Pipe cover for heated Thatcham extensions
Detached houses make up 27% of Thatcham's homes, and a detached house has room for a large heated extension. Whatever the size, the rules for the screed are the same.
The first is cover. Pumped liquid needs a minimum 25mm cover over the pipework, and that brings the whole floor to between 45 and 50mm. With sand and cement by hand it is around 45mm over them, so that floor ends up thicker. Too little cover leaves the screed weak over the pipes and can crack; too much slows the warm-up.
The second is contact. Poured liquid wraps every pipe completely and leaves no trapped air, so a heated Thatcham extension warms faster and more evenly. Hand-laid screed can be compacted well around pipes, but it takes care and is slower.
The third is what sits underneath. The insulation, membrane and perimeter edge strip must be right before we pour, or the screed can crack at the walls or lose heat downwards. On the day we look over those layers before pouring, and if you would rather we provided them, see insulation and membrane supply. For pricing, 2026 published rates for pumped screed over heating pipes sit between £20 and £35 a square metre.
A heated floor is finished with tiles, LVT or engineered wood, and all of them need a flat base. Liquid screed readily achieves SR1 or SR2, which suits the thin finishes most people choose for heated rooms. For more on the pumped option, see liquid screed in Thatcham.
Retrofitting heating into older Thatcham ground floors
Fitting heating into a room that already exists is trickier than planning it into a new extension, since the doors, thresholds and kitchen units have already set how high the finished floor can be. The insulation, the pipework and the screed must all squeeze in under that line.
This is where the thinner build-up of a liquid screed helps. At 45 to 50mm total over pipes, against the deeper sand and cement option, it often makes retrofit possible without lowering the old slab by much. Where the old floor has to be dug out anyway, the depth can be planned from scratch. You can compare the depths in our screed depth guide.
After the pour, warm the heating up gently. Calcium sulphate will usually take gentle heat at around 7 days; the sand and cement alternative waits 21 days or more. In both cases your heating engineer starts the system low and lifts the water temperature step by step, never jumping to full, so the screed dries evenly without cracking. Keep the written heat-up schedule and follow it. Woodley has its own page on heated floor screeding in Woodley.
Underfloor Heating Screed prices in Thatcham
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 Thatcham
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 Thatcham
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 27.9 miles from Thatcham, which lies to the west-south-west. Postcodes here include RG19, and Newbury (2.8 miles), Tadley (5.7 miles), Basingstoke (11.9 miles) and Reading (12.8 miles) are close by.
More on underfloor heating screed, part of our screeding services.