Underfloor heating problem

[SuuPRlim]

Whole house, on 24/7. Not smart, £600 extra!

[Tractor]

Whole house, on 24/7. Not smart, £600 extra!

That must have been electric? Water UFH systems are the cheapest form of heating available, it would be near impossible for this type of system to run 24/7..

I have fitted it in my last two homes and would never look back.

If on the other hand it is electric then yes than can work out very expensive to run!

[AndrewT]

Can confirm that electric underfloor heating is less economical than warming the flat by burning £20 notes.

[bobAlike]

Can confirm that electric underfloor heating is less economical than warming the flat by burning £20 notes.

Ditto

My electric underfloor heating broke last winter and the wife keeps asking when I will get it fixed. Unfortunately for her I pay the bills in this house.

[Jamier-Host]

Might not really be needed but you are buying a flat with underfloor heating so really you should have underfloor heating, even if its not really important.

Am I being naive or does that sound really fair?

Agree with this. If it was advertised in the specs when they were selling it then it should work. If they'd just said "oh btw we didn't mention it but apparently there is underfloor heating. We never got it to work but you never know your luck" then it's just a potential bonus.

[SuuPRlim]

Whole house, on 24/7. Not smart, £600 extra!

That must have been electric? Water UFH systems are the cheapest form of heating available, it would be near impossible for this type of system to run 24/7..

I have fitted it in my last two homes and would never look back.

If on the other hand it is electric then yes than can work out very expensive to run!

Yeh must have been. In terms of £ spent per square inch of heated floor used... I was not doing well.

[StuartHopkin]

Unless they've installed a really low number of terrible radiators then radiators would be plenty to keep a flat warm. I've had underfloor and not had it and it didn't make a jot of difference to the quality of my life - think I only turned it on once to see what it was like.

Unless it's your dream to have underfloor heating I'd not worry about it, not get it fixed but perfectly legit to ask them to consider how much they would like to take off as a goodwill gesture to compensate. I think you'd have a legit claim post the purchase if something like this was found after you'd completed so pretty reasonable to ask for a fahsand or so off now its been discovered in advance

How hard you want to be about this is entirely personal though in terms of how well the flat fits with your budget, the area you want to live in etc - if it ticks all those boxes I wouldn't be overly concerned about a trivial thing relative to all the other purchase factors.

Unless I am mistaken then its tough titties the day after completion!

nah, sure that isn't true, as you can still sue for misrepresentation if somebody has lied?    Sure I have read stuff about people suing because somebody has hidden a dispute with a neighbour.

I think hidden/misrepresentation is different to finding things that were not obvious on day -1.

Quick question

Assuming this is leasehold, do you not have to keep everything working as it isn't actually yours?
If the lease sill has 94 years then sure you do not need to worry, but what would happen if it had 4?

[McGlashan]

We are exchanging contracts on our first flat and have discovered the underfloor (waterpowered) heating doesn't work. There are radiators in both bathrooms and a brand new boiler.

The owners are a couple our age and said that they turned off the underfloor heating because it was simply too hot and unnecessary even in winter. And it was only when we asked them to turn it on so we could see it working, that they realised it didn't work. The lady in the flat next door also said her underfloor heating didn't work.

Do we believe them that the radiators are sufficient? (Fwiw it was baking last night when I went round at 7pm, was 13degrees outside)

Or do we make them tear up all the floors and delay the move, also risk the flooring being damaged.

Is there another solution like add radiators to the other rooms?

It's a ground floor flat FYI. If underfloor heating is written in the description and it doesn't work, surely we have some right to now say, look we want it working when we move in or £x off the sale price.

Here's a floor plan if that helps

Click to see full-size image.

One imagines the sellers will not voluntarily bring this up to the next viewers and are not in the process of getting it fixed. Your repair bill won't be too bad but hand the sellers a yellow pages and they probably couldn't identify the correct firm to come out and fix it.

The good news is you won't be ripping up any floorboards

Click to see full-size image.

The continuous coils of pipe are linked back to an above ground manifold. All joints are above ground.

Click to see full-size image.

It has to be that way as the pipework gets buried in cement. Lovely grey cement.

Click to see full-size image.

Decent chance it's an actuator or electronic device that can be fixed without touching the pipework. If not, it's a pump or blending valve on the manifold. They probably think it's more expensive to fix than it should be.

[tikay]

^^^^

Really good post, explanatory photos and everything. Have to deduct 2 marks though.

".....buried in cement. Lovely grey cement".

Please. It's concrete, not cement.

[McGlashan]

^^^^

Really good post, explanatory photos and everything. Have to deduct 2 marks though.

".....buried in cement. Lovely grey cement".

Please. It's concrete, not cement.

Duly noted. I knew you'd keep me right if my terminology was incorrect.

[EvilPie]

^^^^

Really good post, explanatory photos and everything. Have to deduct 2 marks though.

".....buried in cement. Lovely grey cement".

Please. It's concrete, not cement.

It's latex screed if we're being fussy.

[tikay]

^^^^

Really good post, explanatory photos and everything. Have to deduct 2 marks though.

".....buried in cement. Lovely grey cement".

Please. It's concrete, not cement.

It's latex screed if we're being fussy.

Happy to accept that. Just not "cement", please. That's like confusing slates and tiles, or a roof and a ceiling. Alex is posh, so these things are all new to him.

Actually, it's a latex mix until it sets, at which point it becomes latex screed. Screed is not liquid. If we're being fussy.

[EvilPie]

^^^^

Really good post, explanatory photos and everything. Have to deduct 2 marks though.

".....buried in cement. Lovely grey cement".

Please. It's concrete, not cement.

It's latex screed if we're being fussy.

Happy to accept that. Just not "cement", please. That's like confusing slates and tiles, or a roof and a ceiling. Alex is posh, so these things are all new to him.

Actually, it's a latex mix until it sets, at which point it becomes latex screed. Screed is not liquid. If we're being fussy.

Nice work 

I only had a vague idea because I'm doing up a house at the moment that's having underfloor heating and my builder was advising about the screed over the pipes.

Apparently you can also use a sand/cement screed but that's not always appropriate.

"F**k that sand and cement s**t youth. You want the liquid latex. F**kin' goes down piece of p**s ".

So now we know.

[tikay]

Perfect.

We got there.

[cambridgealex]

Very helpful post McGlashan