Underfloor Heating - Timber Frame Home

Guys

We are building in Louth and I just spoke to a contractor who said UFH doesn't work too well with Timber frame homes - It really needs a concrete floor ? Any experiences or advise ?

Thanks

Hi Louthman,

Your timber frame house will start at finished floor level which will include a concrete floor/sub-floor.
You could check with a good plumber but you should have no issue with UFH in your timber frame house.

Can you have UFH upstairs in a TF house or because of the screed required can you only have UFH downstairs and perhaps rads upstairs??

mickeyg said:

Can you have UFH upstairs in a TF house or because of the screed required can you only have UFH downstairs and perhaps rads upstairs??

Click to expand...

you would need to use a product such as this:
[broken link removed]

you would need to ensure the TF is designed to take this construction as well....

UFH up and down is much much better than UFH down and rads up....
a mixed system is inefficient because UFH and rads work at different temperatures... UFH 40-45.... rads 60-65.... generally

are there not rads out there which work at a lower temp now? Would these be suitable for a mixer system.

Hi,
we built a timber frame home and put underfloor upstairs and downstairs. There was no need for use to use expensive screed such as easy screed etc, the normal concrete screed was fine.
What we did have to do is get info off the company putting down the ufh and we passed this onto the tf company. THey then calculated the additional weight and put in the required support. They also had to add additional height to the upstairs section to cope with all the additional concrete etc.

So far we have had no probs, we just had to make sure the house was well dry and moisture content down before laying tiles etc so there wouldn't be too much movement. We had heating on for 3 weeks before tiling.
Eve

I have UFH in screed in a TF house upstairs - ordinary screed. Needs extra joisting to cope with weight.

However, with hindsight, it wasn't necessary - we've built a pair of semi-d's at work with UFH since and no screed upstairs - infinately easier, cheaper.

It's a board, routed out to take the ufh pipe, and you fix it on to your deck. They come in sections - not unlike a train set! - and you just put it all down, and then lay the pipe in the groove. Iirc, it was an MDF board .

Works very well, 2yrs later, no probs.

I'm trying to think of the supplier..........looks like this.

[broken link removed]

Louthman,

Installed ufh in the upstairs of a house approx. 4 years ago.There was no need for any screed.There was a galvanised sheeting spec.d which sat between the joists ( joists @ 400mm centres therefore sheet was 450mm wide to allow half joint both sides).There were pre-formed grooves in the sheets to allow the ufh heating pipes sit into and therefore not protrude above the top of the joists.
I am trying to find the name of the sheeting supplier.
The only issue with this system is that you may have to sheet the top of the plywood if your floor finish is anything other than timber flooring.Also timber is not the ideal finish on top of ufh as the heat does not rise easily thru it.