Cheshire's Specialist UFH Service
Replace tired radiators or storage heaters with a designed, room-by-room wet underfloor heating system, without moving out, without ripping out kitchens, and without paying a penny until the system is running and you are warm.
5.0 ★ Google · MCS Accredited · 2-year workmanship cover
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Overview
A whole-home retrofit installation replaces or supplements your existing wet heating system with low-temperature underfloor heating across every floor we work on, ground floor, first floor, loft conversions, and outbuildings. We design the system around your real living patterns, your floor build-ups, and the way each room is used, then install it in zones so the household keeps functioning while we work.
It is the right answer for homeowners who want consistent radiant warmth, freed-up wall space, and a system that will run efficiently on a future heat pump, without selling the house, moving out, or accepting the build-up and disruption of a full new-build approach. We have installed whole-home retrofits in everything from new-build Bramhall semis to Grade II listed farmhouses in Prestbury.
You should be thinking about a whole-home retrofit when you are redecorating, swapping flooring, refitting a kitchen, planning a heat-pump install, or simply tired of paying to heat rooms that never feel warm. The technology to retrofit cleanly into existing floors is a generation ahead of where it was even five years ago, but only if the installer knows how to specify it.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
We are routinely called in to fix retrofit UFH projects installed by general plumbers, kitchen fitters, and builders running a sideline. The pipework rarely fails. The design, sequencing, and commissioning almost always do, and the cost of unpicking that work usually exceeds the cost of doing it right the first time.
Heat-loss skipped, pipe pitch wrong, flow temperatures unset, the system runs but the room never reaches setpoint. Owners pay to heat a house that never feels heated.
Engineered boards laid before screed cure cycle, tiles laid without de-coupling, LVT laid over inadequate floor flatness. Months later the floor finish lifts and the heating gets the blame.
Heat-pump retrofits installed by non-MCS firms lose the £7,500 BUS grant and the manufacturer warranty in the same week. Pipework warranties are voided if commissioning isn't documented.
Quoting from a floor plan alone, with no room visit, no heat-loss model, and no measurement of existing build-ups.
Treating the whole house as one zone instead of designing per room, bedrooms, bathrooms, and open-plan kitchens have wildly different demands.
Skipping interim pressure tests between floors, so a cracked fitting on day three is only found after the screed is poured on day six.
Selling 'smart' controls the homeowner cannot operate and the installer can't service, orphaned ecosystems with no support path.
Disappearing after the invoice clears, leaving no commissioning paperwork, no warranty registration, and no service path.
Our Process
Every project is handled by the same engineers, from first survey through final commissioning, and we're the team you'll call for service for the lifetime of the system.
We visit, measure, photograph existing build-ups, and ask how each room is actually used, not what the floor plan implies.
CIBSE-compliant per-room heat-loss, pipe-layout drawings, manifold positions, control architecture, and a single fixed-price quote.
We sequence zones so the kitchen and at least one bathroom stay live throughout, and bedrooms are restored each evening.
Milled or overlay UFH installed to the design, manifolds plumbed in stainless, controls wired and addressed to the room labels you use.
Slow cure cycle, every loop balanced and flow-recorded, full handover walkthrough plus an O&M pack and warranty registration.
From The Job Site
What You Gain
Phased zones, daily reinstatement, dust-extracted milling. We have completed whole-home retrofits with toddlers and dogs still in residence.
Every room reaches setpoint at its own pace. No more freezing en-suite, no more boiling living room.
Radiators come off. Furniture goes where you want it, not where the plumber decided 25 years ago.
Designed at low flow temperature so it runs efficiently on an ASHP, now or whenever you choose to switch.
Larger emitter area means lower flow temperatures, longer cycles, lower bills, typically 18–35% less than the radiator system replaced.
We design, install, commission, and service. There is no second contractor to blame when something needs attention.
Technical Detail
A retrofit programme is rarely a single technique. We blend milling, overlay, and joist-void installation across the same house, choosing the right method floor-by-floor and room-by-room. Here is what that actually looks like.
Concrete or screed subfloor is milled to depth, pipe is bedded and encapsulated, finish goes back over the top. Build-up rise: zero. Perfect for kitchens, living spaces, and entrance halls where door thresholds matter.
We lift floorboards by section, route or insulate joist voids, install spreader plates with 12 mm or 16 mm pipe, and reinstate the boards. No new floor build-up, no ceiling damage below.
Where lifting boards isn't viable, we use 18–22 mm grooved high-density overlay panels with aluminium spreader plates. Adds minimal build-up; perfect for landings and bedrooms.
Underfloor heating below tanked wet rooms uses low-modulus encapsulation, decoupling membranes, and dedicated thermostats rated to IP-zone requirements.
Wired or wireless thermostats per zone, central wiring centre, OpenTherm or 0–10 V interface to the heat source. Compatible with Hive, Tado, Nest, Heatmiser, and Loxone. We avoid proprietary lock-in.
Combi boiler, system boiler, ASHP, or hybrid, we size the loop, manifold, blending valve, and weather compensation so the heat source runs in its efficient band, not flat-out.
FAQs
The questions Cheshire homeowners and contractors ask us most before a job. If yours isn't here, call 0161 531 1141, we'll answer it plainly.
Yes, that is how we design every domestic retrofit. We sequence zones so at least one kitchen route and one bathroom stay live every day, and bedrooms are restored each evening. Most clients tell us the disruption is significantly less than a kitchen refit.
Typical Cheshire 3-bed terrace: £9,500–£14,500. 4-bed detached: £14,500–£24,000. Larger detached or barn conversion: £22,000–£45,000. All quotes are fixed price after survey.
In most cases yes, we install a blending valve, weather compensation, and a UFH-appropriate manifold. We'll tell you honestly if your boiler is too small, too old, or set up wrong before you spend a penny on emitters.
Absolutely. Many clients do the ground floor first, then add upstairs in year two or three. We design the system so the second phase doesn't require redoing the first.
Most whole-home retrofits land between 1 and 5 working days, with the average around 2–3 days. We give a calendar-day programme at quotation stage and stick to it.
Significantly quieter. No thermosiphon clicks, no boiler short-cycling, no radiator expansion noise. Most clients tell us the only way they know the heating is on is the house feeling comfortable.
Milled installs: zero rise. Joist-void: zero rise. Overlay panels: 18–22 mm, usually absorbed in a flooring change anyway. We always show the proposed build-up at survey.
Same team, same number. We hold commissioning records for every system we install and stock manifold parts for legacy as well as current ranges.
Related Services
Precision-milled channels in existing concrete and screed, no need to lift or rebuild floors.
View detailMCS-accredited heat pump installation with full grant guidance.
View detailKeep systems running at peak efficiency with scheduled service plans.
View detailAlexa, Google and Hive-compatible zonal control across every room.
View detailAreas We Serve
Your Next Step
Free in-home survey. Detailed heat-loss model. Single fixed-price quote. No pressure. Just an honest plan from the team that will do the work.
MCS Accredited · NAPIT Registered · RECC Member · Gas Safe
