Underfloor Heating - anyone got this?

[berries]

Has anyone got underfloor heating with floor tiles, and if so, is it any good? We're still planning the kitchen & I would love slate floor tiles, but hate having cold feet, so thought this might do the trick.

[hoxtonchick]

We've got a slate kitchen floor & it's gorgeous. When we were planning it my mum predicted doom & gloom & cold feet but she was wrong! It really isn't cold to walk on at all in bare feet. And although it looks very uncomfortable, our 12 month old ds crawls around it very happily. I say go for the tiles but not the heating.

[berries]

WOW - under 5 minutes - dh will be SO impressed (esp if he thinks he'll save the money on the heating)
Thanks Hoxtonchick

[RosieT]

A very rich friend of mine has got this in her kitchen (under limestone), and I have to say, it does feel most luxurious. No idea how much it costs, tho, although I'm told it's not as much as you might think. Don't know what you do if there's a leak/problems though ? wouldn't you have to hack up the whole floor? If your kitchen's warm anyway, I'd be inclined to opt for a pair of nice slippers.

[hoxtonchick]

Glad to help, berries. Oh, and thinking about it a bit more (I am sad...), we don't have any heating in the kitchen at all (gets lots of heat from the living room & utility room) & the floor still isn't cold.

[SueW]

We have tiles in our utility and back porch and the floor is freezing even though there's a double radiotor in there!

We want to have something solid - either Amtico or ceramic tiles - put in the hall but it's such a big area that we wouldn't do it without heating underneath. Aren't there sort of electirc membranes available now?

It might make a difference whether your floor is wooden or concrete - we have concrete floors throughout and even the living room floor which has good carpet and underlay gets cold in winter.

Mind you, I am pretty nesh.

[Eve]

Don't you find Mumsnet is physic..I have been looking up Underfloor heating as we are having a garage conversion , then a quick check on Mumsnet and the topic is here!

For kitchen floors which is only to warm the floor not heat a room as I require, apparently the Wicks undertile heating is the best (£99). I have only seen it in their little book and how to leaflet, but basically involves taping a wire on the floor then tiling on top as normal. Seems fairly straightforward to do.

I have teracotta tiles on the kitchen floor and they are freezing to walk on. Wish I had some heating under them.

[Demented]

Eve, yes Mumsnet is psychic! We are planning on redoing our kitchen soon and underfloor heating has been a 'hot' topic (excuse the pun). I can't believe it is being discussed here, I also can't believe I didn't think of asking here myself.

We are thinking of getting the electric type as DH saw somewhere that it only costs 1p a day to run. At the moment we have tiles on the concrete kitchen floor and it is freezing. I would like something like quarry tiles but feel it would need heating, DH fancies wood but I don't think this would be practical as our back door opens straight into the kitchen with everyone trailing the muck from the garden, I feel tiles would wear better. Would love to hear anyone's experiences. Thanks.

[SofiaAmes]

We've got slate in our kitchen/dining (all one room) area and they are great. No underfloor heating and haven't really felt the need for it. I rarely go around in bare feet though, as this country is way too cold for that! Make sure you put protect the slate from staining with a good expensive product. Also, we used a dark grey grout so that it wouldn't end up looking dirty. Eve, we originally wanted to put quarry tiles in, as they would have been the original flooring in that particular room, but decided that they would stain and chip too easily for a kitchen and they are also very expensive.

[reager]

We got the electric underfloor heating in the bathroom for underneath limestone. It is great and takes the edge off. It has a program / menu screen installed next to light switch that you can set up temperature and when it comes on. From what I can remember it wasn't that expensive. Definately worth getting a quote...

[bid24]

Have just bought a house with underfloor heating. Yes it's great that the kitchen floor is warm first thing in the morning (slate tiles) but it's very hard to control, slow to warm up when it's cold and hard to cool down when you've overdone it and have a house full of sweating guests in December!
We might just need more time to get the hang of it - however the kids do love it and we all enjoy siting on the floor to watch TV (it's all through the downstairs).

[suedonim]

Our friends have just had u/f heating put in their bathroom, beneath ceramic tiles. It's pretty useless as the floor is freezing except in the areas where the actual heating elements are. Stepping out of the bath or shower is a nasty shock - brrr!

[bea]

dh's grandparents have just had it installed, and i must say it is lovely!, they have tiles! it's not a huge rush of warmth as you would expect, but justa little glow and cosy feeling! it's always on! (being oldies) and i would recommend it! dd also loves to cralw around onit... whether this is because it's cosy... or whether she likes sliding on the tiles... who knows???

[bid24]

Have just bought a house with underfloor heating. Yes it's great that the kitchen floor is warm first thing in the morning (slate tiles) but it's very hard to control, slow to warm up when it's cold and hard to cool down when you've overdone it and have a house full of sweating guests in December!
We might just need more time to get the hang of it - however the kids do love it and we all enjoy siting on the floor to watch TV (it's all through the downstairs).

[aloha]

Oooh, snap! I want slate tiles with underfloor heating too! I have even picked out my tiles (Wickes, so cheap). What a useful thread.

Hmm... wondering now, are slate tiles the new equivalent of calling your children Jack & Chloe I don't care - like them anyway.

[berries]

Thanks for all the responses. We have seen the electric underfloor heating in Wickes, & that looks great for warming up the tiles (although will bear your point in mind Suedonim). I'm interested in anyone who has the water one - tubes under the tiles - or any underfloor heating without any other heating in the room. We will probably need to get an upgrade on the boiler when we have the work done, but if the underfloor heating was enough to warm the room, rather than just the floor, we would be ok.
Bid24 - this sound like the ones you have, have you any other heating in the room? I'm really nesh so need to keep warm.

[Katherine]

This is probably not a useful contribution but will mention it anyway. We have reclaimed quarry tiles on our kitchen floor (bedrock underneath so quite chilly) and a rayburn. The rayburn warms all the tiles nearby and its lovely to stand on with bare feet although we do end up falling over the dog all the time! The rest of the tiles are very cold to walk on, not that its a cold room with the rayburn on. We are planning to build a small extension on the back and plan to use underfloor heating under more quarry tiles or stone. We are hoping that perhaps it can be linked to economy 7 and so warm up over night and cool down gradually through the day. I suppose if you have thick enough tiles or flag stones this would work but I understand its very cheap to run anyway. Would definielty recommend having something under the tiles but whether you need more heating depends on how you use the room. If it is a cooking space then will get warm anyway, If you sit around in there a lot then maybe you need something a bit more but then if you have it on all the time it should really warm the room up after a while but would imagine it will take quite a while to warm up as someone mentioned as it will need to heat up the tiles before the tiles start warming the room.

[Katherine]

wow - brain seemed to have forgotten what a comma was for a while there!

[susanmt]

Just saw this!
We just got back from hols to find the electrician had finally been and connected up our (wickes)underfloor heating under our (Wickes) slate tiles and it is heaven. It makes the whole room feel warmer all the time (we have had it on the whole time) - I am really really pleased with it and dd (3) keeps jumping from the hall to the kitchen going 'cold floor! cosy floor! cold floor! cosy floor!'
The only thing I would say is check the loading on your circit - we needed a new cable into the kitchen as we had so much on the circit already, but we have abig kitchen with loads of sockets etc.
I would say go for it - and enjoy!!!