Does underfloor heating work for existing build with suspended timber floors?

Can't find what your looking for? Our 'Ask the Expert' Q&A archive has hundreds of questions, all answered by our in-house experts, so click here to see if your question has already been answered.

 Back to discussions

Discussion started by kay
Started on Tue, 26/05/2009 - 15:55

Having our existing family room extended. The new section will have a concrete screened floor hence be suitable for ufh. Would like existing timber floor and hallway heated via ufh. We have an old 4 bed house which is proving difficult to keep warm. Although ufh can be fitted for suspended floors would like to know from experience if its effective and the permanent removal of radiators from all rooms would be justified. Also is real wood (engineered of course) flooring recommended for ufh or is it better to go with vinyl such as kardean?

back to forum
#1

Re: Does underfloor heating work for existing build with suspend

Mark Barber
Wed, 27/05/2009 - 07:34
Mark Barber's photo

It works best with concrete floors as the wood acts as an insulant.

Personally I wouldn't waste my money on UFH anyway as it puts you in the territory of the 'consultants' selling 'solutions' and you could buy a lot of insulation for the same price to airtighten the house.

#2

Re: Re: Does underfloor heating work for existing build with

SIMONB (not verified)
Mon, 08/06/2009 - 08:21
SIMONB's photo

I have used NuHeat ufh in a bungalow I built (6years ago) and an extension (ground and first) in my own home (2 years ago).

In the bungalow I put Kinspan Insulation in between the joists, laid the ufh on this and then screeded up to the top of the joist, laying water resistant chipboard over the top of this to create the floor. A solid floor was created at the back of the property, ufh was laid and screeded over. Some of this area is tiled, the other is carpeted. You can feel the heat in both of these area's.

In the extension it was put in the suspended floor at 1st floor level, NuHeat provided what looks like toughened tin foil that was laid over the joists, the ufh was then put down over the top of this (naturally in between the joists) with the flooring going on top of the pipe without any screed. Very effective and my daughters loved it. Downstairs it was a solid floor, so it was laid in screed. You can feel the warm/hot floor when barefoot (the floor was tiled) and again it is more than warm enough.

The only thing to bare in mind is that with ufh the warm up and cool down is longer than with radiators.

Hope this is helpfull.

#3

Re: Re: Does underfloor heating work for existing build with sus

Michael Holmes
Tue, 16/06/2009 - 14:14
Michael Holmes's photo

Underfloor heating is definitely more expensive than a basic radiator system, but I wouldn't have anything else now I've lived with it in a few houses. The house is always comfortable and you don't ever really think about heating - it's just there (OK except for when you get the oil bill!).
I disagree that UFH does not work with timber floors. Timber is an insulant, but you account for this in the output and as long as there is plenty of insulation underneath, it works well. I have always used engineered timber though, to avoid movement problems.
I agree, however, that UFH in timber floors is not an ideal solution for an old house, where there is a high heat requirement due to there being little or no insulation and lots of draughts. If you were to go down this route, it would be very expensive to run and may have trouble even giving enough output unless you improved the energy efficiency of the building.

Michael Holmes is the Editor-in-Chief of Homebuilding & Renovating, Real Homes and Period Living magazines, and presenter of several property TV shows. He has self-built three times and renovated over 25 houses, and is the author of Renovating for Profit

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <br> <caption> <style> <cite> <code> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <em> <hr> <img> <li> <ol> <p> <strong> <table> <tbody> <td> <th> <thead> <tr> <ul> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <span>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may insert videos with [video:URL]

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is to prevent computer generated spam submissions. Please enter the code exactly as you see it, with no spaces between characters, and with upper and lower case letters as displayed
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.