Electric underfloor heating in Wollondilly
We install electric underfloor heating across the Wollondilly Shire, which holds the coldest record of any Sydney area we cover. The station that stood at Picton recorded a July mean minimum of 1.7°C and 59 nights a year at or below 2°C. That is colder than Katoomba, from a valley floor at 165m. Separate houses are 94.6% of homes here, the highest share in the state, and flats are 1.0%. So the job here is a house, and often a whole floor of one.
The benefits of electric underfloor heating in Wollondilly
Separate houses are 94.6% of homes here and 60.8% of them have four bedrooms or more. Two of the reasons below come from the coal under the shire. The rest come from how cold a Picton morning gets and how far the network has to reach.
Warming homes in the coldest area in Sydney
The station that stood at Picton recorded 59 nights a year at or below 2°C and its July mean minimum was 1.7°C. Under tile heating mats are the quickest of our three systems to bring a cold tile floor up to temperature. On a Picton winter morning that is what the thermostat is set to do before anyone is up.
A subsidence rule that reaches the bathroom floor
One subsidence guideline covers 2,182 homes here and asks that the gradients on wet area floors are increased. The benefit of under tile heating mats is that the mesh is cut and turned to follow whatever fall the floor is laid to. Those falls have to stay serviceable under tilts of 7mm every metre. We set the heating out from the finished levels on the tiler's drawing, not from the old floor.
A retile needs no subsidence approval at all
The exempt list for a subsidence district names internal alterations, including an ensuite bathroom and a kitchen. So under tile heating mats go into a bathroom or kitchen retrofit here with no subsidence approval at all. In slab heating cable is the other case, because a new slab needs a guideline compliant application first. That one is approved within seven calendar days and it comes before the development application.
Run the floor heating while the sun is on the roof
44.9% of houses here have rooftop solar, and charges on this network fall in the middle of the day. The benefit is that our thermostats can be programmed to run the floor heating through the day time only. In slab and in screed heating cable store that heat in the floor and hold it for hours after the power goes off. So the floor is still warm through the evening, on power the roof made that afternoon.
Check the switchboard before a large heated floor
23.2% of this shire's street substations report low headroom or overload, rising to 30.4% in the rural and bush zones. An under tile heating mat in a bathroom is a small load and rarely raises the question. A whole heated living floor on an acreage block is the one to check, and your electrician reads the switchboard in minutes.
Heating a floor needs no development consent
There are 303 listed items here and not one of them names an interior. Council's own heritage pack says non structural interior work such as replacing floor coverings needs no development consent. Altering a fireplace does need an application, whereas under tile heating mats do not need a development application for this situation.
What we would install in Wollondilly
Separate houses are 94.6% of homes here and only 168 flats exist in the whole shire.
A mat under the tiles
A bathroom retile is the job that needs no subsidence approval here, which makes it the straightforward one. The mat sits inside the tile bed and the floor underneath is left alone.
Under tile heating matsCable in a slab
About 645 new houses a year are approved here, and in a subsidence district the slab follows the lot's own guideline. Cable is tied to the reinforcement and the falls are set before the pour.
Slab heating cables, dual coreCable in a screed
A screed suits a room added to one of the older town cottages, where the floor is timber on bearers. The cable goes into the topping and the mass it adds does the holding.
In screed heating cableWhy Wollondilly properties choose us
We install across Wollondilly and the rest of the Wollondilly Shire, and we size every job from your floor plans before we quote. Installation is always subject to checking installer availability, which we do before we agree a day.
How we install underfloor heating in Wollondilly
Plans first, then a quote
Send us the plans for your new home, renovation, office or hotel. We measure the heated areas from them, calculate the cable size and quote the materials. If you want us to install, a second quote covers the installation labour. Nothing is ordered and no day is booked until you accept.
Installation day
Once you accept and tell us the job site is ready, we agree a day, subject to checking installer availability. The floor has to be prepared and ready before that day: your own trades handle levelling, waterproofing and anything else above the slab. Our installer lays the cable or the mat, fits the thermostat, and tests the system with our own equipment before leaving site. Your tiler covers it with the screed or the tile bed.
In a strata building the path is different again
In a New South Wales strata scheme the lot boundary generally sits at the upper surface of the floor. The slab underneath belongs to the building rather than to you. We lay the mat into the tile bed instead of touching that slab, and nothing is drilled or chased into it. Installing hard flooring, and the wiring and power points that come with it, is a minor renovation under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Waterproofing is carved out of that definition, so a full bathroom rebuild goes to a special resolution rather than an ordinary one. Your builder or project manager deals with the owners corporation, and we build to whatever that approval allows.
Subsidence approval comes before the development application
Construction here may only be carried out between 7am and 5pm from Monday to Saturday. Nothing at all happens on a Sunday or on a public holiday. That Saturday runs four hours longer than the shortest one we work to anywhere. There is no exemption for quiet internal work the way there is in some areas. There is no out of hours permit either, and Council states plainly that it does not accept bonds for work on private land. Road reserve occupation is priced case by case rather than from a published line. So a skip on the street is a conversation rather than a form. What actually governs the order of work here is the subsidence paperwork. Where a new slab is going in, Subsidence Advisory approval comes before the development application rather than after it. A guideline compliant application is approved within seven calendar days. An internal alteration is exempt from that step entirely and needs none of it.
