Underfloor Heating Flooring in Glasgow

Retrofitting under the suspended floors of older homes

Older homes pose the opposite problem. Survey estimates put 43% of the council area's dwellings before 1945 (Scotland: 28%), and the council's South Glasgow districts of pre-1919 buildings include King's Park, Battlefield and Langside.

Where a home of that age has a suspended timber floor, the period homes guide is clear that heating can be retrofitted beneath it. It is done. What it changes is the oak that can go on top, so decide on the heating before choosing the boards, not after.

A gas boiler and a wet heating system

75.2% of Glasgow households have mains gas as their only central heating, against 73.4% for Scotland. Energy guidance for new dwellings in England, used here only to classify the system, counts gas-fired heating as wet heating and gives two examples: radiators and underfloor heating. A gas boiler, in other words, can feed pipes in a floor as well as radiators on a wall. Whether your own boiler and pipework suit it is a separate question to settle before any floor is chosen.

Winter joints and a cold conservatory floor

January in the town centre averages 4.6 degrees (1991 to 2020), a little below the median of 4.8 for the 151 towns. The heating season dries the air. Over underfloor heating the joints of a real wood floor open slightly in winter and close again in summer, and the guide to floors over heating calls that normal behaviour rather than a fault.

Glasgow averages 34.9 days of air frost a year (median 38.1) and 0.8 days on which the temperature stays below freezing all day (median 0.8). A porcelain floor in a conservatory is cold underfoot in winter, and the conservatory guide names that as the one case where underfloor heating changes the room rather than just warming it.