If you are thinking of dropping hints to your lover over Valentines about installing UFH STOP!
My Advice
- My home was a blank canvas that I didn’t have to live in while renovating. If you are doing a full renovation to a property/room UFH should be seriously considered, it’ amazing but retro fitting is a completely different beast.
- Consider your finish flooring, electric UFH underneath my bathroom ceramic tiles feels so good. I mean all warmth coming through your feet will feel good but particularly because it retains the heat so well meaning, lower bills.
- Gas vs electric. The price per KW/h of gas is much cheaper than electric so a plumbed system will be cheaper to run, but it is more complicated to DIY.
- If you can afford to, don’t do it yourself, mistakes can be costly with this type of DIY. A qualified plumber and electrician working as a team will take care to avoid this.
- Do your research and reach out to Fastwarm for technical support they have a very knowledgeable UK team and answer immediately, remember there is no such thing as a stupid question.
My Story
In 2020 I received the keys to the £1 house I had been waiting 9 months to get into. “Finally” I thought as I entered through the steel security door.
In those 9 months I decided on a few things, turn the house upside down, quit my job and have underfloor heating.
Let me start with a few pictures of the only place, the hallway, that does not have underfloor heating (UFH).
Entrance hallway with two doorways on the left and staircase
One doorway repositioned along with the staircase to the back of the house
I have what they call a wet UFH heating system upstairs. Pipes carry warm water from the gas boiler under the flooring in my kitchen and living room, similar to the typical radiator circuit but without the convection heating part and metal eye sores. Strangely, underfloor heating could be better described as a radiator as this system actually does radiate heat all around the room. Over half of the heat created by UFH is emitted through radiation.
My first purchase of UFH was an electrical kit, a shy 2m roll, on the 10/01/22 for £153.09 from Fastwarm. Shane the tiler installed it beneath the tiles, so as the autumn cold set in it was the only room finished and warm, at the time, a welcome relief from the campervan.
The ceramic floor tiles retain the heat for hours after the element has gone off so my bathroom floor is NEVER cold. So when you step out of the shower in the depths of winter you drip dry fast! With the door closed it was not only heating the floor but heating the space too. The 60mm insulated walls of my home reduce the running costs of the system but until I start paying my bills, I don’t know by how much yet.
On the 06/10/22 I decided to buy another roll of the electric underfloor heating from Fastwarm – £388.35 to heat my bedroom, but this time i’d try and install it myself. With the services of my trusted electrician and my nephew, I installed it and covered it with SLC and left that as my finish flooring. The cement was painted with floor paint to seal in the dust and which also holds the heat for hours after its turned off. All the materials came in at around £500 and more importantly it was actually DIY friendly.
My wet system was also DIY but took weeks of research and planning before I had the guts to attempt. Polystyrene insulations panels are laid after you have planned your circuit. Curcuits have to be designed in length, too long and the water doesn’t pump around. After the panels are laid, my massive roll of pipe was unspooled and slotted in according to your circuit plan. (over simplifying a lot) then hand over to a plumber to connect to my boiler.
A manageable DIY project, the empty space upstairs notwithstanding.
Cost
So when it came to complete the last room in the house, I wanted carpet as the finish flooring and set about researching. I didn’t need to look far, Fastwarm had a product and technical support staff on hand to guide me to the right product and in January 2024 I bought a 6m2 under carpet kit for £421.10.
I have come to be weary of DIY, I do not want to do it myself, nor do I think you should have to. If tradespeople weren’t such robbers then I would just hand things like this to a professional, but true professionals are few and far between and no one worth while in Liverpool is getting out of bed for less than £250/day so my choice was limited.
Carpet fitter did fix my door, happy birthday to me.
majorloveme 