Anyone had experience with pre-routed 22mm chipboard for wet UFH

[AcidOverride]

So Ive seen this ProWarm ProFloor pre-routed chip and was wondering if anyone had has any experience with it? I'm giving the bathroom a total revamp and the existing floor boards will be getting replaced anyway.

The plan is, take up the old chip, insulate between the joists with celotex or similar, lay the pre- routed chipboard, fit the spreader plates and run the UFH pipes. Ive read in a few places now that No More Ply has much better heat transference than other cement boards like hardiebacker so that seems the obvious choice, they just advice you use 9mm ply over the ProFloor but wood is an insulator so would be counter productive, hence the NMP. Then, would just be a case of tiling over as normal.

You think this is the best way of going about it? I was just unsure about the amount of deflection with them not been solid boards. I guess noggin it out would help with that which I will probably do anyway.

Thanks In Advance 🙂

 

[Ajax123]

is this for a primary heat source or just to warm up the tiles and make it more comfy.

 

[AcidOverride]

I was totally gonna do away with the radiator in this room to be honest. The UFH will be plumbed in on its own zone with a separate stat and I wanted it as close to the surface as possible for a decent warm up time as apposed to running it under the floor boards like with some other kits. Total size of the bathroom is roughly 8sqm.

 

[Uheat - Jake]

We do a system identical to this which is slowly getting more popular by the week. 22mm TCGB routed out for 12mm pipe however our panels have a layer of heat reflective foil, therefore no need for the spreader plates. We always specify to put the 6mm ply down over the boards first as nothing else has been tried and tested with the panels, therefore unsure how other products would be over time if they weren't on top of the 6mm ply.

 

[AcidOverride]

Hi, Jake. Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out. Would there be any difference in heat distribution in comparison to the aluminium spreader plates?

 

[Ajax123]

spreader plates are generally pretty inefficient as they have little mass. They tend to need higher temperature input making them not very energy efficient either. A screed or dense conductive board will always be better.

 

[AcidOverride]

Ok so screed has much higher thermal conductivity, but then it would have to be boarded over, a decoupling membrane applied then tiled, which would reduce warm up time right? As apposed to having the piping in the chipboard with spreader plates and NMP over it with a thermal conductivity of 0.412 W/mk, then tiled. Haha I wouldnt even know where to start with figuring out which is best and I'm more than likely overthinking it. 🤦‍♂️