Underfloor heating on Merseyside

What does bathroom underfloor heating cost on Merseyside?

Our guide range on Merseyside is £650–£2,400 including VAT. Prices on Merseyside run at about 6% below the UK guide, based on North West England labour rates.

Guide prices for Merseyside including VAT. Your itemised written quote after the free survey is the price that counts.

Which towns do we cover on Merseyside?

• Liverpool
• Birkenhead
• St Helens
• Southport
• Wallasey
• Bootle
• Bebington
• Huyton
• Kirkby
• Prescot
• Heswall
• Maghull
• Newton-le-Willows
• Golborne
• Formby
• Litherland
• Speke
• Garston
• Halewood
• Moreton
• Haydock
• Hunts Cross
• Allerton

Water across much of Merseyside is soft. Soft water is kind to grout, so mid-tone and darker grouts stay looking fresh. Hardness varies street by street, so check the figure for your postcode with your water supplier. Where a Liverpool home already has a heat pump, or the heating is being altered, a wet underfloor system is worth comparing with electric.

What the job includes

• Resistance and insulation tests on the mat before, during and after tiling, with the readings recorded
• Bringing the system up to temperature gradually once the adhesive and grout have cured
• The electric mat or cable laid to the open floor, kept clear of where the WC, bath and fixed furniture will sit
• A check of the floor construction, the room's heat loss and where the thermostat and supply will go
• Insulation boards over the subfloor, so heat goes up into the tiles rather than down into the joists or screed
• For wet systems, pipes in low-profile boards or screed connected to a manifold or single-zone kit, with any boiler work done by a Gas Safe registered engineer

Decisions to make first

Floor finish

Tiles and stone pass heat through well. LVT and vinyl can work, but check the maximum floor temperature the flooring maker allows.

Mat or loose cable

Mats are quickest on square, open floors. Loose cable is easier to route around awkward shapes, pipe boxing and a curved shower area.

Thermostat

A simple dial thermostat, a programmable one with set times, or a smart thermostat you can control from your phone.

Electric or wet

Electric is cheaper to install and quick to lay in one room. Wet costs more upfront but is usually cheaper to run where it is fed by a gas boiler or heat pump.

Rules that apply in England

Electric underfloor heating in a bathroom must be on a circuit with 30 mA RCD protection under BS 7671, and the thermostat is positioned to suit the bathroom zones. There is no separate approval for the heating itself, but it should have its own thermostat and timer so it only runs when needed, and the electrical work must meet BS 7671 — in England and Wales it is notifiable as bathroom electrical work. Any work on a gas boiler for a wet system must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

In England, a new circuit for underfloor heating is notifiable under Part P, and so is connecting it to an existing circuit in a room with a bath or shower. The electrician either self-certifies through a competent person scheme or the work is notified to building control.