Concrete flooring & UFH - is this reasonable?!!!!

[Newkidontheblock]

Hi All,

I'm new to all this,just bought my first house. Some help would be much appreciated!

We currently have the following:-

Sand
Dpm
Insulation
Underfloor heating pipes

We are in the process of obtaining quotes for concrete to go over the pipes. We were told by a builder that we would require about 5 cubic metres and this would be completed in a day. This will cover the whole ground floor of a 3 bed terrace. The quote comes in at £1,400.... Reasonable??? He will lay in total a thickness of 5 inches.

Any ideas or thoughts would be great.

Many thanks guys

 

[pred]

I thought the pipes were laid on top of the concrete and then screeded over

 

[Newkidontheblock]

http://www.ukunderfloorheating.co.uk/technical/floor_construction/

Linked to the diagram underfloor heating in a concrete floor.

Guess this is our construction. Any problems with that rather than screed?

Thanks

 

[Deluks]

What's under the sand? If there's a solid concrete base under there then you need to be topping off with screed, not more concrete.
You can do it the way your builder is doing, but the surface of the concrete will need finishing, or a self levelling compound added on top, to give you a flat finished floor.

You should have the pipes about 40mm down from the top of the finished concrete, about slap bang in the middle.

 

[Newkidontheblock]

Deluks,

No solid concrete base under the sand. He mentioned that he would use the self levelling compound so I'm glad this is starting to sound reasonable!

He suggested 5 inches over the pipes to get back to skirting level. Too thick?

Thanks

 

[Deluks]

Cable tie the pipes to wire mesh (on top), A98 or A142, the latter probably easier to come by. Raise the mesh up so the pipe sits roughly in the middle of the slab. Don't let him dump all the concrete on top of the pipes otherwise the slab will take forever to heat up, and make sure the pipes have water in at the recommended pressure before laying the concrete.