Concrete floors and heating

[Lulu75]

I'm in the process of buying a house that needs central heating installing.  The floors downstairs are concrete and I'm wondering how it is installed in these circumstances and how much it is likely to increase the cost by compared to a house with floorboards.

Any ideas??

[LoungeLizard]

I would say that having solid floors as opposed to suspended floors will not make a significant difference to the cost.

If anything, it will reduce the cost because it is very time-consuming to lift floor-coverings, lift floor boards, drill through joists, install pipe runs, re-instate everything.

One option is to have most of the pipe-runs above the ceiling (or rather, underneath the upstairs floor boards) with vertical pipes running down the walls to each radiator.  The disadvantage of this is that the vertical down-pipes will have a visual impact; which may be mitigated by boxing the pipes in.

Another option is to have horizontal pipe-runs on the walls at about skirting-board height.  This has its own visual impact and is limited by the presence of doors, etc. 

My suggestion is to accept the inevitability of surface pipes in your downstairs; 2 to each radiator from the boiler circuit.  Have a think about where you might want each radiator and consider the visual impact of either vertical or horizontal pipe runs.  Keep these ideas in your mind when the central-heating installer calls to give a quote / plan the job.

The central-heating installer will want to minimise work by more direct pipe routes; but your priority may be to have more discrete pipe routes.  I guess that most installers will give you a quote for the whole job and try and minimise the work.  Perhaps offer another �20, �50 or �100 to choose a less direct but more discrete pipe route of your choice.