Underfloor heating in double reception? Post Reply

[cookie19]

We are planning to fit new engineered wood flooring in our double reception of our typical btw victorian house. The radiator under the bay window is not very attractive and we are looking at underfloor heating as an option.

Has anyone had this installed and offer any advice ? Our thoughts are for a water based system - not electric.

As an alternative.... any thoughts on better looking radiators for the reception -particularly for under the bay window are also welcome.

Cheers.

[Bigbird]

Hi Cookie

I remember having to make this decision too and I felt it one of the trickier ones.

We have water based underfloor heating installed 2 years ago on entire ground floor (radiators on upper floors). It's been okay but I may think twice in future if I had same decision to make. The heat is a bit dry and uncomfortable; and heating difficult to adjust spontaneously although with time we've come to terms with this and don't fiddle with controls as much. Currently our dilemma is whether to buy a piano for the room cause apparently it wreaks havoc with pianos. I chose it because radiators can get in the way and its definitely been nice not to have to factor in radiators when planning furniture around the rooms.

There are some beautiful radiators out there. Modern ones that stand out of the way or ornate ones that are more of a piece - these are usually priced per section eg £50 and you're plumber needs to calculate how big a radiator your room needs.

Hope this helps and you work it out

[LP73]

We've just had a whole system fitted throughout our whole house (except the attic where it is not needed) in the ground floor and basement of our house we have engineered wood floor, we wanted real oak but it's not an option with underfloor heating. The system has only been in a month and all works great.

The benefit is that's warm for such a long time and each room can be controlled separately. Each panel does need to be set up individually.

The only downside is some of the manifolds are quite bulky and either have to go into a cupboard or be boxed in somewhere.

You will need a different underlay for UFH and a different glue is used as you cannot have it 'nailed' in.

Please shout if you have any other questions.

[LP73]

PS - def water system for such a space. Electric is only good for bathrooms when it can be switched on and off. It's also not as efficient as water.

[cookie19]

LP73,

who did you have install the underfloor heating and did they also install the wood flooring? If we decide to go ahead - I would be keen to know which thermostats/manifolds(?) you went with etc.

I'm guessing we'll need someone who can assess our boiler and how it will manage everything. We have only been in the house for 2 months and the boiler seems good - makes me not want to fuss with it since its working well but we need to make this decision before the new floor and redecorating happens.

thanks for your help!

[actuallyadad]

Definitely get UFH in the reception rooms and the whole ground floor. We also did in all upstairs bathrooms and it's great. Cheap to run and so warm.

Our wood floors which are UFH friendly are from Cheville in Fulham. cheville.co.uk

manifold goes in basement so no probs.

Wouldn't recommend our heating installer though. Cheville may know somebody

[Anna_Benett]

This is a very good article about underfloor heating:
http://www.wernerandwerner.co.uk/underf ... ating.html

[Tilly&Roo]

I can't help you with underfloor heating but we found good looking radiators through https://www.castrads.com. They have show rooms in Vauxhall & Wimbledon village.

[jonathan @ hamptons]

Hi Cookie,

I would have to agree with Bigbird on this one. We had our whole house fitted with underfloor heating when we renovated 8 years ago, the main driver being that we didn't want ugly radiators and you could push furniture right up to the walls. It works well, but it is only really good for controlling ambient temperature and not that great at giving instant heat. In average Autumn/Spring temperatures this is fine but on a week like this one you either have to leave it on permanently (not very cost effective) or at least set it to come on a good few hours before you want the room to be warm. Radiators may not be ideal but they do heat up a room pretty quickly so are much more controllable in a much shorter time.

Given my experience I would definitely fit under floor in tiled rooms (kitchen & bathrooms) as they heat up much quicker than wood floors, but would probably go back to radiators in principal rooms. I have actually now added a couple of radiators to give the ground floor a bit of a boost when the girls get back from school which is probably the least effective solution but at least it works!!

Jonathan

Hamptons International
98 - 100 Northcote Road
020 7924 2170

[cookie19]

Thank you all for all your thoughts!

I'm still working through the options and having one company come by next week to discuss installation.

Really - at this point - I need to see if we can find someone who will confidently install UFH and ideally also ensure that our boiler and whole heating system works as it should.

We will also look at possible new radiator options in case we decide UFH isn't the way to go.

More advice welcome!