Queenstown · Wānaka · Central Otago
Underfloor heating
The heating goes in before the tile. After that, nobody should be drilling.
What is included
Installed when you ask for it, as part of the floor rather than as a separate trade bolted on before us.
Insulation board under the element where the build-up allows it, so the heat goes up into the room instead of down into the slab.
The element and the tile are set out together, so cable spacing works around wastes, thresholds and fixture positions instead of fighting them.
The element is laid and then encapsulated in self-levelling compound, so it is fully covered and protected before any tile touches it — and by the same team that lays the floor, so nobody returns later to drill through finished work.
Resistance is checked before the element is covered and again once it is, so a fault is found while it can still be reached.
Only once that layer is down and set does the job move to the next stage. The floor the tile meets is flat, solid and already carrying the heating.
Movement joints sized for a floor that heats and cools, which moves further than a floor that does not.
Why this costs what it costs
There is no second chance at it
Once the tile is down the element is unreachable. A fault that costs an hour to find on the day costs a floor to find later. That is why it is checked twice before it disappears.
One trade instead of two, deliberately
Splitting the heating from the tiling puts a waterproof membrane between two contractors. When something goes wrong you get a conversation about whose fault it is, instead of someone fixing it.
It changes the screed and the set-out
A heated floor is not a normal floor with a cable in it. The screed depth, the joint positions and the sequence all change, and all of that is time before a single tile is cut.
Questions
- Does underfloor heating work under stone?
- Stone and porcelain conduct heat well, which is what makes them the usual choice over a heated floor. What matters is the manufacturer's limit for the specific material and the adhesive, and that gets checked against the actual product before anything is ordered.
- Can it be added to an existing tiled floor?
- Not without lifting the floor. The element lives under the tile, so retrofitting means taking the tiling up — which is why it is worth deciding before the floor goes in rather than after.