and the laminate gets much more heat through.

I dont know how feasible this is likely to be then

And the radiator thing isnt just the appearance, I can get nice radiators thats not a problem, its the space they take up, nearly all our rads are behind furniture, I resent the domination of them dictating where things go.