Under floor heating

[Scarface2003]

Hi,

I am in the process of extending my house and can't make up my mind if it's worth getting under floor heating. The house will have concrete floors downstairs and well insulated. I have read pro's and con's on the internet and don't know whether it is really worth it. Some say that if the under floor heating leaks then it's a massive cost and head ache to lift the flooring and fix and others say that there are no joins in the tubing so they can't leak unless you stick a nail through it. Few who have installed under floor heating say that you just get a trickle/or bit warmth under the floor and on your tiles/wooden floor and others say it heats the rooms really well.

If I compare it normal radiators then any heat or loss of heat will be in the room or through the walls into the next room. So you can heat the room in winter pretty well. But with under floor heating, any loss of heat will be under ground and then it will take significant amount of time to go through the concrete floor and through the tiles/wooden floor before the room heated up.

So could you please help, if you have had under floor heating, is it worth it or better to stick with normal wall hung radiators. I am going to put radiators upstairs on the first floor, again for the reason of any leeks.

Thanks in advance

[stimpy]

I had underfloor heating in the last place I worked, smallish studio with around a 16-20 capacity. It was encased in about 1 foot of concrete.

During the winter, the heating took about 2 hours to get the room to temperature from cold, seemed longer than ordinary radiators.

Also, even though it was continuous pipe and the joins were to a manifold above ground it leaked somewhere and caused damage to the floor below.

[mysterym]

We went the other route, had 40sqm of electrical underfloor put in on top of insulation boards, self leveled and then tiled. You can definately tell the difference when walking in our hall which is only partly heated instead of the kitchen/family room that is as even when cold the uninsulated bits are far colder. Well worth it. It wasn't cheap, we hired the best tiler we could find and have an amazing looking floor spanning 70sqm but it's worth the price.

We we purposely didn't even look at water underfloor as we didn't want to deal with blockages etc.

[k11jrp]

I installed a hot water underground heating for my kitchen. 200m of pipe, manifold and pump. I would never go back, the heat is a nice all over temperature in the room in winter no hot spots. Everyone who comes round loves it. In the winter I have it set to come on at 05.30 and then off at 18.00. It's by far the most efficient heating as it runs at 56 degrees. Never been concerned about leaks, it's encased in thick scree (do it right!!). The pipe is clipped to kingspan with the scree on top. I used laminate as top surface and that's great as long as you get the right underlay for under floor heating. Tiles work real to. If I built my own house I wouldn't have radiators anywhere apart from bathroom ( I have fitted under floor heating in there to)

[Scarface2003]

Thank you for the replies - just waiting to see if anymore forum members have had it installed and what they think.

[B B Leo]

its a great system if its run right!
people tend to think that it should be really hot like touching a radiator, and you should only really be heating up to a meter high anything else is just a waste!! u really dont wanna heat ur ceiling after all