Underfloor heating

[HighOrchard1]

Advice needed for installing underfloor heating. We have solid concrete floors throughout our property, at present we only have Economy 7 electric heating. We are thinking about installing a wet system, which is best gas? oil? or electric. We are thinking of laying a silver foiled insulation sheet direct to the concrete floor then screwing down 2" x 1" battens, coiling out the pipes and then laying 18mm ply sheets on top then covering with various floor coverings ie: tiles, solid wood, carpet. Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

Advice needed for installing underfloor heating. We have solid concrete floors throughout our property, at present we only have Economy 7 electric heating. We are thinking about installing a wet system, which is best gas? oil? or electric. We are thinking of laying a silver foiled insulation sheet direct to the concrete floor then screwing down 2" x 1" battens, coiling out the pipes and then laying 18mm ply sheets on top then covering with various floor coverings ie: tiles, solid wood, carpet. Any advice will be appreciated.

Anything is better than electric, gas is the obvious choice. Think about floor covering, it`s basically a huge radiator in your floor, the more coverings you add the less it can radiate or convect. then think about laying your pipes. you can`t just lash them down anywhere they have to be zoned & temperature controlled, pick up a leaflet cos I don`t have the time Guy....

 

[lagunaglen]

underfloor heating is usually covered by about 65mm of screed for concrete floors, obviously you cant lay the pipes too close to the floor covering as it can overtime damage it.
I have seen heating pipes laid in concrete quite close to the surface and the old glue down floor tiles(plastic type from 70`s )had scorch marks on them.
Need to get some good accurate advice, pref from the manufacturer.
good luck

 

[Bambergaspipe]

I have seen heating pipes laid in concrete quite close to the surface and the old glue down floor tiles(plastic type from 70`s )had scorch marks on them

What a load of old b~ollox, never seen a hot water pipe scorch anything mate, different kind of heat.

So they removed the Seventies floor, installed underfloor heating then replaced the Seventies type floor? or was the underfloor heating installed before the Seventies?

 

[lagunaglen]

Its not a hot water pipe its a heating pipe , therefore it is heated far longer, and just cos you aint seen it doesnt mean it hasnt happened.

I have seen it and knew the cause of it, i was surprised but only an idiot would dismiss what i had to say as *******s unless they could prove it was impossile to happen.
I suggest you go back to college and ask your tutor if its possible , you cant prove it cannot happen and so i dismiss your comments as irrelevant and immature.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

Its not a hot water pipe its a heating pipe , therefore it is heated far longer

,

It`s a pipe filled with hot water regardless, you really are stupid aren`t you?

and just cos you aint seen it doesnt mean it hasnt happened.

It hasn`t happened because it`s impossible.

I have seen it and knew the cause of it, i was surprised but only an idiot would dismiss what i had to say as **** unless they could prove it was impossile to happen.

You seem to be of limited intelligence, did you see Elvis on your travels?

I suggest you go back to college

I suggest you go back to the Asylum, I think your rice pudding is ready.

 

[Corgigrouch]

BAMBI!!!!!!!

So nice to see ya mate...

You cannot believe just how upset we all were when someone told us that you were the unfortunate victim of mistaken identity and were sucked into an aeroplane toilet..

We're so pleased that it ain't true... Too big to fit Huh?


For underfloor you would be best off with lots of insulation under your floor, which I would suggest would involve digging up your existing floor. If you don't insulate properly, then all you will be doing is heating the ground below your home...

You have lots of options that are cheaper to run than LPG, oil or electric only.. Check out air to air heat pumps for your room heating an an air to water heatpump for your DHW.. If you have some land, then ground source works well

 

[lagunaglen]

Bambi ,thank you for your intelligent and informed comments,i think you are correct on everything you have posted, i stand corrected.
Do you mind if in future i mail you direct for your help and advice?

 

[lagunaglen]

So they removed the Seventies floor, installed underfloor heating then replaced the Seventies type floor? or was the underfloor heating installed before the Seventies?

Who said the pipes which had caused the scorching were from ufh?
They were flow and return pipes run in concrete through the house to individual radiators.
Facts , check them!!

 

[Bambergaspipe]

[quote="lagunaglen";p="979144I have seen heating pipes laid in concrete quite close to the surface and the old glue down floor tiles(plastic type from 70`s )had scorch marks on them.

Didn`t scorch tiles though did they, that would be ridiculous, be honest.

 

[HighOrchard1]

Hi guys, I,m sorry my query has caused a bit of unrest, this is the first time I have used the forum.
The reason I suggested the method of laying a thin (approx. 3-4mm) insulation sheet is that a friend of mine is having ufh done at the moment with the heat source coming from the ground (geothermal) at a cost of £25,000. This unfortunatley is out of my budget. I have asked the Heating engineer various questions and he has given various answers but it seems like asking a computer geek about and IT question, you do get answers but you nod and agree but still have no idea what they are talking about. I need simple lay-man answers that i can get my head round.
The heating engineer is laying the foil sheet over the top of the timber joists, then notching out the joists where required the fixing the pipe with standard pipe clips to the side of the joists, this is only about 20mm from the surface, and then 18mm ply sheets are then fitted on top. This is why I thought what I had suggested seemed no different to what he is doing albeit onto concrete and not timber.

 

[marsaday]

you will definitely need some decent insulation - prob 70mm of kingspan stuff. if you find a thinner product which give the same u values then that is great, but i dont think you can get any - i am not a plumber just a diy'er.

i have just done mine in the kitchen and it is great. def go for wet and not electric. try and keep the floor finish solid, such as tile, as this will radiate the heat outwards loads better.

i reckon you will be doing a lot of digging out unless you can raise your floor levels by the insulation and screed finish - approx 140mm

 

[lagunaglen]

You can get a product that does the same as kingspan but its around an inch thick, a friend used it on his new build where he wanted exposed beams but well insulated, but not sure of the name, some space age stuff i believe
Its just made up of dozens of differant layers but is expensive.

 

[marsaday]

yes, but thats not designed to take concrete on it. so not possible in this case.

 

[Norcon]

Highorchard 1 wrote

The heating engineer is laying the foil sheet over the top of the timber joists, then notching out the joists where required the fixing the pipe with standard pipe clips to the side of the joists, this is only about 20mm from the surface,

This doesn't sound good at all.
How much contact does the UF piping have with foil ?.

Is the UF pipework above or below the foil ?.


One method is galvanised heat diffuser plates that the pipe snaps into giving good contact with the pipe and more importantly good contact with timber flooring above.
If you don't acheive this all you end up heating is the void between the joists slowing down the effectiveness of the Uf heating.