Job takeoff
Wet underfloor heating in an existing floor takeoff
Lay wet underfloor heating (radiant floor heating) into a floor that is already there: dust sheets on the route and tape at the doorways, the insulation or grooved panels, the pipe loops and their leaders at the designer's centres, a levelling compound, a screed or relaid boards over them, the finish, transition strips at the doorways and the skip, with the manifold, the edge strip, the pressure test before anything covers the pipe, the warm-up and the door trimming listed, and the height it adds flagged.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 6Measurements in
- 8Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the underfloor heating retrofit quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorwaysMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the route's floor you gave, at the calculator's opening sheet size, and the calculator's opening length of tape round each doorway, to hold a sheet across it while the old finish and any screed are broken out. The floor being heated is taken up, so it takes no sheets.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 2 items | |
Grooved panels (low-profile boards)Foam Board Insulation CalculatorBoard over the whole heated floor with the calculator's cutting allowance, counted in its 2400 × 1200 mm (4 × 8 ft) sheets. The build-up decides what the board is and names the row; a board or panel of another size is the area with its allowance, from the working, divided by that board's own area.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Foam Board Insulation Calculator | 8 sheets (4x8 ft) | |
Pipe loops and leaders (PEX)Radiant Floor PEX Tubing CalculatorPipe under the heated floor at the centres chosen, with the calculator's connection allowance for the turns and tails, plus the leaders between the floor and the manifold, circuits × 2 × the route, added as measured. The total is not split into loops: how many there are and how long each may be is the designer's layout, and each loop's length is recorded against its port.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The connection allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Radiant Floor PEX Tubing Calculator | 524 linear ft of PEX | |
Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment)Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume CalculatorCompound over the panels and the pipe in their grooves, at the calculator's opening average depth, which the panel maker's figure for the finish chosen replaces. Where the old floor is out of flat, levelling it before the panels go down is the same compound bought on this line: add that area on it. The figure has nothing added for spillage; the calculator's own note says to order extra.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume Calculator | 34.29 gal | |
Floor tilesFloor & Wall Tile CalculatorTiles for the heated floor at the calculator's opening 600 × 600 mm (about 24 × 24 in) tile and a straight lay, with its waste. Tile passes heat well; a large stone or porcelain tile on a heated floor wants a movement joint at the perimeter and wherever the tile maker asks.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The pattern waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 61 tiles | |
Tile adhesive, flexibleThinset & Tile Adhesive CalculatorAdhesive for the same area at the calculator's opening notch for a tile of that size. Over a heated floor the adhesive is a flexible one its maker rates for underfloor heating, since the floor moves as it warms and cools.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Thinset & Tile Adhesive Calculator | 5 bags | |
Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorwaysFloor Transition Strip CalculatorA strip across each doorway you gave, at the calculator's opening doorway width, ramping the new floor down to the next room's. Where the step is more than a strip can ramp, the door frame or the next floor is the question, which the takeoff flags and excludes.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Floor Transition Strip Calculator | 6.3 ft | |
Skip (dumpster) for what is taken upSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the heated floor at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old finish and what was under it, the skirting and the radiators taken off, and the panels' and pipe's packaging. On a floor dug out for a screed the broken screed goes as rubble and its volume is several times the depth for a finish alone, so set the depth for that.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 0.4006 yd³ | |
Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorwaysMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the route's floor you gave, at the calculator's opening sheet size, and the calculator's opening length of tape round each doorway, to hold a sheet across it while the old finish and any screed are broken out. The floor being heated is taken up, so it takes no sheets.
Why this quantity? | 2 items | |
Grooved panels (low-profile boards)Foam Board Insulation CalculatorBoard over the whole heated floor with the calculator's cutting allowance, counted in its 2400 × 1200 mm (4 × 8 ft) sheets. The build-up decides what the board is and names the row; a board or panel of another size is the area with its allowance, from the working, divided by that board's own area.
Why this quantity? | 8 sheets (2400x1200 mm) | |
Pipe loops and leaders (PEX)Radiant Floor PEX Tubing CalculatorPipe under the heated floor at the centres chosen, with the calculator's connection allowance for the turns and tails, plus the leaders between the floor and the manifold, circuits × 2 × the route, added as measured. The total is not split into loops: how many there are and how long each may be is the designer's layout, and each loop's length is recorded against its port.
