UFH Do it yourself?????

gabd

Hi there!

In the middle of building a two storey house, would like to know if anyone has installed underfloor heating piping themselves? Wanted to know if its a difficult job, where to get the parts etc. Will be using concrete slabs upstairs

Gab

sas

Yop is boards resident expert on UFH having installed his own in the last year. He'll most likely reply soon enough but in the mean time here's what I remember.

He went to www.underfloordirect.co.uk

His blog is at http://www.selfbuildireland.blogspot.com/ which should cover some of his experiences.

Wigster

see my reply

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054970888

It really is easy if you are any way handy. Ask the suppliers for an installer to give a price for pressure testing the pipes (air test).

tribesman

I got a quote for materials from Quality Plastics Ltd. in Cork and they sent me an excellent booklet explaining how to lay out the pipes. Good price too but I decided to go with a supply and fit company in the end. Would be worth getting a quote for the sake of the booklet.

I watched when mine was installed and it is definitely do-able. The pipe used on mine has an aluminium layer between two plastic layers. I reckon this type of pipe is easier to lay than plastic only pipe because it holds its shape when you bend it. Plastic only pipes tend to spring back and would need more clips to keep in place.

yop

Thanks SAS, expert would over state

As tribesman said it is easy to do, a bit of patience. You will have your CAD drawings of all pipe runs which should be well laid out and easy to read.

On the downstairs we had 100mm of Kingspan which the pipes were clipped into. Upstairs we had battens down and 25mm of kingspan, the pipes were run between the battens and then screed poured over this to the top of the pipe.

The guys who supplied me sent me the pipes, mainifold, circulation pumps, actuators, thermostats (DANFOS TP5), drawings, clips, pipe cutter.

Your biggest issue is not getting kinks in the pipe on the bends, you stop this you initally need to use what a plumber uses to bend copper piping, it is a U shaped piece which ensure you don't get kinks but in my case the further on I went I was able to walk on the pipe to get it to bend around without any kinks.

I had the loan of a pipe reel which keep the pipe together while I pulled it towards me.
Keep the loops as tight together as possible, we have our down to 2 inches in places, this has us running the house @ 20 degrees C, but a circulating temperature in the pipes of only 29 Degrees C, instead of the usual 40 Degrees C.

Don't know if there is anything else I can help with, but ask if u need to know more.

I have also installed UFH, as previously stated it's not difficult just needs a lot of time and patience.

In our build, I first laid 200mm of polystyrene then a layer of polythene (to stop the screed flowing under the insulation) then a layer of 200mm x 200mm steel mesh, this helped with the layout of the UFH as I had something to reference to when spacing out the pipes.

I then just walked the coil backwards and forwards laying it on the steel mesh and using "bag ties" (should have been pvc covered ties but these got lost in transit, UFH company said OK to use plain steel ones but don't overtighten) these were tightened using a special "bag tie" tool.
Took four days to lay 180m2 of floor space.

The biggest problem I had was that one coil was 250m in length, without a cable drum it was a bit of a beast to control, no problems with kinks as using the steel mesh as a guide meant that no bend radius was tighter than 100mmm.

Tobi2

ditto yop for our house.
also ditto the QPL booklet for ideas/info.
tobi