Pipe cover and depth in Melksham heated floors
A wet heating system depends on its screed. The screed carries warmth away from the pipes and spreads it over the floor, so it must wrap them fully and sit at the correct depth above.
Liquid screed needs a minimum of 25mm above the pipes, giving a finished depth of 45 to 50mm in most homes. It runs into every gap around the pipework, leaving no trapped air, and the floor heats up more quickly as a result. Sand and cement needs roughly 45mm over the pipes, so that floor ends up deeper and heavier, and it has to be packed carefully round them.
Floor height often settles the choice. Some 26% of Melksham houses were built from 1973 to 1999, and owners of the bigger detached houses from those years often want to open up the ground floor and relay it with insulation and one continuous screed. Taking up the old floor makes space for insulation, pipes and screed, yet the new level still has to line up with doors and the stairs, and a slimmer liquid floor usually makes that simpler. See how Melksham liquid floors are pumped for that side of it.
Ahead of the pour, the edge strip, the membrane and the insulation all get checked, and we can provide any of them if needed. The edge strip gives the screed room to expand as it warms, which is just as important as the depth over the pipes.
Your heating installer must lay the pipes and pressure test them before we arrive, as K & B does not fit underfloor heating pipework.
Switching the heating on in a Melksham extension
Anyone adding a heated extension or garden room asks when the heating can be switched on. Calcium sulphate can normally take heat after about 7 days. For sand and cement, wait 21 days at the very least.
Bring it up to temperature slowly the first time. The water temperature goes up a little at a time over several days, is held there, then is lowered again, which stops the screed cracking from heating too quickly. Commissioning the system is your heating installer's job, and we write down the screed's side of the schedule for them.
Houses from 2000 to 2014 make up 17% of Melksham's stock, and the newer homes at Bowerhill and Hunter's Meadow have heated screeds already. Extending one of those normally means copying the existing build-up and floor level so the old and new heated floors finish flush. If the joint ends up slightly out, a skim of compound evens it before tiles or LVT; read about evening out the join between floors.
Close by, the same work is offered as underfloor heating screed in Chippenham. The guide to screed thickness sets out depths for different heating systems.
Underfloor Heating Screed prices in Melksham
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 Melksham
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 Melksham
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 65.4 miles from Melksham, which lies to the west. Postcodes here include SN12, and Corsham (4.7 miles), Trowbridge (4.7 miles), Chippenham (6 miles) and Devizes (6.3 miles) are close by.
More on underfloor heating screed, part of our screeding services.