Underfloor heating for 2.6mm vinyl kitchen floor?

[flux44]

Hi,

I am about to lay my kitchen floor, but have a thought about how to go about something that's not standard.

• The floor which I am going to lay onto 1930 floorboards which are in good condition
• I would like underfloor heating as my house it quite cold
• I have already bought 1mm thick underfloor heating - as this was purchased as part of another project
• I need to make up a floor to approx 24mm deep to match the floor height of the tiles that were there before
• The ideal solution is to lay a ply subfloor on top of the floorboards, then the underfloor heating and then approx 5mm thick snap locking floor. Issue is, I can't find a suitable floor/pattern, I can only find a one in standard sheet vinyl, which is 2.6mm thick - The 1mm thick underfloor heating needs a protective hard layer on top of it, especially in a kitchen - all it would take is for a knife to drop on the floor which could cut through the vinyl and into wires or the heating element - not good.
• This is where my proposed solution deviates away from the norm...

My question to the forum is - is there anything wrong with layering the floor in the following way

1. 12mm ply subfloor onto wood floorboards
2. 1mm underfloor heating
3. 9mm ply as protective layer to underfloor heating (acting as the hardwood layer in snap locking vinyl)
4. 2.6mm vinyl sheet

Any help / advice - much appreciated!

 

[Jadele]

best advice is insulate the floor with PIR insulation ply board it and then you vinyl. Underfloor heating is really poor and putting 9mm of wood over it which is not a bad thermal insulator will reduce its effectiveness even more. It really is a costly poor performing heating method.