Would you recommend underfloor heating to heat a room 8m x 8m?

[SpaceTrain]

We are having an extension built and DH is keen to use underfloor heating. However it will be a large room (8m x 8m) with one wall all glass and I'm concerned that underfloor heating won't be sufficient.
My only experience of it so far is in our en suite, which is a tiny room. The underfloor heating does take the chill out of the tiles in the morning, but I wouldn't say it heated the room.
So, is hubby being daft and should we really consider radiators?

there are different types, what type are you thinking of?

we were thinking of the type that runs off the hot water tank

that should be ok, the electric doesnt do more than warm the tiles.

That's great, thanks womble. It is the electric type we have in our ensuite, which is what had put me off.

I fantasise about under floor heating (sad, me?). How expensive is it - the type that works, I mean?

We've been told that for the hot water type it is about £500 for an area of 20 square metres. Our extension is larger than that, so I am assuming about £2000 plus extra for the gubbins.

You have to be careful with the types of flooring you have with it - Amtico and real wood are out, so we will have to go with laminate. If you want it in an area with carpets, you need to use thin underlay, as otherwise the heat won't come through.

It is meant to be a right pain to install in an existing room, which is why we are only considering it for the extension.

There are wooden floors that can be fitted with (water) underfloor heating.

All our rooms are already in existence, sadly. The extension was built before we got here too. This is why it's a fantasy at the moment. but I'm hoping that one day we'll sell this place and downsize to nice little place where we could get the floors up before we move in and get it all installed.

Does it add a lot to the bills to run it?

Am very btw!

It is meant to bring your bills down by 15-20% as it is a more efficient way of heating.

Marmaduke - that is interesting re the wooden floors. We were told we couldn't have them. I will look into that further.

Engineered wood florring is recommended for underfloor heating

I have underfloor heating throughout the ground floor of my house. The biggest room is the kitchen/family room - just over 9m long x 6m.

It is the only form of heating in the room and we have large gloss ceramic tiles on the floor and lots of windows. It is on when the central heating is on (we have a wet system with individual thermostats for each room) - around 2hrs twice a day (morning and evening)and is generally sufficient to warm the room. In very cold weather it does struggle a bit as the heat is supposed to be ambient rather than the hot blasts given by rads. We will be knocking through into the utility at some point which will make the room a similar size to yours - 9m x 8m and I think we will add a nice, modern rad to the room to keep the chill off on colder days.

Ooh, that is really interesting TTP - thank you.

Do you have engineered wood in other parts of your house? If so, how have you found it? With a boisterous toddler and a baby on the way I am concerned it will not be practical with regards to marking etc, which is why despite me saying "no laminate!" we are now erring towards this.

I don't have engineered myself but my Mum is in the process of converting a huge barn and will have engineered wood in almost all of it - all aside from 3x bedrooms, 5x bathrooms, a downstairs loo and the kitchen and boiler room. She also has a very swanky (much more complex than ours!) wet system installed. They wanted solid oak floors but were advised against it because natural wood can warp, shrink and split when used in conjunction with ufh. Engineered wood was the best compromise (although her DP wasn't impressed!).

She will have wood in the 2 other bedrooms, the living area which also has a huge glass wall/picture window (around 16ft wide x 20ft tall!), all halls, corridors and landings.

They went for a the best quality engineered floor which can be sanded up to 3 times. They haven't fitted it yet, the flooring is in the house 'acclimatising to the atmosphere' and will have to be laid and left with the underfloor heating on full for 2 weeks before they can move in to allow for maximum shrinkage and movement. Seems a bit overkill to me but that was what was advised by the specialist who sold them the flooring and I suppose they are the experts....

Sorry, I meant to say that given that mum hasn't lived with the flooring yet I can't say how robust it will be but it will certainly be tested as she is laying it in high traffic areas and she has a dog !

We have engineered wood flooring in a very large area, approx 8m by 4m, with electric underfloor heating.

We have 2 DC's and pets, and the wood is fine. BTW we had to do what TheThoughtPolice's Mum is doing to 'acclimatise' the flooring too.

We have loads of windows, and velux windows in this space, and I would suggest another heat source as well, as when it is really cold, the heating does struggle.

I also would say that our bills have gone up massively, so if I were to do it again, I would have radiators/water system as the main source of heating, and if I used electric again, it would be for cold mornings/on very low to get the chill off the floor only.

Oh I forgot to say, the engineered wood has lasted and worn very well, unless you drop something very very heavy, very hard!

Oh, its all so confusing! And that acclimatising lark sounds expensive - heating on full for two weeks!

I'm also concerned by your comments KerryMum. No way do I want to go to all the expense of doing the development and fitting it out, then have to have part of it ripped out again to install radiators.

Yep, that's what I have concluded is best KM. Just glad I asked MN now rather than rely on DH! Apparently you can get "radiators" that are like skirting boards. Might look into them if they are not too expensive.

Kerry is you ufh wet or electric? The wet one is much more efficient. We have electric (was here when we bought) not eough to heat kitchen with stone floor, also more expensive to run than a wet one.

You can get rad systems that are behind fatter than average skitings - regularly in the back of Grand Designs.