Underfloor Heating DIY

Underfloor heating costs a minimum of £395 plus vat for a single zone of 20sqm. Prices for larger areas depend on the amount of zones and size of the floor areas. Please contact us for details.

Underfloor heating works well with heat pumps as they give a constant low heat temperature. This sort of heat pump works very well with larger projects, unlike extensions, where they become costly. See www.ecoheatpumps.co.uk for more details.

Solar panels can either be used for hot water, which doesn't affect the heating, or it can be used for heating. As with heat pumps, the water is at a lower temperature than a normal boiler. This is ideal for underfloor heating, because this also works at low temperatures. Care should be taken when designing underfloor heating, as the flow temperature depends on underfloor heating pipe work centres. See www.ecoheatpumps.co.uk for more details.

The underfloor heating extension packs are designed to be fitted into a solid floor. You can fit underfloor heating on or in most floors but the type of floor construction you have will affect the amount of kit and controls you need. In this case, you may need to send us some drawings for a design to be created. This will not necessarily increase the cost. See these diagrams for further details:

Underfloor heating on a suspended timber floor

Underfloor heating in a suspended timber floor

Underfloor heating in aluminium plates

Underfloor heating in aluminium plates on an existing floor

Yes. It is about 15-20% cheaper but it will depend on the heat source used to heat the water. The new condensing boilers are a lot more efficient when working at low temperatures and have lower return temperatures which helps the condensing process.

Any plumber who is used to basic heating zoning can do this. The extension packs have all controls, so you can zone it off to the rest of the system. With UVHW systems you have heating and hot water zones, so you can use one without the other. You should then add a third zone or if you have a combi boiler you would create two zones. See this page for more information.

Yes, you need an electrician to wire all the underfloor heating. It is very simple to wire up and comes with wiring diagrams. It also needs to be wired in a way that gives you separate control of your underfloor heating and hot water. See this page for more information.

Yes, you can have carpets as long as the underlay and carpets do not exceed 1.5 tog. This means you cannot have too thick an underlay as it will hold back all the heat.

Yes, you can have laminate flooring as long as you don't sit this on a thick underlay. This will act as insulation and will hold the heat back.

Pipework should be off all walls about 100mm, in which case you will need to nail the screed. On a timber floor care should be taken when nailing the floor down. If you do nail a pipe, repair sockets are available.

The underfloor heating pipework is easier to install than radiators, as you have all the information about pipe centres and pipe lengths given to you by us. The connection is simple as you just have to zone it like heating and hot water in a conventional manner or UVHW. See our pack instructions for more details.

In a new build house in solid screed floor it is as cheap as radiators. In a timber floor, the equipment prices are very similar but building works may make it more expensive. Aluminium plates are also more expensive. Please contact us for details.

Night setback means instead of setting times at which the system is on or off, you set a minimum temperature at which the underfloor heating is shut off. If you set your off temperature to 12°, this means that your heating is off unless the temperature drops below 12°. See an image of the programmable digital clockstat.

Underfloor heating is cheaper to run, easy to install and with prices from £395 +vat it is not an expensive option. Underfloor heating is also a better kind of heat and warms the room more evenly. Read more on this page.

The pipe is guaranteed for 50 years. All the brassware is guaranteed for 10 years and all electrical components, e.g. stat, pump, zone valve have manufacturers warranties of 1 year.

Underfloor heating is ideal for conservatories. Owing to high heat loss from such rooms, you have to give separate control to meet with part L of the building regulations, which underfloor heating permits. Also, many conservatories tend not to have much wall space to install radiators. Read some of our satisfied customer comments with regards to conservatory installations.

The underfloor heating pump is used to pump water around the underfloor heating network. When the thermostatic head is satisfied with the water temperature, the head will shut off and stop taking water from the boiler. The pump then keeps the water pumping around the heating system.

The screeded method is the preferred method, but care should be taken to make sure the timber joists are able to take the weight of the screed. This is around 25kg per square metre. The metal plates do not have the same weight but can be costly to buy.

Yes, but because of creating a separate control and the floor preparation that is required for such a small floor area, it can seem quite costly. If it is a big bathroom with a large floor area, it becomes a great way to heat the bathroom. If you are thinking of having underfloor heating in your bathroom, you should not have any 240 volt outlets in the bathroom. You should therefore use a bathroom stat, which is a stat that goes on the outside of your bathroom with a low voltage sensor in the bathroom area.

Check with the timber floor supplier that it is ok for underfloor heating to be installed and leave the flooring in the room with the heat on, so it can acclimatise to the temperature in the room.

The manifold is used to connect the underfloor heating floor pipework. This means there are no joints under the concrete floor; it is one continuous run. The manifold is a mixing manifold and therefore needed to mix the hot water from the boiler to attain the lower temperature for the underfloor heating. See a diagram of the manifold for more information.

The manifold is 450mm x 450mm in size, but should be placed on the wall high enough to bend the underfloor heating pipework into it. Ideally, the top of the manifold should be positioned between 600 and 700mm from the floor.

The manifold should be placed as close to the room that is to be heated as possible. If it is a multi zone system, the manifold should be placed as near to the centre of the house as possible so as not to heat any of the rooms with pipework from another room.

The system should be pressure tested before screeding and left tested while screeding. If any damage was caused while screeding you could therefore check the pressure easily.

No. The heat under the units will cause the cupboard to sweat and warm the contents of any cupboards.