One of the first (and easiest!) decisions we made about our new home was that we would be having Underfloor heating instead of radiators. As part of the renovation of our last house we installed underfloor heating in the whole ground floor and really liked it, especially Charlie, he loved laying on the warmth!
As part of the renovation we took down a couple of walls and changed the flooring throughout so it was a great time to add in Underfloor heating, especially as we no longer had wall space for radiators. We had this designed by Polypipe with their 18mm thick board which didn’t increase our floor height much, we also went with their ‘Smart’ controls which was a very cool gadget and allowed us to control the heating from our phone, room by room. For flooring we went for tiles in the back of the house and a real wood floor in the front of the house.
It worked out more expensive than radiators however we managed to save some cost by installing it ourselves, very easy to do using the Polypipe layout drawing.
For the new build we again decided to go with Polypipe and have decided to have the Underfloor heating downstairs and upstairs this time. Downstairs the pipework is going to be within the screed whereas upstairs we are going to use the 18mm overlay board again, Polypipe have a new lighter version which should be better for our backs! We will be having the smart controls again as we enjoyed the functionality. Installation will again be done by ourselves with the support of our plumber who will be installing the boiler etc…
Based on the levels of insulation we are putting into the house the Underfloor heating will provide more than enough heat for us (even Caz) however we are having a log burner in the lounge, more for the focal point, and when we design the bathrooms we may put towel warmers in.
Charlie is really looking forward to getting his Underfloor heating back, the radiators in the site cottage are just not the same.
Selfbuilddreamers
Caz & Andy x
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