mark138

I’m considering replacing my first floor radiators with underfloor. I had an idea to attach underfloor heating pipe to the underside of my existing floorboards. I’m thinking it would be cheaper and less wasteful than removing the floorboards and replacing with a proper system like Omni Torfloor. Given it’s upstairs I’m not worried about insulation under it. Curious if this is a really bad idea or reasonable compromise to make it affordable? Are foil diffusers worth it or could I get away without? Planning to do heat loss calculations but haven’t yet.

I’d be very surprised if it had insulation cause it was either diy or cowboy builders. A drill hole should confirm. Not insulating and using existing radiators is probably what people would typically do. I want to consider how much more it would cost to do a quality job. I’m guessing membranes would be fairly pointless if you’re insulting the suspended floor from below as you can’t go over the joists with floorboards still nailed to them and you don’t want to cover the joists completely so they can breathe. I was considering using wood fibre batts instead of mineral wool as it would be nicer to work with and cheaper than hemp/sheeps wool.

Thanks, very helpful. So drilling a trial hole should be easy enough. The extension is about 16 years old. That image led me to: https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/post/suspended-timber-floor-insulation-best-practice-installation-guide Looks good, I’m curious how it could be done from below as I have a large void beneath half the house (it’s on an incline) which would save me taking up the floorboards. Maybe it’s just better to remove the floorboards and replace with something like https://omnie.co.uk/torfloor-suspended for UFH?

I’m renovating a 1950s detached house that has an extension to the rear. The original is suspended timber and the extension is concrete. I’d like to insulate the floor but the obvious thing to do seems to be to go under the floor boards and over the concrete. That would create a step between the two which I couldn’t live with. Building up over the floor boards creates problems with the stairs and front door. I’m assuming digging into the concrete to reduce the level would be a crazy amount of work? Is there an easy way to do that? I’m also considering under floor heating while I’m at it but I’d only do that if it was insulated beneath. Is there a perfect solution? Or what is the best compromise?