Why this quantity? | 156.36 m of pex | |
Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment)Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume CalculatorCompound over the panels and the pipe in their grooves, at the calculator's opening average depth, which the panel maker's figure for the finish chosen replaces. Where the old floor is out of flat, levelling it before the panels go down is the same compound bought on this line: add that area on it. The figure has nothing added for spillage; the calculator's own note says to order extra.
Why this quantity? | 120 L | |
Floor tilesFloor & Wall Tile CalculatorTiles for the heated floor at the calculator's opening 600 × 600 mm (about 24 × 24 in) tile and a straight lay, with its waste. Tile passes heat well; a large stone or porcelain tile on a heated floor wants a movement joint at the perimeter and wherever the tile maker asks.
Why this quantity? | 62 tiles | |
Tile adhesive, flexibleThinset & Tile Adhesive CalculatorAdhesive for the same area at the calculator's opening notch for a tile of that size. Over a heated floor the adhesive is a flexible one its maker rates for underfloor heating, since the floor moves as it warms and cools.
Why this quantity? | 5 bags | |
Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorwaysFloor Transition Strip CalculatorA strip across each doorway you gave, at the calculator's opening doorway width, ramping the new floor down to the next room's. Where the step is more than a strip can ramp, the door frame or the next floor is the question, which the takeoff flags and excludes.
Why this quantity? | 1.89 m | |
Skip (dumpster) for what is taken upSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the heated floor at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old finish and what was under it, the skirting and the radiators taken off, and the panels' and pipe's packaging. On a floor dug out for a screed the broken screed goes as rubble and its volume is several times the depth for a finish alone, so set the depth for that.
Why this quantity? | 0.3 m³ |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorways0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Grooved panels (low-profile boards)3.7 h (2.0–10)
- Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment)4.5 h (2.5–9.2)
- Floor tiles12 h (7.2–25)
- Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorways1.0 h (0.6–1.9)
- Skip (dumpster) for what is taken up0.3 h (0.2–0.9)
About 22 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 13 and 47.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plasterer + 1 labourerhalf a day
- Tiler1 tiler1½ days
- Floor layer1 floor layerunder a quarter of a day
About 2½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- Pipe loops and leaders (PEX): Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
- Tile adhesive, flexible: counted with Floor tiles
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorways0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Grooved panels (low-profile boards)3.6 h (2.0–10)
- Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment)4.4 h (2.4–9.0)
- Floor tiles12 h (7.0–24)
- Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorways0.9 h (0.6–1.9)
- Skip (dumpster) for what is taken up0.3 h (0.1–0.9)
About 22 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 12 and 46.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plasterer + 1 labourerhalf a day
- Tiler1 tiler1½ days
- Floor layer1 floor layerunder a quarter of a day
About 2½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- Pipe loops and leaders (PEX): Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
- Tile adhesive, flexible: counted with Floor tiles
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Laying wet underfloor heating into an old floor is a problem of height before it is a problem of heat. In a new house the loops are designed into the floor from the start; in an existing room every layer added, the insulation under the pipe, whatever covers it and the new finish, raises a floor whose level the doors, the next room, the kitchen's plinths and the bottom step of the stair were all built to. So the first decision is how the pipe gets into the floor. Grooved low-profile panels laid over the old floor with a thin levelling compound over them add the least; digging out the old screed on a solid floor makes room for insulation, pipe and a new screed at the old level; and on a suspended timber floor the boards come up, the pipe goes between the joists in aluminium spreader plates over insulation, and the boards go back at the height they were. The units do not choose between them; the floor does.
Whatever the build-up adds is flagged here and never answered. At a doorway it becomes a step, which a transition strip ramps and a trimmed door clears. At the foot of a stair it makes the bottom riser shorter than the rest, which is a trip for anybody coming down and a question for the stair rules building control works to; resetting the stair is not in this job. And a screed is heavy: laid over boards on joists, whether they carry it is a structural question for the designer or an engineer, never this page.
