DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We have just had underfloor heating embedded in 70mm of screed in our 27m2 kitchen diner. We are also putting underfloor in our bathroom which has beams on the floor and has insulation followed by plywood with underfloor on top not yet with screed applied.

In order for the send and return pipes to get to the bathroom they need to pass from the manifold through a room which will not have underfloor heating but will be a wood floor.

As they are simply passing through the room what precautions need to be taken in order to do this. We don't want to lay screed in this room as this will affect floor height but equally we don't want the new wood flooring with the pass through wet pipes underneath to get damaged.

Could we get some advice on how we should be doing this?

Many thanks!

It is usual in this situation to remove the floorboards and clip the feed pipe to the side of a floor joist. The clips should be half-way down the side of the joist to remove the possibility of anyone driving a nail or screw through the floor into the pipe.

If you are passing the flow & return pipes through an area that is not be heated by underfloor heating you will need to provide some form of insulation. The simplest is a corrugated pipe with a bigger diameter. The air gap between the outer and inner pipe will act as an insulator. If the flow and return pipes pass though un-heated area or below the building’s insulation then the pipes will need to be insulated to both stop heat loss and protect against frost. Many underfloor heating project have poor control because people forget the impact of the flow and return pipes to the manifold. Often this is in the corridor areas which can get too hot because of the build up of the pipe runs.