Underfloor heating for Wollondilly homes
The most house dominated shire in the state
Of the thirty three Sydney areas we cover, this one has the highest share of separate houses at 94.6%. Semis and townhouses are 3.5% and flats 1.0%, and both of those are the lowest anywhere. Not one block of flats here rises above three storeys. 60.8% of homes have four bedrooms or more, which is third in the state. Only 16.2% of the homes here are rented out to somebody else. So almost every quote here is for an owner, in a house, with more floor area than a flat would offer.
No town here holds more than 2,300 homes
Tahmoor is the largest at 2,205 homes, then Picton at 2,035, Thirlmere at 1,953 and Bargo at 1,693. Not one suburb in the shire is under 85% separate houses. Picton holds the only cluster of flats anywhere in it, and there are seventy of them. 26.5% of homes sit on farm and rural land rather than in a suburban street. The towns run up a long slope, from Camden Park at about 76m to Bargo at about 336m and Oakdale at about 430m. The 1.7°C figure comes from the lowest of them, at Picton.
Most of these homes sit over coal
11,740 homes here, which is 62.1% of them, sit inside a Mine Subsidence District, along with 74.4% of the residential zoned land. No other area we cover has most of its homes in one. The Bargo district alone holds 6,134 homes, including all of Tahmoor and all of Bargo, and the Wilton district holds 3,873. Each parcel carries a guideline that sets what the slab has to be, from a reinforced slab with articulated masonry to a minimum site classification. None of that reaches a floor inside a house that already stands.
Winter mornings in Wollondilly
The station that recorded this shire stood at Picton at 165m, within a kilometre of the town itself.
- July nights
1.7°C at Picton station 068052 inside this shire, against 8.1°C at Observatory Hill in the city. A tiled floor sits close to that overnight, and it is the first thing a bare foot meets in the morning.
- Frost
59 nights a year at or below 2°C at Picton and 32 at or below zero, with a low of minus 10.0°C. The overnight low is what decides how cold the floor is at seven in the morning.
- Summer
8 days a year at or above 35°C at Picton, with a record high of 42.8°C. Heating is a winter item here, and a thermostat on a timer draws nothing for the rest of the year.
- Climate zone
Zone 6 across the whole shire, and the slab figure modelled for it is 56 megajoules per m² a year. Insulation under the heating is what keeps the warmth in the room, and it is sized from that zone.
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Tell us what you need done in Wollondilly and we will get back to you with a price as soon as we can. There is no obligation to go ahead.
Services we provide in Wollondilly
New home builds
Home renovations
Bathroom renovations
Apartments
Hotel bathrooms
Office buildings
Cold storage and frost heave
Suburbs we service in Wollondilly and surrounds
We install across the Wollondilly Shire and the surrounding localities, and we check installer availability before we agree a day. If your suburb is not listed below, contact us and we will confirm coverage.
Frequently asked questions about Wollondilly
Do you cover every suburb in the Wollondilly area?
Yes. We install across the Wollondilly Shire and the surrounding localities, including every suburb listed on this page. We check installer availability before we agree a day, which is the one condition that travels with every job. If your suburb is not shown, contact us with the address and we will confirm coverage before we quote.
What are your service hours in Wollondilly?
Our hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5:30pm, and we are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Plans and photographs can be sent at any time through the quote form on this page. If you need us on site in Wollondilly, the day is agreed once we have checked installer availability. It is worth sending the plans as early as you can.
How does the cold here compare with the Blue Mountains?
It is colder on the record. The station that stood at Picton recorded 59 nights a year at or below 2°C and 32 at or below zero, against 37 at Katoomba. Its July mean minimum was 1.7°C and its lowest reading minus 10.0°C. Katoomba sits at 1,017m and Picton at 165m, so this is cold air settling rather than altitude. Our thermostats are set to bring the floor heating on before the household is up on mornings like those.
How does a mine subsidence guideline change the slab?
It depends which guideline your lot carries, and they differ. Two of them cover about 6,000 homes between them and ask for a reinforced slab to the Australian standard, with articulated masonry under one. Another covers 2,182 homes and asks for a minimum site classification. The gradients on wet area floors are increased there to stay serviceable under 7mm per metre tilts. A fourth limits a single storey clad frame house to 250m². We set the heating out to those finished falls.
Do I need subsidence approval to retile a bathroom?
No. The exempt list for a subsidence district names internal alterations, and it includes an ensuite bathroom, a kitchen, ceilings, toilets and internal partitions. Structural alterations are not exempt. So a retile with a heating mat under it needs nothing from Subsidence Advisory. A new slab is the other case, and a guideline compliant application there is approved within seven calendar days. Check the current exempt list, because the one quoted here is dated 2023.
Can I change a floor inside a listed house here?
Yes, and Council says so in writing. Its heritage pack says most non structural interior work needs no development consent, and names replacing floor coverings among the examples. Maintenance in the same document covers electrical work and cabling. Not one of the 303 listed items here names an interior. What does need an application is altering a fireplace or a staircase, and Council will only let a chimney go if it is structurally unsound.
Why is the supply a question on an acreage block?
Because the rural half of this network is the most stretched we have measured. Of the 1,517 street substations here, 23.2% report low headroom or overload. That is 3.5% across the towns and 30.4% in the rural and bush zones. Mowbray Park, Glenmore and Lakesland are the worst of them. A bathroom is a small load and rarely raises it. A heated living floor on an acreage block is worth checking at the board first.
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