UFH - what is the recommend distance for pipe centres for bedrooms etc

[ey143]

If I plan to have UFH installed on the first and second floors to cover hall ways, bedrooms and bathrooms, what is the recommended distance (or whatever the correct terminology is called) for looping the pipe centres to ensure adequate heating coverage?

Similarly, the same question goes for ground floor screed - does it differ?

I've had several quotes for supply only from different manufacturers but its difficult to compare as they vary the parameters.

Thanks.

 

[simond]

They vary them because of the heat requirement of the space and the ability of the type of floor surface to radiate heat and retain it.

There is some quite sophisticated software needed to work all this out so you need to choose a supplier and go with their recommendations.

There is a difference in quality between various suppliers even though the cheaper ones always say it is the same.

We use Nu-Heat, not cheap but they do the designs properly and indemnify us against their mistakes. I could buy all the stuff on eBay and rely on rule of thumb, but that's not the kind of installer we want to be.

 

[u587162]

Don't Nu-heat manufacture and install themselves too?

 

[Agile]

To get prepared you could try to calculate the heat loss of the rooms. Then work out the heat loss per square metre.

It may look simple but I would not really recommend the design as a DIY project.

Tony

 

[cjard]

It massively depends on the floor construction, covering, water flow temp and rate, loop lengths, heat source, pipe fixing method.. You need to go into a lot more detail

Heating hallways? I couldn't see the point in my build - the hall was central, surrounded by warm rooms and acts as a conduit for air moved by the MVHR. I'm probably not going to spend any time in the hall so why heat it directly?

Wunda's prices are reasonable, though they have an impressive sales and marketing machine that's ****ed a few installers off with incessant nagging and the occasional lack of support. I used "the underfloor superstore" for sourcing components for my build, didn't work to a particular plan or layout so my UFH might turn out to be a pile of ****
Hopefully not though, because fitting it to the underside of the timber floor took quite some time. THe groud floor was done by someone else, not because I couldn't but because I didn't have time. Turned out to be no rocket science - the screeders have a promotional video onyoutube of "what to expect on the day" that pretty much serves as a howto insulate, heat and screed your own floor. If you do decide to DIY it, read the MCS Heat Emitter Guide. It's not well rated by everyone but it's a reasonable grounding/start

 

[Agile]

My neighbour has had his reasonable detached brick garage demolished and a new reinforced floor screed laid over about 75 mm of insulation.

All for a garage!

Tony

 

[cjard]

exclaim that again when it's mid winter, ****ing it down and you spent 3 hours lying on his underfloor heated garage floor changing your clutch..

 

[Agile]

Yes, but the floor is not heated and he is about 80 and has never been seen working on his probably very reliable 2008 Toyota!

The whole garage job was almost a builder's delight. About three skips to take away brickwork. A mini digger with jack hammer to break up the concrete floor and then two more skips to remove floor.

Then 50 mm x 240 mm wooden beams to form the outside casing to contain the poured concrete and two 100 mm steel reinforcing mesh. Been curing over Christmas.

It looks like a £12k job for someone who has never seemed to have much money.

But his wife died two months ago and perhaps she had life insurance? She must be late 70s and went out on her bicycle daily to play tennis and would do 3-4 mile walk/jogs often faster than her indoors who could not keep up with her. But she had a nasty golf ball size cancer growth on the neck and refused any treatment. Cant say I blame her at her age as its very unpleasant and rarely successful.

Tony