jimboban

Thanks all - I really appreciate all advice provided - if anything it is really making me reevaluate the “decision” to go down the UWH route (it’s always been lovely when we have stayed in cottages in the highlands etc - but always in “small” rooms!) - perhaps I now need to look at the wider plan for the kitchen and find a better route forward - maybe that will need me use rads at one end of the room and UFH at the other for specific areas to warm the floor. I’ll start a new thread in the right area in a bit, no doubt wiser minds that me will point out some winning ideas once I get some plans up etc ? thanks again Jim

Thanks Simon - that was a real eye opener hadn’t even realised such sites existed! (Not for me but very interesting) I’ll start a thread about the kitchen somewhere more relevant ? For now, I think you gents are kindly telling me the “overlay” approach is crap ? (?) - will get back to my drawing board!!

Thanks onoff - it’s certainly a bit of a project (I probably need to start a blog!) - it’s got an interesting history and sat empty for 11 years until I bought it (I need to rename it the money pit!!) my worry is the extra cost of digging it all out / I’m desperately trying to fit the new kitchen into a £100k budget and everything just comes in so bloody expensive... (silly me, originally I was hoping 50k would get me the kitchen done - shows what i know!!) I should probably do a wider thread about “project kitchen” - May be that some clever types on here can find ways for me to do things in a better way! i’ve had 9 builders round now, no one bloody comes back to me - the one guy that did came back asking for over £500k - so I’m resigned to just getting to grips with it myself and getting contractors in to do the actual work - although sadly I have zero experience so it’s a chicken and egg game!! ? (And I am getting so bored of people seeing a nice big house and adding a zero to their quote!) thanks to all for input so far ?

Thanks guys Paraphrasing, are you saying that an “overlay” type approach is not going to work well? (Without digging up the floor underneath to insulate - which would then make the overlay factor redundant? :-)) Do you think perhaps if I use something more modern for flooring (stone effect for example) that would alleviate some of the need to heat constantly? house is pretty well sealed already - the room is question is if anything too warm at present - whilst I am re-doing the inside, the house was only built in 1975 and seems to be full of insulation everywhere I look!! ive attached some plans for interest - this is the ground floor and I am converted the top right area marked bedroom and bathroom into a kitchen / day room :-) best Jim

Thanks Dave To be honest, (possibly for no good reason) my thinking is that I want to try and avoid that if possible (the room, 20 years ago, used to be a swimming pool, the existing floor seems solid, but I dread to think what I might find if I go down...some things possibly best not known!!) I'd come across this (hopefully sharing a link is not bad on here, I am making no recommendation!) https://www.wundatrade.co.uk/shop/home/water-underfloor-heating-kits/wundatherm-tiling-underfloor-heating-kits-filter/80m-wundatherm-ultimate-single-zone-underfloor-kit/ Which looks like a low-profile overlay option for about £2k (obviously missing all the electronic bits, labour etc!) - am I in cloud cuckoo land and is this a bad route to take - if I dig out 100mm of flooring, will that be a better approach to take in terms of it actually working? Room is currently very well insulated in general, holds heat well - but getting rid of the rads, and adding stone/slate flooring worries me it might get a bit chilly - hence the UFH needs to work well I guess efficiency also important due to size of room and not wanting heating £££ to increase massively!! Thanks Jim

Thanks ProDave - quick response much appreciated The "mega-expensive" quote I think was mostly to fund this chaps mortgage for the next couple of months - this is their scope  To supply and fit Underfloor Heating polubutylene Pipe  To supply and fit Conduit for exposed underfloor heating pipe  To supply and fit overlay floor panels with end returns  To supply and fit 12 port steel Manifold  To supply and fit stainless steel manifold UFCH Control Pack  To supply and fit 2 port spring return Zone Valve  To supply and fit 1 x Standard Programmable room stat  To supply and fit single zone master control unit So - I think they're proposing an overlay system, which I guess makes for an easy life - Our original height was exactly 2400mm - but since then we have removed the existing laminate and underlay - so I imagine we have saved a few mm - but not a full 100... I guess the overlay systems are significantly lower profile? Best Jim

Hi Guys First post on here - thanks in advance for help and assistance - I am trying to learn quickly, lots left to learn! For the avoidance of doubt, I know enough about general building concepts etc to know that I don't know very much at all - nonetheless I am determined to get to where I need to! I am in the early stages of refurbishing our entire house (6,500 sq. ft) and working on getting all the various components together for the first "room" we are going to work on - and ideally I'm looking to deploy UFH rather than other heating approaches to free up my wall space. I'm reasonably ahead of the game in terms of the basic parameters of the house - we have two shiny new 30kw boilers working in tandem with a header tank - so we have lots of spare "heating capacity" - they barely broke a sweat over the winter - My intention as we refurbish rooms in turn is that I'll run new pipework for everything directly back to the boilers - I don't trust what is currently in the house and if it goes in fresh, I know it's done right. On this level of my ground floor, I have 4 interconnected rooms - my intention is to have everything going back to a single manifold for this level (not necessarily going to UFH the other 3 rooms yet, but need to leave capacity on the manifold for when I do) The first room I am going to work on is going to end up as my kitchen - we've just pulled out everything in the room, so back to a bare screeded floor and walls are back to brickwork etc I have circa 80 sq. mt to cover (yes, I know as it's a kitchen, nothing to go underneath units etc!) - roughly 8 x 10 and almost a perfect rectangle - we're intending to lay slate tiles or similar as a final floor covering The room is currently 240 high - I don't mind if we lose a little height to make doing the floor easier/more cost effective I am thinking we could lay an insulative material over the existing concrete base, run UFH on top of that, then re-screed to finish the floor followed by tiling over that (or maybe even polished concrete instead?) - guessing this will be more effective/cost-effective than some of the overlay approaches I have seen at trade shows? My kitchen design firm have had "an underfloor heating expert" visit to provide a quote - when he was here I got the impression he'd had a previous life selling double glazing - and lo behold, when his quote came in it was about 15k+VAT (which, correct me if I am wrong, is ridiculous for an empty 80sq mt space for just the UFH and manifold?!) (Manifold sized to support the 4 rooms it will end up as, total about 160 sq mt - but quote wasn't to UFH those other 3 rooms!!) Would appreciate any thoughts - I can supply pictures or plans of existing floor plan if that would be useful - any input appreciated (maybe I am going about things totally wrong!) - not entirely sure where to start to get a more realistic quote to do things - desperately trying to find a way to make UFH stack up and at £18k it won't (so I'd be putting radiators back up!!) Thanks in advance Jim