Retrofit underfloor heating?

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caljane

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We live in a 1980s bungalow, 86sqm. We have been advised that due to leaks in our heating system, we should consider replumbing the central heating system, installing new rads. This could be done by dropping pipes from the attic since it's a bungalow.

I'm wondering should we look into underfloor heating instead. Obviously I will get both options quoted but I presume there's additional work as well as just installing the underfloor heating?

Is it a realistic option?
 
I've met more people who were unhappy with their underfloor heating, then were happy with it. Most felt it wasn't very good, when it came to heating entire rooms
 
Just finished having it retrofitted into a few rooms of our house. It’s absolutely doable and gives you the opportunity to improve the insulation in the floor and get them nice and flat for whatever covering you want to install. You can also add cables, move pipes etc. It is however very disruptive as you’ll need to have the existing floor broken out then have new insulation and floor screed installed. I imagine it will be significantly more expensive than just dropping in new radiators, though the price of plumbing stuff has shot up so worth getting a quote.

Cannot comment on performance yet, but anecdotally anybody I know with it swears by it. MrEarl I wonder are the people you refer to using electric UFH or maybe don’t know how to use it properly (ie. it needs to be sued more like a storage heater than regular rads)?
 
Thanks for replies. Zenith did you keep your existing boiler I.e. is it gas? In your kitchen how did you manage the floors? Our tile goes right under units. That's the bit I'm most worried about. Is your home well insulated?

Mr Earl was this in retrofits? I'm concerned about it not working properly unless we also do major insulation upgrades alright.
 
caljane said:
Thanks for replies. Zenith did you keep your existing boiler I.e. is it gas? In your kitchen how did you manage the floors? Our tile goes right under units. That's the bit I'm most worried about. Is your home well insulated?
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Kerosene boiler we kept, the UFH has a mixer so it can add a small amount of the the very hot water from the boiler (needed for other rads) and give the UFH say 30 degree water or whatever it needs.

We didn’t do the kitchen actually, we were moving some walls in other rooms so did UFH in those while we were at it. Under most of your kitchen units there will likely be a kickboard which lifts out and would allow the old tiles to be removed/relaid. The issue will be at the end boards of units which tend to go right to the ground. Depending on how the kitchen is put together you may be able to unscrew these easily enough and put them
back afterward, or buy new ones if the colour is still available, they’re not expensive really. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a big job, just not an impossible one.
 
From a purely personal perspective I would not live in a house with underfloor heating. I find that having a relatively cool slab under foot is much more comfortable that a warm slab. When I say relatively cool I mean roughly 18º with ambient air at 20º. As I say this is my own personal preference & I may well be an outlier.:)
 
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