ChatterBank3 mins ago
Heating a house with concrete floors
27 Answers
Some advice please. We live uoside down (well not literally) Out sitting room kitchen etc is upstairs and bedrooms downstairs. The problem is downstairs is freezing. We have central heating and the required size radiators in the bedrooms but they do have concrete floors (covered in carpet) but they are always so cold. Espacially the main bedroom which is at the front of the house and gets little sun. Any sugestions of the best way to heat it?
Answers
We have underfloor heating in the kitchen...it was easy enough to fit. Don't think it's very cheap to buy....it is very cheap to run..
20:08 Wed 06th Apr 2011
Our house has concrete floors but it is conventional. i.e. bedrooms upstairs. I've never had a problem with heating it - it is a modern timber frame construction. We have engineered wood flooring (top layer of wood on top of a laminate style base) in most rooms except for the kids playroom and study which are carpet on top of underlay and the toilet which is tiled. We have normal gas central heating. Are you sure it is the flooring that is the problem?
Thanks I will check that Ummmm. I think the problem is hot air rises so in a conventional house you have the heat on at the correct level in your sitting room and the heat rises supplementing the bedrooms but with us the main heat is upstairs so the bedrooms do not get the benefit. I think that the concrete floors retain the cold.
I would go with Jack's suggestion. What worries me is ......... if you have the rads turned up sufficiently, and you're still cold, it sounds like your wall insulation and windows aren't up to it.
Up to around 20 years ago, it was quite common to have uninsulated concrete floors. It costs more to heat of course, but it should still be comfortable.
Up to around 20 years ago, it was quite common to have uninsulated concrete floors. It costs more to heat of course, but it should still be comfortable.
I think Jack's thinking the same as I am. If you have cav wall insulation plus DG windows............ even with a solid uninsulated conc floor, you should still be comfortable.
You either don't have the heating set high enough, or there's maybe a balancing problem with the system......... ie upstairs taking more heat than downstairs. Maybe there's a pump problem. That might mean upstairs heats and downstairs doesn't.
You either don't have the heating set high enough, or there's maybe a balancing problem with the system......... ie upstairs taking more heat than downstairs. Maybe there's a pump problem. That might mean upstairs heats and downstairs doesn't.
I think it may be that we have too many radiators in our sitting room so that when it gets to a comfortable heat in here it turns the radiators off but the downstairs is still cold. If that is the case maybe we need to fit thermostatic controls to the radiators? Would just insulating the concrete floor help?