Underfloor Heating
Designed, Installed & Commissioned
Across Manchester.

Warm floors, even heat, and lower running costs than radiators. DPS designs and installs both wet and electric underfloor heating systems — for new builds, extensions, renovations and single-room upgrades.

Wet underfloor heating is up to 25% more efficient than radiator-only systems

Overview

Wet or Electric? We Install Both.

Underfloor heating (UFH) is the most comfortable and efficient way to heat a home. Heat rises evenly across the entire floor instead of being radiated from one wall, which means warmer feet, lower running costs, and no ugly radiators eating up wall space.

DPS installs both system types. Wet (hydronic) UFH uses warm water from your boiler circulating through PEX pipework laid in screed or in a low-profile retrofit panel. It's the right choice for whole-house heating, extensions, and new builds.

Electric UFH uses thin heating mats laid under tiles or stone. It's faster to install, doesn't add height to the floor, and is the right choice for single rooms — most commonly bathrooms and en-suites where it pairs perfectly with new tile installations.

Every install includes proper system design (heat loss calculations, manifold sizing, control zoning), professional commissioning, and a written guarantee on workmanship.

Why It Matters

The Problem With Radiators (And Why UFH Solves It)

Radiators heat unevenly. The wall directly behind them gets hottest, the air near the ceiling rises and cools, and the floor stays cold — exactly where you don't want it. Underfloor heating reverses this completely: heat enters at floor level and rises evenly across the whole room.

Radiators also force you to run your boiler at 65–75°C to get rooms warm. Wet UFH operates at 35–45°C, which keeps your condensing boiler in its most efficient range — typically saving 15–25% on heating bills compared with a radiator-only system.

Bathrooms suffer most from radiator-only heating. The radiator competes with the towel rail for wall space, the tiled floor stays freezing cold underfoot, and the room takes ages to warm up after a shower. Electric UFH under the tiles solves all three problems for the cost of a single weekend's work.

Retrofitting UFH into an existing room used to mean digging up the floor. Modern low-profile systems (Nu-Heat LoPro, JG Underfloor Speedfit) add as little as 15mm to floor height — often the same as a thick tile and adhesive layer.

How We Work

Our Proven Process

Benefits

What You Get When You Choose DPS

In Detail

Wet vs Electric Underfloor Heating: A Practical Guide

Wet UFH is the right choice when you're heating multiple rooms, an extension, or a whole house. It runs from your existing combi or system boiler (we install the manifold and connect it as part of the job), and once installed costs no more to run than a properly sized radiator system — usually less.

The key wet UFH components are: insulation board (essential — without it, half your heat goes downward into the slab), PEX or PERT pipework (we use Hep2O, JG Speedfit and Wavin Hep2O depending on system), the manifold (the brass distribution unit with flow gauges and actuators for each zone), the wiring centre (linking thermostats, actuators and pump), and the smart thermostats (one per zone).

Wet UFH can be installed three ways. In new screed (poured wet over the pipes — the most common new-build method, ideal in extensions). In low-profile retrofit panels (overboard panels grooved for pipework, adding 15–25mm to floor height — best for renovations). In suspended timber floors (between joists with spreader plates underneath floorboards — best for first floors and Victorian properties).

Electric UFH is the right choice for single rooms — typically bathrooms, en-suites, kitchens or hallways. It's faster to install (a small bathroom can be done in a day), adds almost no height (1.5–3mm under tile adhesive), and runs from a normal 230V circuit with its own thermostat. It uses more electricity per unit of heat than wet UFH, so it's not economical for whole-house heating — but for a 4m² bathroom it's perfect.

Electric UFH comes as cable mats (pre-spaced cable on a self-adhesive mesh, rolled out across the floor — easiest and most common), loose cable (set out by hand for irregular shapes), or in-screed cable (deeper installation in screed, faster heat-up but takes longer to install). Top brands we install: Warmup, ProWarm, Nu-Heat, Schluter Ditra-Heat.

Smart controls transform UFH from 'a nice idea' into 'genuinely lower bills'. We install Heatmiser neoStat (multi-zone wired), Hive Multizone, and Honeywell evohome — all zone-controlled from your phone, so the bathroom is warm at 7am without heating the whole house all night. Schedules, holiday modes, and geofencing are all standard.

For Manchester properties, the most common UFH project we carry out is a bathroom renovation pairing electric UFH with a new tile floor — typically £600–£950 fully installed including thermostat. The most common whole-house wet UFH project is in single-storey extensions and rear kitchen-diner builds — typically £85–£125 per square metre fully installed including manifold and controls.

All wet UFH installations are commissioned with a calibrated flow meter at each manifold port, balancing the system so every zone gets the right amount of warm water. Without proper balancing, far rooms run cold while near rooms overheat — a problem we frequently inherit from cheaper installers.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions