Underfloor heating for apartments
We heat apartment floors across Sydney, surrounding NSW and Canberra, from a single ensuite to every bathroom in a new building. The slab under an apartment is shared with the home below and the wall beside it with the home next door. Neither can be cut into, so we bond the heating down rather than fixing it through anything. On a new building we work with your builder or project manager from the bathroom type drawings.
Heating mats for bathrooms and ensuites
We use heating mats in apartment bathrooms and ensuites, which is where most of this work sits. The mat is bonded down so nothing is fixed through the floor under it. At 3mm it is the thinnest of the three systems. It runs at 200W per square metre and goes into at least 5mm of your tiler's adhesive. We cut the mesh around the vanity, the pan and the screen line, and the cable itself is never cut.
- 200W per square metre
- 3mm thick
- Bonded, never fixed through
- For bathrooms and ensuites
- Cut around the vanity and the pan
- One thermostat per heated area
In screed cable under a new screed
We use in screed cable on an apartment floor that is coming up and going back with a new screed. At 4.5mm to 6.7mm the cable is thicker than an adhesive bed will take, so the screed has to be part of the design. At least 30mm of screed goes over it, laid by your tiler, with the falls formed in the same layer. In an apartment the waste is often already fixed, so the cable is set out around it rather than the other way round.
- For a floor being rebuilt
- Laid loose, then screeded over
- Buried in at least 30mm of screed
- Set out around the existing waste
- The screed is laid by your tiler
- Decided before the levels are set
In slab cable for units on the ground
We lay in slab cable in ground floor and townhouse units, where the unit sits on its own slab rather than above another home. It goes down before the concrete, fixed to the mesh, and is covered by the pour. It is the only one of the three that has to be in the drawings rather than added at the tiling stage. Above ground level a mat or an in screed cable does the job instead.
- For ground floor and townhouse units
- Tied to the reinforcing mesh
- Covered by the pour
- In the drawings, not added later
- Dual core cable
- Set out with the builder
Common apartment situations
A new apartment building is being fitted out
We work from the bathroom type drawings with the builder, so the heating is priced and set out before the first level is tiled.
One bathroom is being renovated
We heat the floor of a single apartment bathroom while it is stripped back, with any approval your scheme needs arranged by you.
The unit sits on the ground
We lay in slab cable in ground floor and townhouse units, which sit on their own slab rather than above another home.
It is a Canberra apartment
We heat apartment floors in Canberra, where a tiled bathroom floor is cold underfoot for a long stretch of the year.
What an apartment job involves
Bonded down, nothing drilled
We bond the heating to the floor rather than fixing it through anything. A suspended slab may have steel tendons tensioned inside it, and a drill that finds one is an engineer's problem rather than a patch. Locating them and then drilling anyway is a risk with no upside, because the heating never needed a fixing. The mat's mesh backing is what makes that practical across a whole floor.
The thermostat goes on an internal wall
We put the thermostat on an internal wall rather than the one shared with the apartment next door. That wall is built as two separate leaves with a gap between them. Running a conduit through it joins what was meant to stay apart. Where the lining is already up we surface mount instead of opening the wall, and we settle that before the tiler starts.
Each apartment is its own system
We run each apartment's heating off that apartment's own board and its own meter. Nothing sits on the building's common switchboard, so nobody is heating a floor they do not live on. Each heated area gets its own thermostat inside the unit. On a new building that means the same small package repeated, one apartment at a time.
We work with your builder or project manager
We deal with the builder or the project manager on an apartment job rather than with the scheme itself. Any approval your building needs is arranged by whoever is running the project, and we give them what it asks for. That is usually the products, the heated area, the height it adds and the circuit. Getting those in early is what keeps a heated floor from holding the job up.
Get a free quote
Tell us what is happening and we will get back to you with a price as soon as we can. There is no obligation to go ahead.
Service available across every Sydney region
Inner West and the city
Burwood, Canada Bay, Inner West, Strathfield and Sydney CBD
Eastern suburbs
Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra
St George and the Sutherland Shire
Bayside, Georges River and Sutherland Shire
North Shore and Northern Beaches
Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Ryde and Willoughby
Western Sydney
Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Cumberland, Hawkesbury, Parramatta, Penrith and The Hills
South Western Sydney
Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Wollondilly
Outside Sydney
Canberra, Central Coast, Goulburn, Shoalhaven, Southern Highlands and Wollongong
Frequently asked questions
Who arranges the approval from the building?
You or your builder do. We work with the builder or the project manager, and the approval sits with whoever is running the project. Send us the plans and we will give them everything about the heating that an application asks for. Getting that in early is usually what keeps the heating from being the thing everyone waits on.
Does anything get drilled into the slab?
No. We bond the heating down, so nothing mechanical goes into the floor at all. That is the answer whether the unit is on a suspended slab or on the ground. It also means there is nothing to find later if somebody lifts the floor. If your engineer has a restriction on fixings, our method already meets it.
Where does the thermostat go in an apartment?
On an internal wall, never the one you share with the apartment next door. An internal wall also keeps the run down to the floor short. We agree the spot before the tiler starts, because moving a thermostat afterwards means opening a wall. In a bathroom it usually ends up outside the door or beside the light switch.
Can a ground floor apartment have in slab heating?
Yes, if it sits on a slab on ground rather than above another home. That is the one apartment case where the cable can be tied into the reinforcing before the concrete goes in. It is decided at plan stage with the builder. Everything above ground level takes a mat or an in screed cable instead. Send the floor plan and we will say which of the three suits the unit.
Can you heat more than the bathroom?
Yes. Bathrooms and ensuites are where most apartment heating goes, but a living area or a whole unit can be heated the same way. It is the same mat or the same cable, just more of it, and the load goes up with the area. That is worth checking against the apartment's own board before anything is ordered. Send the floor plan with the rooms marked and we will price each one.
What is involved in adding heating to a finished apartment?
The floor has to come up, so it becomes part of a bathroom renovation rather than something added to a finished room. The heating goes down after the waterproofing and before the tiles, and there is no way to reach that layer without removing them. If the bathroom is already due for a refit, that is the moment to do it. If it is not, the honest answer is to wait until it is.
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