Wundatherm in retrofit, both floors?

[sendu]

I'm planning on getting UFH for both ground floor and first floor in my new house during a renovation. I think the house is standard construciton for the floors.

 

Wunderatherm's website makes it seem like retrofit on both floors is a solved problem with their slim boards.

 

But from reading some posts on here, is this not the case? Will the heating be very inefficient? Or will their product (or someone else's) reduce the heating bill and better maintain a good temp than normal radiators?

 

 

On a different point, I'm not sure I really understand the solution for the first floor, but with their joist option it wouldn't raise the height of the floors? But in any case I'd like to add engineered wood flooring on top, so my floor height will increase. How do you integrate that with the top of the staircase seamlessly? I do plan on changing the staircase; do you just tweak the stair heights a fraction so the top stair comes to the new floor height?

[ProDave]

As that thread says you need a LOT of insulation under the ground floor or you will be wasting a lot of heat.  What is the floor at the moment?

 

I am worried that you imply you are struggling to heat the house with radiators, that sounds like you have other issues to solve first?

 

If it's a full renovation I would take up the existing upstairs boards, lay the UFH between the joists using spreader plates, and fit you new hardwood flooring over the top on the joists maintaining the existing floor level.

[sendu]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

As that thread says you need a LOT of insulation under the ground floor or you will be wasting a lot of heat.

 

But isn't the point of the boards to be an insulator/reflector to get the heat to go up? Does this product really not solve the problem?

 

3 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What is the floor at the moment?

 

I think it's concrete on the ground floor.

 

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I am worried that you imply you are struggling to heat the house with radiators

 

I haven't moved in yet, I was asking a general retrofit-UHF vs radiator efficiency question.

 

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

it you new hardwood flooring over the top on the joists maintaining the existing floor level.

 

Currently the first floor is carpeted, so I expect engineered wood flooring to be thicker. Do you mean apply the engineered wood flooring directly to the joists and the spreaders, and not put back the existing floorboards? And hope that the thickness matches floorboards+carpet?