Suspended ground floor - UFH heating – reuse floorboards?

gwernybwch

I’m in the process of buying a Victorian house with a suspended ground floor. It still has its original floorboards, which I want to sand down and use them as a ‘feature’. I’m going to lift all the floorboards to sand them (I find it much easier to do this and sand them with a hand held sander rather than hire an upright sander). As I will have lifted the floorboards, I was thinking of installing some kind of under floor heating, but is there any form of UFH that allows the reuse of the existing floorboards?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

gwernybwch

Can anyone help?

keystone

Timber is a good insulator so don't expect wondrous results. As its ground floor you don't want to be heating the void underneath either 'cos that would be a waste. I do suspect you'll need a wet system rather than electric.

I've heard a couple of reasonably good reports about THIS stuff but can't honestly give it either a thumbs up or down from a personal experiece perspective.

Sorry not to have been much more help.

Cheers

anotherbaldrick

As it is a suspended timber ground floor , presumably on timber joists with an air void below how do you intend to reflect the heat upwards into the room ? It's natural passage would be downwards into the air and thence out of the air brick vents.

RickyP

We did exactly what you're talking about doing.
I can say without reservation that it has worked perfectly and we are 100% happy with it.
You'll want as much insulation as possible beneath the UFH to prevent loss downwords as much as possible.
There are various systems available, I would suggest a good internet search and even talking to some companies and decide what works best for you.
The system we used was a combination of aluminium sheets with a hot water system for the UFH. The aluminium sheets are laid across the floor joists and have two channels pre-formed in them. The pipe is laid out as per the required design, with the pipe pressed into the channels in the aluminium sheets to hold them in place and also to conduct the heat (spreads it out over the sheet rather than just where the pipes are.). The floorboards are then laid down. The heat is conducted from the aluminium to the floorboards and heats the room.
We have it through our house (3 bed semi) and, as I say it is fantastic.
If this is the first time using UFH, you do have to get used to the difference from normal radiators. It is not as fast to respond when you want heat. You have to set the thermostats to come on a couple of hours before you need it (and to go off a couple of hours before you want it to cool down). And it's never actually 'off' - you set a minimum temp. which it maintains as needed (and so won't be heating when it's warm enough).
Hope that helps.

keystone

Well thats two peeps that didn't click my link then but it seems the second one gives it (or at least a very similar one) rave reviews so perhaps that is what OP should be thinking about.

Cheers

gwernybwch

keystone wrote: »

Timber is a good insulator so don't expect wondrous results. As its ground floor you don't want to be heating the void underneath either 'cos that would be a waste. I do suspect you'll need a wet system rather than electric.

I've heard a couple of reasonably good reports about THIS stuff but can't honestly give it either a thumbs up or down from a personal experiece perspective.

Thanks for the reply. This was the sort of thing that I had in mind, it will give me a good basis for further research.

RickyP wrote: »

We did exactly what you're talking about doing.
I can say without reservation that it has worked perfectly and we are 100% happy with it.
You'll want as much insulation as possible beneath the UFH to prevent loss downwords as much as possible.
There are various systems available, I would suggest a good internet search and even talking to some companies and decide what works best for you.
The system we used was a combination of aluminium sheets with a hot water system for the UFH. The aluminium sheets are laid across the floor joists and have two channels pre-formed in them. The pipe is laid out as per the required design, with the pipe pressed into the channels in the aluminium sheets to hold them in place and also to conduct the heat (spreads it out over the sheet rather than just where the pipes are.). The floorboards are then laid down. The heat is conducted from the aluminium to the floorboards and heats the room.
We have it through our house (3 bed semi) and, as I say it is fantastic.
If this is the first time using UFH, you do have to get used to the difference from normal radiators. It is not as fast to respond when you want heat. You have to set the thermostats to come on a couple of hours before you need it (and to go off a couple of hours before you want it to cool down). And it's never actually 'off' - you set a minimum temp. which it maintains as needed (and so won't be heating when it's warm enough).
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply, it's always nice to read about someones own experiences. A couple of queries -
Did you reuse the existing floorboards (like I plan to do)?
Did you insulate the whole of the area below the floor? If so, is it likely to create damp (as you are preventing air circulation)?
Have you found it cheaper to heat your home after you fitted UFH?
Did you keep the radiators as well? Did this create any issues?

Thanks.