Mix and match for a perfect retrofit solution

Products: TileFix®, SlimFix®, SUPERflex™

When renovating an existing property, it’s not always possible – or desirable – to rip up all the floors and replace the entire system as part of the renovation work. Not only can this add significant cost to the overall project, but it would also take more time and cause a lot of disruption for the homeowners.

That’s why many people who want to extend and renovate their properties look for bespoke solutions that can be added to what’s already there, to keep costs and disruption to a minimum.

We were asked to provide a quote for a large building project where the installer was fitting underfloor heating (UFH) across a large 143m² floor area. This space was spread through several rooms, each of which would have a different type of floor finish, but the existing concrete floor was being retained throughout. The installer needed an UFH system he could place on top of that concrete base, and which could be mixed and matched with different floor finishes in each of the rooms.

The property already had radiators installed that were being kept in some areas, and so our customer was looking to have matching thermostats on the radiators as well.

After speaking with the customer at length to understand all his requirements, our Technical Expert Carol Jordan recommended a system that combined our TileFix® and SlimFix® systems, with our SUPERflex™ UFH pipe being laid into each of the panels.

SlimFix® is a low-profile system of high-compressive strength composite panels, each with a heat-dissipation layer to maximise heat output. SlimFix® is designed to accept wood and laminate floors directly, or carpets and vinyls when fitted with a suitable cover board such as our DriDEK™-20 board.

The panels measure just 18mm thin, keeping floor build-up heights to a minimum, and come with built-in return panels to make installation quick and easy. SlimFix® is simply laid directly onto the base floor, and the SUPERflex™ pipes pressed into the pre-routed pipe channels.

In the rooms where there would be a tiled floor finish, we recommended our TileFix® panels. These provide the same fast-response heat output and high-compressive strength as SlimFix®, but are the only UFH system available that you can tile directly onto using a flexible tile adhesive. This meant our customer could place the tiles straight onto the panels

without having to first lay a board that would increase the build-up height. It also meant we could create a uniform floor height across the whole floor of the property.

With a significant floor area to cover, using one manifold meant it would need to be a significant size, and larger than the space available in the small cupboard where the installer wanted to fit it. To overcome this problem, we supplied two smaller manifolds that could be connected together in an L-shape, allowing both to be easily installed in the limited space.

Finally, because the walls had already been plastered before the UFH was fitted, we supplied RF digital app-controlled thermostats to control the system, so there would be no need to channel the wires into the wall.

“I chose Continal Underfloor Heating because their customer service and the wide range of products that meant we could create the exact system we needed.”