Underfloor Heating Cornwall

Wet vs electric underfloor heating: which is right?

There are two kinds of underfloor heating, and choosing correctly matters more than any other decision. Wet (water-based, or hydronic) UFH circulates warm water through a network of pipes laid beneath the floor, fed by your boiler or — ideally — a heat pump. It costs more to install but runs at a fraction of the price and is the only sensible choice for whole rooms and for the whole ground floor. Electric (dry) UFH is a heating mat or cable that warms the floor directly from the mains. It is cheap and quick to fit, which makes it perfect under a bathroom or en-suite floor, but running it as primary heating for a living room is expensive because you are paying full electricity rates for every unit of heat.

Our honest rule of thumb: wet UFH for whole rooms and heat-pump homes, electric UFH only for small wet-room floors. Because we fit both, we have no reason to push you toward one — we specify whichever genuinely suits each space at survey.

How much does underfloor heating cost in Cornwall?

The most useful number is cost per square metre, because it scales with your actual floor area. The table below shows typical CCS installed ranges in Cornwall for each system type, including 0% VAT where the work is part of a heat pump project. Final cost depends on floor build-up, room layout and floor finish.

As a guide, a typical ground floor in a 3-bed Cornwall home (50-60 m²) comes in at around £4,000-£7,000 for a wet system. Every quote is built from a room-by-room heat-loss calculation to BS EN 12831 — not a flat per-m² figure — so the output and running-cost estimates on your quote reflect your actual property. For the underlying technical detail and the brands we fit, see our underfloor heating service page, and to talk numbers for your rooms, book a free survey.

Floor build-up by floor type: height and response

The right method depends entirely on what is under your existing floor. This is where retrofit projects succeed or fail, so we survey the build-up before quoting. The table below shows the three common Cornwall scenarios, the height each adds, and how quickly each responds to the thermostat.

The practical takeaway: a new screed floor is the most efficient but needs planned height and continuous running, while suspended-timber and slim-overlay systems add almost no height and respond quickly, which is why they dominate Cornwall retrofits. We set weather-compensated controls to suit whichever build-up you have, so a high-mass screed never feels sluggish and a low-mass overlay never overshoots.

The underfloor heating + heat pump partnership

This is the genuinely important part, and it is where a Cornwall installer that does both heat pumps and UFH adds real value. A heat pump is at its most efficient when it produces heat at a low flow temperature. Radiators typically demand 55-65°C; underfloor heating is happy at just 30-45°C because it uses the whole floor as a large, gentle emitter. Every 1°C you take off the flow temperature improves efficiency by roughly 2%.

The result compounds. A heat pump feeding underfloor heating routinely achieves a seasonal efficiency (SCOP) of 3.5-4.0 — delivering useful heat at around 6-7p/kWh at current electricity prices — whereas the same heat pump forced to run hot radiators drops to a SCOP of 2.5-3.0. In real terms that is about 40% lower heating running costs for the low-temperature UFH system. It is also more comfortable: even, draught-free warmth with no cold spots and no bulky radiators on the walls.

Because we are Gas Safe registered and MCS certified, when you pair the two we design the low-temperature system, size the heat pump, install the UFH and handle the commissioning as one job — and the heat-pump element attracts the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, which we apply for on your behalf. See our heat pump installation page for the pump side, and our renewable heating in Cornwall hub for how UFH, heat pumps, cylinders and controls fit together as a whole low-carbon system.

Underfloor heating in Cornwall homes: granite, period and new-build

Cornwall's housing stock is unusually varied, and underfloor heating suits both ends of it. In new builds and extensions — from developments around Truro, Newquay and St Austell to self-build plots across the county — a screed UFH system is designed in from the start, giving the lowest running costs and a completely clear-walled interior. This is increasingly the default as new homes move to heat pumps and away from gas.

At the other end, Cornwall has a huge number of granite, cob, stone and period cottages — the kind of solid-wall, hard-to-heat homes found around Redruth, Camborne, the mining villages and the coast. These are exactly the properties where retrofit underfloor heating, paired with a high-flow-temperature heat pump where needed, transforms comfort. Solid stone floors take a slim overlay; suspended timber floors take spreader plates from below with no loss of height. We are used to working sympathetically in older Cornish properties, including where floors are uneven or heritage-sensitive.

Retrofit considerations for existing floors

Retrofit is entirely achievable in most Cornwall homes, but it rewards proper survey work. The things we check first: floor build-up and existing height (to protect door, stair and threshold clearances); insulation beneath the floor, since UFH into an uninsulated floor loses heat downward; the floor finish you want (tile and stone conduct heat best; engineered wood and LVT are fine; deep-pile carpet with thick underlay is the one to avoid); and whether a downstairs-UFH, upstairs-radiators hybrid on one low-temperature circuit is the least disruptive route. We also confirm your heat source can run at the low flow temperature UFH needs — and if you are still on an old boiler, we will lay out the heat-pump option honestly rather than assume it.

There is one thing we will not do: over-promise a grant. Underfloor heating on its own has no dedicated grant. The genuine savings are 0% VAT (to 31 March 2027) on the wider heating works and the £7,500 heat-pump grant when UFH is part of a heat pump install. There is no FETF or farm-specific grant for domestic UFH, and we will only ever quote what actually applies to your project.