Q on electric ufh ...

[ZakUK]

Had wooden floor installed in my new extension (6m x 4m) and planks warped after sometime. Dont want to risk it again with wooden floor, so decided to install porcelain tiles. Was told they would be really cold and unpleasant even with socks so advised me to install electric UFH.
Planning to buy materials in july, start ripping the floor out.
Could someone give me a quick crash course on ufh ?
Are they all the same? Which type is best/most efficient ? I know i will need isolation boards underneath it. 100w/150w/200w ?
What should i look for ? What i should avoid ?

Thx in advance !

 

[endecotp]

Could someone give me a quick crash course on ufh ?

Don’t.

Fit a floor covering that feels warm underfoot If you don’t want wood, use some sort of vinyl. If you had solid wood before, consider engineered wood; it should be more stable.

 

[ericmark]

You have wet and dry of course, the main thing is to stop overheating, so circulating water at 30°C is reasonably safe, but a resistive electric cable needs sensors in the floor, which can fail so need to be in pockets so they and be renewed, the other method is to use a chemical which when heated increases its resistance so no need for sensors in the floor, and no worry about hot spots, RayChem seem to be the market leaders in the chemical under floor heating.

 

[ZakUK]

I was looking at dry (electric) ufh as it is too late for wet one.

 

[ZakUK]

Don’t.

Fit a floor covering that feels warm underfoot If you don’t want wood, use some sort of vinyl. If you had solid wood before, consider engineered wood; it should be more stable.

U mean no ufh at all, but put vinyl on concrete and then tiles on top ?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Electric UFH is fine to take the chill of the floor but, in my experience, it is rubbish at heating the room as well. Put down tiles and buy some nice warm slippers.

 

[Lower]

Unless you have insulation in the floor, you may as well burn pound notes and expect them to heat the floor.

 

[endecotp]

U mean no ufh at all, but put vinyl on concrete and then tiles on top ?

I mean, don’t fit porcelain tiles if you want warm feet. Install something that feels warm underfoot.

 

[sparkymarka]

I had engineered wood floor in the conservatory at my last house ….it got red hot in there ….it never warped …

 

[ZakUK]

I had engineered wood floor in the conservatory at my last house ….it got red hot in there ….it never warped …

Not 100% sure why mine warped, but they did bad job installing it anyway. Had a little hill happen and when we lifted the planks, the glue looked like a honey comb. Didnt see signs of damp, but it could have been in a different spot which caused expansion which affected everywhere. Now just scared to risk it with wood ...

 

[ZakUK]

Electric UFH is fine to take the chill of the floor but, in my experience, it is rubbish at heating the room as well. Put down tiles and buy some nice warm slippers.

I have big radiator in the room already which does a good job heating the room.

 

[ZakUK]

I mean, don’t fit porcelain tiles if you want warm feet. Install something that feels warm underfoot.

Well, thats why we installed hardwood, but ...

 

[ericmark]

I fitted UFH in a wet room, thank god also put a towel rail in. The warm-up time is very long, it took an hour to be sure it was on and heating up, we removed the floor first, and fitted 9" of polystyrene blocks, and even with the UFH off, the floor felt warm, the UFH was not used that much.

 

[Murdochcat]

The human body is about 37 degrees so any floor will feel, to a degree cold. Tiles take a while to heat up so you need to plan ahead or leave it on a lot AND as you have a radiator in the room you would need a thermostat probe IN the floor to control the floor heating .

We have it in our shower room and whilst that isn’t big, leaving it on by mistake does show on our lecky consumption and bills

A few years ago a customer of mine had it installed in all their downstairs rooms - and after 1 winter stopped using it due to the costs and this was before the cost of lecky jumped

 

[morqthana]

I mean, don’t fit porcelain tiles if you want warm feet. Install something that feels warm underfoot.

You can get some very nice looking LVTs (Amtico, f'rexample)