Retrofitting heating under Hanwell and West Ealing floors
Putting wet heating into an older house is a floor height problem first. Insulation, pipes and screed all take depth, and the finished floor must still meet door thresholds, the hall and the step to the garden. In the Victorian and Edwardian terraces of Hanwell and West Ealing, the answer is usually to take the old floor up and dig down enough for the full build-up, with a new membrane laid at the same time.
Once the depth is found, the choice of screed follows. Pumped screed needs no less than 25mm over the pipework, around 45 to 50mm in all, and it fills every gap around them. With hand-laid cement, about 45mm must cover them, and that makes for a deeper floor overall. Where height is tight, liquid usually wins, and the Ealing liquid screed page sets out its depths.
Our crew checks the insulation, membrane and edge strip ahead of the pour, and fits any that are missing. That foam strip round the walls gives the warm screed room to expand, and the membrane stops wet mix running into the gaps between insulation boards. Pipes are then held down so they cannot float or shift during the pour.
Inter-war houses need the same thinking: 30% of Ealing's homes were built between 1919 and 1944, and the semis of Greenford, Perivale and Northolt suit rear extension slabs, a natural place to add heating without disturbing the rest of the house.
First heat-up for new Ealing floors
A new screed over heating must be warmed slowly. On calcium sulphate the heating can come on at around day 7; on sand and cement, wait no less than 21 days. Either way the engineer begins with a cool flow and lifts it bit by bit across several days. We hand over written commissioning guidance for your heating engineer to follow, because a rushed warm-up can crack a heated screed or loosen the finish laid on it later.
On a heated extension to one of those semis, the floor finish is usually tiles, LVT or engineered wood. All of them need a flat surface and a dry screed. A hygrometer test before flooring avoids trapped moisture, and our drying time guide explains how long to allow.
Pipe installation is not something K & B offers, so agree dates with your heating engineer and with us in one go. For the insulation and membrane layers under the pipes, see insulation and membranes. Where the heated floor is a large open area in a new block, the anhydrite flow screed page for Ealing covers calcium sulphate grades.
Underfloor Heating Screed prices in Ealing
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 Ealing
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 Ealing
Ealing is about 14.3 miles east of our Slough base as the crow flies, with postcodes including W3, W4, UB1 and UB6. The nearest towns to it are Hounslow (3.5 miles), Brent (3.5 miles), Hammersmith and Fulham (4.4 miles) and Richmond upon Thames (4.9 miles).
More on underfloor heating screed, part of our screeding services.
