Retrofitted underfloor heating
Think you cannot have underfloor heating because the floor is already down? You probably can. Retrofit systems go in without removing and replacing your existing floors — no new screed to wait for, no replacing skirting boards and no trimming doors.
A system for every house and every layout
There are options for every floor type and every heat source, whether that is a boiler or a heat pump. Overlay systems go straight over the existing floor and take the floor finish without the need for a screed, and there are overlay systems for timber upper floors too. Where you want the pipe in the screed without adding any floor height, we mill channels into the existing floor and lay it into those instead.
Where it earns its keep
- Period and listed buildings where the floor cannot be dug out
- Occupied houses being renovated room by room
- Rooms where lifting the level would foul a door or a staircase
- Timber upper floors, with an overlay system made for them
- Barn and chapel conversions with a sound slab already in place
- Anywhere a heat pump is going in and the emitters need to be low-temperature
Is your floor suitable? We will tell you straight
Not every floor is. A slab that is too thin, too weak, or full of services cannot be milled safely, and there are jobs where the honest answer is a new floor or nothing at all. We would rather say that on the survey than halfway through. There is no charge for being told no.
Retrofit is newer work than the jobs on this site, so there is no case study here yet. Ask us on the phone about retrofit work — we would rather talk you through a real one than put a stock photograph here.
Questions we get asked
Will I lose floor height?
Very little. Overlay systems sit on the floor you already have and take the finish without a screed, and a milled system adds no height at all — the pipe goes into channels cut in the existing floor. There is no replacing skirting boards and no trimming doors.
Can it be done in an occupied house?
Room by room, yes. Milling is dusty work while the cutting is happening, and dust extraction and wet cutting keep it down; an overlay system is cleaner still. Neither needs the house emptying the way a dig-out does.
Is my floor suitable?
A sound concrete or screed floor of reasonable thickness usually is. A thin, weak or services-riddled slab may not be, and there are floors where the honest answer is no. We survey and scan before quoting, and there is no charge for being told it is not worth doing.
How does it compare to a new screed?
It is quicker, it does not need weeks of drying, and it does not raise the floor. A new screed gives more depth around the pipe and slightly better output. On a renovation the retrofit almost always wins on disruption alone.
Send us a photograph of the floor
A picture of the room and a rough idea of the age of the building is usually enough for us to say which system suits and whether it is worth a survey.
Or ring 01636 616388.
Related
Floor Milling
Milling cuts into the floor you already have, to a controlled depth, without breaking it up.
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Underfloor Heating
We design and install warm-water underfloor heating and then lay the screed over it ourselves.
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Floor Levelling
Most floor finishes fail because of what was underneath them, not because of the finish.
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