special underlay for wet ufh? needed or not?

[Random46]

Do I need a special underlay for underfloor heating? my carpet has been laid without it - and i have been advised i need special underlay so my question is is it true? do i really need to take it up and redo it? will it damage the floor if i dont? - it is very hard to feel any heat in any of the carpeted rooms...

thanks

 

[Random46]

any ideas anyone?

 

[crazydaze]

Yes, you should have Underlay designed for UFH, these underlays will support the carpet correctly whilst being thermally efficient and stable.

We supply Duralay Heatflow UFH underlays on our flooring jobs. http://www.interfloor.com/underlay/heatflow-carpet/ The retailer you purchased the carpet from, or the fitter should have specced the job for UFH and should have discussed this with you, if they did not, I would be talking to them to come to an amicable solution as they do bear a responsibilty to specify the products correctly.

The carpet and underlay will have a Tog Rating which combined should not exceed the Tog specification of the UFH system.

In reality, most wet UFH systems will cope with a multitude of various types of underlay although efficiency will still play a part, electric UFH is far more critical that the Tog rating is not exceeded to ensure the system is not damaged (does'nt over heat) and runs efficiently.

 

[Random46]

hi, thanks for that, thats the story with everything in my house, everyone who i am coming to get to do jobs. are saying, why doesnt the house builder to xyz... simple answer is they just wont and it is more hassle and sleepless nights for me if i try.. so its up to me to put it all right, ive got a gas engineer sorting my underfloor heating out first... ill then see once they are sure its working right about pulling the carpet up, i had a quote for 400quid across 4-5 large rooms to pull up carpet and put down proper underlay, its not a massive expense but when your adding onto 1000s to put other stuff right, its annoying, thanks for the info

 

[crazydaze]

Is this a new build through a house builder or a project that you are managing?

As for the quote to sort the flooring, remember, the company that you have spoken too owe you nothing other than to give you the correct specification flooring and perform the job to standard, which is more than the original installer has done, so really, they should'nt be cutting their costs because someone else was paid top whack and messed it up.

If it's a wet UFH system, ensure the system is working 100% correctly before worrying too much about underlay replacement, you may well find that 'thermally' you don't need to replace it although 'efficiency' may be compromised. Electrical UFH would be of a greater concern and personally I would 100% want to know the Tog of the carpet, underlay installed and the systems spec.

Good Luck!

 

[Random46]

Thank you, yes its a wet ufh system, its a new build one off property with a small developer. The heating definitely works although very difficult to tell when its on in some areas, but its not setup correctly and needs attention, then i can look into the carpet, it has super thick carpet and underlay down currently all standard good quality carpet type stuff.

 

[crazydaze]

Thank you, yes its a wet ufh system, its a new build one off property with a small developer. The heating definitely works although very difficult to tell when its on in some areas, but its not setup correctly and needs attention, then i can look into the carpet, it has super thick carpet and underlay down currently all standard good quality carpet type stuff.

I would be very concerned about the 'super thick carpet and underlay' even over a wet UFH there is a limit as to just how effective the heating can be, it's really important to get the specs right regarding the Tog ratings, these can be easy to find if you know the carpet and underlay make and ranges, getting the heating spec is different, personally, it sounds like the builder has messed up the specs or certainly not gone through the right processes.

For example, if you had been a customer of ours, we would not be recommending thick carpets unless we had the UFH specs, based on the UFH manufacturers specifications, it's straight forward to match the UFH to the combined underlay and carpet and rarely do 'Super Thick' carpets fall into spec even on UFH specific underlays.

Have you had the discussion with the builder regarding these carpets? Surely the builder if given the contract to carpet the property, he should be supplying or rectifying any error?

As a retailer, we simply would never get away with brushing a customer off if when they turned their heating on, their rooms were'nt warming up!

 

[Random46]

here is difference between 31degrees on hard floor heating on for 30 min to an hour and heating under carpet on good 3 hrs

 

[Random46]

The heat just doesn't get past the underlay. ..by the looks of it