Underfloor Heating in Birmingham

How an underfloor heating installation is built depends mostly on the floor you have, or the one you are about to lay.

New floors and extensions

In a new extension or a dug-out ground floor, pipe is clipped over insulation boards and covered with a screed. This gives a solid, even floor with good heat spread. The screed has to cure fully before the heating is turned up gradually, so this route suits a building project rather than a quick refit.

Existing rooms

Where you cannot raise the floor much, low-profile systems are used: grooved overlay boards laid on an existing floor, or pipe fitted between the joists of a suspended timber floor with spreader plates and insulation below. These add little height, which matters when you are matching an existing hallway or fitting under kitchen plinths.

Whichever route, each circuit is pressure tested before it is covered, and the pressure is kept on the pipe while the screed or boards go down so any damage shows immediately.

When part of a floor stays cold, the pipe in the floor is rarely the culprit. Most underfloor heating repairs are at the manifold or in the controls, which is good news because nothing needs lifting.

• Sticking actuators: the small electric heads on the manifold that open each loop can fail or seize, leaving one room cold.
• Pump faults: a pump that has stopped or seized means warm water never reaches the loops.
• Blending valve problems: if the mixing valve sticks, the floor runs too cool, or too hot.
• Air in the loops: after work on the system, trapped air blocks circulation until the circuits are purged.
• Thermostat and wiring centre faults: flat batteries, lost pairing or a failed relay.

Physical damage to buried pipe does happen, usually from a nail or drill during later work. A pressure test on each loop tells us whether a circuit is losing water, and thermal imaging helps show where the leak is before any flooring is lifted.

A wet underfloor system needs little attention, but it still needs some. The water in it is part of your heating circuit, so the same sludge and air that affect radiators affect the floor loops, which run slowly and have narrow pipe.

A service visit covers:

• Checking the flow meters on the manifold and rebalancing loops that are running fast or slow
• Testing each actuator opens and closes on demand from its thermostat
• Checking the pump, blending valve and temperature gauges
• Purging air from the manifold and circuits
• Testing the system water and topping up inhibitor where needed
• Checking the programmer settings match how you use each room

Electric mats need less. We check the thermostat, floor probe readings and insulation resistance of the heating cable, which tells us if a fault is starting to develop.

The two types do the same job in different ways, and the right choice depends on the room size and how it will be used.

Wet systems

Plastic pipe carries warm water from your boiler or heat pump through the floor. Wet systems are usually the better fit for large areas and rooms heated every day, such as a kitchen diner or a whole ground floor, because heat from the main system generally costs less to produce than direct electric heat. They take more work to install and need a manifold and pump.

Electric systems

A thin heating mat or loose cable is laid in tile adhesive or under a floating floor and connected to its own thermostat. Electric systems are quick to install, add almost no floor height and suit small rooms such as an en suite or cloakroom. The electrical connection must be made in line with Part P of the Building Regulations. Running costs depend on how long the floor is on, so they suit small spaces or occasional use.

A good underfloor system is designed before a single clip goes down. On the survey we look at the room and the building around it.

• Heat loss: wall construction, glazing and insulation decide how much heat each room needs.
• Floor construction: solid slab, suspended timber or existing tiles each call for a different build-up.
• Floor finish: tile and stone pass heat well; thick carpet and underlay hold it back.
• Heat source: whether the boiler or heat pump can supply the floor, and where the manifold can go.
• Available height: door thresholds, kitchen units and stairs set how deep the floor can be.

From that we work out pipe spacing, loop lengths and the number of circuits so each loop can be balanced properly. The price follows from the size of the area, the build-up needed and the controls chosen, and you see it before any work is agreed.

The manifold is the heart of a wet system. It takes water from the heating circuit, mixes it down to floor temperature using a blending valve and pump, then sends it out through separate loops, each with its own flow meter and actuator.

We place the manifold where it can be reached for maintenance, often in a utility cupboard, under stairs or in a box within a stud wall, and as central as possible so loop tails are short. Pipe is laid in a spiral or serpentine pattern with tighter spacing near cold outside walls and large glazing.

Controls are what make the system comfortable:

• A thermostat in each zone, so the kitchen and lounge can run at different temperatures
• A wiring centre linking thermostats, actuators, pump and boiler
• Floor probes to protect timber or engineered floor finishes from overheating
• Programmers set for a slow, steady warm-up rather than short blasts

Underfloor heating runs at a much lower water temperature than radiators, because it spreads heat over a large surface instead of a small hot panel. That suits condensing boilers, which work most efficiently with cooler return water, and it suits heat pumps even more.

Comfort is the other half. Warmth rising evenly from the floor means fewer cold spots and less of the hot-at-the-ceiling, cold-at-the-feet feeling radiators can give, so many people are comfortable with the thermostat set a little lower.

What decides running cost in your home:

• How well the floor is insulated underneath, so heat goes up, not down
• The floor finish and its resistance to heat
• How the system is controlled: steady background heat usually works better than switching on and off
• For electric systems, the size of the area and hours of use

A screeded floor warms slowly and cools slowly, so it should be programmed ahead of when you need the heat.

Our underfloor heating work covers Birmingham and the surrounding towns, including loft conversions and extensions in Harborne and Moseley, new-build estates on the edges of Solihull and Sutton Coldfield, and flats in the Jewellery Quarter where the heating is run by a combi or a communal plate heat exchanger.

If an existing system has stopped heating, tell us what the manifold is doing when you book: whether the pump is running, whether the actuator heads on the manifold look open, and whether the thermostat is calling for heat. Rooms completely without heat in cold weather are prioritised.

We work on systems we did not install, including older installs where the manufacturer has changed or the original paperwork is missing. Where parts are no longer made, most actuators, pumps and blending valves can be replaced with a compatible modern equivalent without changing the manifold.