Underfloor heating - how is it maintained?

pinkteapot

A house we're interested in buying has something we've not seen before... The whole downstairs has marble tiled flooring and underfloor heating. There are no radiators downstairs at all. Upstairs has radiators.

I've not had underfloor heating before. If something goes wrong with it, would we need to rip up all the marble flooring and replace it? That would cost a fortune!

How does maintenance of underfloor heating systems work?

p.s. Not sure at this point if the system is wet or electric - need to check... It's a large house, so if it's electric it will cost more than the mortgage to run!

BlueC

You get pipe cleaners, a bit like chimney cleaners they are really tiny people who climb into the pipes and clean them out or repair them.

warmhands.coldheart

We have it throughout the entire downstairs and I think it's great. Wet is just pretty much a system of pipes running under the screed which the hot water from the boiler runs through. unless it gets damaged on installation or some eegit drills into the floor and burst a pipe, you shouldn't have any issues. They can be "Cleaned" out by circulating water through them if required but it shouldn't need it.......

Idiophreak

We have wet UFH and it's great.

Ours is covered by a pretty lengthy warranty - something like 50 years iirc - so if anything ever does go wrong it will be for the fitters to come put it right.

Plumbers_Shop_Lee

If it is a wet sytem as explained above its a series of plastic pipes laid in the screed with no joints under floor level that all come back to a manifold. Because it operates at such low water temperatures you can get a chemical additive to sanitise that zone of your heating system. All connections are made above ground the systems are very much the way forward in terms of cost effective heating.

http://www.ufch.com/products/solid-floor.php

pinkteapot

Cool! So it's rare that you'd ever have to take the floor up to do anything with it?

How would you ever know if one of the pipes is leaking?

Idiophreak

pinkteapot wrote: »

Cool! So it's rare that you'd ever have to take the floor up to do anything with it?

How would you ever know if one of the pipes is leaking?

We live in a flat - sure the lady downstairs would mention something

Plumbers_Shop_Lee

You'd begin to lose pressure in your heating system then it would be a process of eliminitaion pretty much as it would be with any heating system but because you have less joints on ufch then the risk is less than a standard heating system although obviously if it does leak then the fix is more expensive

warmhands.coldheart

I think there are ways also of "detecting" the general area where the leak is if it ever did happen so only a slam section of floor would have to be worked on.....

spud

We moved into a new house last year with ufh throughout the ground floor and also love it. I couldn't find any negatives when I searched but has anybody heard about incidents of leakage etc?

paddyrg

I'd imagine leaks to be infrequent as the pressure is low, nothing is disturbing the systems stasis, and the poured concrete actually supports the pipes in position so reduces risk of wear.