We are having a major refurb of our lounge/dining room including removing an internal dividing wall to make one large space (around 24 square metres), replastering the ceiling and redecorating. I live in a modern detached house built in the late 80's with brick walls and sound level concrete floor. We have decided to replace the existing old cheap laminate floor with a new decent quality one in grey and that has set me thinking, here are some thoughts, I would be grateful for any advice. As the builder is knocking walls down and plastering I think it would be a good idea to get him to remove the skirting so the floor fitter does not have to fit scotia beading and the finish would look better. This would also give me the opportunity to replace the skirting, I have seen some with profiles that can hide cables which would be useful. The room has two radiators which heat the space, they are adequate but for a luxury feel underfoot and to provide a little extra comfort in the very cold winter days I am thinking about electric underfloor heating. I have seen the matting type which is around 3mm thick. I would not need the heating in all of the space, around 8 square metres running down one side would be occupied by furniture, and the dining part has a substantial solid wood table placed on a rug. I estimate the central open space of around 12 square metres would need the underfloor matting. Here is my quandary, the heating matting is 3mm thick, the underlay that would be laid throughout is also 3mm thick. So after the matting is down the area occupied by the matting would be a total of 6 mm and the non matting area would be 3mm thick. Would the difference in floor level of 3mm be OK? Could I lay an extra sheet of 3mm underlay in the non matting areas to bring the whole floor to 6mm?
You need to screed over the ufh mat, so the full floor to be fitted will need to be levelled at the same time (by the flooring installer not the builder) and the correct underlay should be used. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It might be worth looking at the foil type ufh, it's about 1mm thick, doesn't need to be set in screed, it's more expensive but you save on screed and fitting time ,I've used one made by a company called royden, but there are others
Thanks so much. I was not aware of the foil type ufh but having checked it out it looks like just what I need. They recommend a soft underlay with a high r rating and there is virtually no increase in height as the wire filament sinks into a soft underlay. Can do the underlay and my son in law is a registered sparky so just need a find a floor fitter and I am sorted.
Have now got the laminate and the foil ufh, just need to decide the underlay. Getting confused from what I am reading. Everywhere is saying to get an underlay with a low tog rating. The base is level concrete (which will absorb the heat if the heat from the ufh gets through the underlay to the base). I am thinking the underlay should reflect the heat upwards so doesn't this mean a high tog rating? I am probably getting this completely wrong but thought I would ask the experts who may be able to explain the principles here. Any recs on suitable underlay for my job would be helpful too.
Just adding I am assuming the ufh is laid on top of the underlay and not underneath it on the concrete floor.
