Local Underfloor Heating Engineer

What an underfloor heating engineer works on, in plain English

• Manifold: the unit every pipe loop runs from. Most faults and all servicing start here.
• Mixing valve: sets the floor temperature by blending boiler water with cooler return water. Wrong setting, wrong floor temperature.
• Pump: moves the water round the loops. A failed pump means a cold floor with a hot manifold.
• Actuators: the small motors on the manifold that open each loop. One stuck shut means one cold room.
• Thermostats and wiring centre: the controls. A surprising number of “faults” are a thermostat or a schedule.
• Loops and pipework: under the floor, and almost never the problem. A good engineer looks everywhere else first.
• Boiler or heat pump: the heat source. Underfloor is only as good as what feeds it, so the engineer needs to be qualified on that too.
• Balancing: setting each loop's flow so every room heats at the same rate. It's the job that separates an engineer from a fitter.

What qualifies an underfloor heating engineer

• Gas Safe registration: for anything that touches the boiler, which most underfloor work does. Check the register and the ID card.
• Heating engineering: the wet side, pumps, valves, balancing and controls. Underfloor is a heating job first and a plumbing job second.
• Electrical competence: thermostats, actuators and wiring centres are 230 volt. NICEIC registration means it's done safely and signed off.
• Manufacturer familiarity: Polypipe, Wunda, Nu Heat, JG Speedfit and the rest all use the same principles with different parts. An engineer who's seen them all can fix any of them.
• Local: an engineer 30 minutes away comes back to balance the system properly. One from three counties away doesn't.

Honest advice: what's overkill

• A specialist underfloor company for a stuck actuator: it's a \u00a330 part and a ten minute swap. Any heating engineer who knows manifolds does it on a normal call out.
• Digging up the floor to find a “leak”: pipework under a floor almost never fails. A pressure drop is nearly always at the manifold, a valve or the boiler. Check those first, always.
• A new manifold when a pump has failed: the pump unscrews and a new one goes on. The manifold stays.
• Replacing the whole control system to fix one thermostat: thermostats are replaced one at a time. A smart controller can be added later if you want it.
• Worth paying for: a full balance and a service once a year. It keeps every room even and catches a failing pump before winter.

When to call

If the floor's cold, a room's not heating, the manifold's making a noise or nobody has looked at the system since it went in, message us with a photo of the manifold. Contact me now