Fitting heating into older Chippenham ground floors
Adding underfloor heating to a house that already stands comes down mainly to how much height you have. Insulation, pipes and screed all have to squeeze in below a finished level that still lines up with the door bottoms, the first stair and the skirting boards.
The 1980s and 1990s houses at Cepen Park and Pewsham are a good example. Their original floors often have thin insulation or none, which wastes heat downwards if pipes are laid straight on top. The better approach is to take the old floor up, add insulation, let the installer clip the pipes down, and then screed.
Screed choice then follows the depth available. Liquid screed only needs 25mm or more over the pipes, about 45 to 50mm overall, so it tends to win where every millimetre counts. With sand and cement you need roughly 45mm above the pipes alone, which makes the whole floor thicker. Either way, the screed must surround the pipes completely, with no air pockets, or heat will not spread evenly.
Insulation, membrane and the strip round the walls all get checked first, and anything missing can be supplied under our insulation and membrane work. The installer pressure tests the pipes first, so any leak is found while it can still be fixed. On the day, nobody should walk on the pipes or the edge strip once our checks are done.
Commissioning heated floors in Chippenham extensions and new homes
Heated extensions are the other main job. A kitchen or garden room on the back of a semi is usually built new from the slab up, so there is room for a proper build-up and the screed can be chosen for the finish. Homes built since 2000 make up 18% of Chippenham's stock, and a newer house may have been designed with heating in a flowing screed from the start.
The heating must not be run hard on a fresh screed. Calcium sulphate will usually accept low heat from roughly day 7. Leave a sand and cement floor alone for 21 days or longer before the system sends any warmth through it. Either way, the heat is stepped up a little at a time across several days to the installer's commissioning plan, and held there before tiles or wood go on.
Running the heating too early or too fast can crack the screed or debond the finish later. We give you heat-up guidance to share with your heating engineer, so nobody is guessing.
For the pumped option over pipes, see liquid screed in Chippenham. For specified calcium sulphate grades, read about anhydrite flow screed in Chippenham. The screed thickness guide has the full depth table.
Underfloor Heating Screed prices in Chippenham
Liquid screed over underfloor heating: £20 to £35 per m² supplied and laid (trade2base, June 2026), so £700 to £1,230 for 35 m². trade2base gives these figures excluding VAT. See our floor screeding cost guide or screed calculator.
Who lays your underfloor heating screed in Chippenham
K & B Screeding’s own team, led by director Donatas Bardisevicius. Founded 2019, company 12298780.
See what customers say in our Google reviews and on our testimonials page.
Underfloor Heating Screed from Slough to Chippenham
On the map, Chippenham sits west of Slough, about 63.6 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including SN15), next to Corsham (3.5 miles), Calne (4.9 miles), Melksham (6 miles) and Devizes (9 miles).
More on underfloor heating screed, part of our screeding services.
