Interested in buying a house. It’s got undefloor heating on the ground floor. Installed by current owner. Electric system. Floor is covered with tiles all over ground floor. Don’t know anything about underfloor heating. What are the pros and cons? What questions should we be asking about the system? What limitations would there be on replacing the tiles with carpets? Would it be an ongoing maintenance liability? Any thought appreciated. Cheers.

we had an electric pad fitted under our kitchen floor, it has been brilliant, much much better than I expected. We no longer bother turning on the radiator in that room, and the dog and cats love it! I can’t tell you how much it costs to run, this is the major consideration against it I’d imagine. As for maintenace.. there is none, it either works or dies – they should have had a guarantee, ask about that.

We had tiles laid directly ontop of the heating pad, I’d suggest this is normal and your risk damaging the pad by ripping up the tiles (one bit of damage will kill the whole pad), let alone trying to get it flat enough for carpets afterwards.

We have had it in our lounge / kitchen area for about 3 years and its brilliant. It uses a thermostat so very flexible. I would say alot more efficient than radiators which need alot of energy to get hot and the heat then disappears in the room.

The trick with underfloor heating is to have it on low all the time so you get a nice standard temperature in the room and its more economical.

Ask them to tell you make and model and then look up online. Ask to be shown the thermostat and timer if it has one. Ask it the thermo is reactive to temp changes, eg, if a door is left open etc. Ask them to confirm the heating pipes cover all the floor and there are no cold spots.

Underfloor heating is not recommended with carpets. You’d likely get some interesting chemicals released from gently heating the carpet. The bugs, dust etc in the carpet could cause problems too if heated gently. You’d also be insulating the underfloor heating rather than the tiles that conduct that heat, so they would give you less heat if carpeted.

underfloor heating… keeps ya feet warm!

got pipes in our floor. only have it on in the lounge and keep the door closed so that the heat doesn’t escape. the pipes come into the lounge via the hallway so that keeps it above freezing.

you need a decent screed on the floor. it’ll take a while to warm up, but it holds the heat. it’s more efficient than having the rads on.

i turned the heating off a few days ago as we went away. when i got back i turned it back on and it took a good few hours till it felt warm again.