Heat goes where the insulation lets it, so the insulation or the panels go over the whole heated floor, with a compressible edge strip round every wall and frame to let the warmed floor expand. The loops run in one unjointed length each from a port on the manifold and back, at the centres the heating designer sets for the heat each room loses, and the leaders between the room and a manifold outside it are pipe as well, counted by the circuits and the route. The manifold, with a pump and a mixing valve where the heat source runs hotter than the floor should, is fixed where it can be reached, and its thermostats and wiring centre are electrical work. Whether the heat source, a boiler or a heat pump, can run at the floor's low water temperature is its own question, excluded here.
Order matters more than on most jobs. The pipe is pressure-tested before anything covers it and kept under pressure while a screed goes down, because a leak found under a screed is a floor broken open. A sand and cement screed (a topping, in North America) then dries for weeks, and is warmed up in the steps its maker gives over days, never switched straight to full heat, before any finish goes on; a levelling compound (self-leveling underlayment) over panels is ready far sooner. Tiles pass heat best; boards, their underlay and carpet each have a limit on how much they may hold it back, which the maker of each states. The rows follow the build-up and the finish chosen, and the centres chosen for the pipe: nothing here follows the units, and every row answers in each market's own measures.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Have the heating designer work out each room's heat loss, the loop layout, the pipe centres and the flow temperature, and confirm the heat source can run at it; measure the height the new floor will add at every doorway and at the foot of any stair before a build-up is chosen.
- Where the old floor finish, its adhesive or the screed beneath it is old enough, have it checked for asbestos; sheet the route through the house, tape round the doorways against dust, isolate any circuit whose cables run under the floor, and drain down any radiator the floor replaces.
- Take up the old finish and the skirting (baseboard), and take off the radiators the floor replaces; on a solid floor being dug out, break out the old screed, and on a timber floor lift the boards.
- Fix the edge strip round every wall and frame, lay the insulation or the grooved panels, fix the manifold on its brackets, and run the flow and return from the heat source to it and the thermostats' cables through the holes and chases the builder has made.
- Lay each loop in one length from its port and back at the designer's centres, record its length against the port, and pressure-test the floor; keep the pipe under pressure while the levelling compound or the screed goes down, or while the old boards are relaid or a new deck is laid over the plates.
- While a screed dries for the time its maker gives, wire the thermostats to the wiring centre and have the heat source set for the floor's cooler water, or commissioned where it is new; then fill and purge each loop, dosing the inhibitor where the loops join a sealed system, set its flow at the manifold and warm the floor up in the maker's steps over days. A levelling compound needs only its own drying time before the fill.
- Lay the tiles, boards or carpet chosen for a heated floor, fit a transition strip wherever the raised floor meets the next room's, trim each door to clear the new floor, and refix the skirting at its new height.
- Test the new wiring, make good the brackets and pipe holes the radiators left, clear the waste, and hand over the loop record, the pressure test and the warm-up record.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The heat source itself, a boiler or a heat pump, and whether it can run as cool as the loops ask: that is its own job, and only resetting it is listed.
- The loop layout, the heat each room's floor gives out and the pipe centres, which the designer sets. The centres here are one of the three the pipe page offers, for the reader to change to the designer's.
- Whether a suspended timber floor carries a screed's weight, which is flagged: strengthening the floor, or changing to a lighter build-up, is for the designer or an engineer.
- Raising door frames, the stair, kitchen plinths or fitted furniture to the new floor level. Trimming the doors is listed; the shorter bottom riser the raised floor leaves at the foot of a stair is flagged, and resetting the stair is another job.
- Whether the chosen tiles, boards or carpet suit being heated, beyond naming the question: how warm each may run and how much each holds the heat back come from its maker.
- An electric mat or cable system under the floor, which is heated another way; the heated bathroom floor takeoff counts one.
- Removing asbestos the survey finds in the old floor, which is specialist or licensed work with its own programme.
- Damp found in the floor once it is opened up, and whatever damp proof layer or damp-proof course it then needs.
- Redecorating the walls marked where the old emitters hung; making good their brackets and pipe holes is listed.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the underfloor heating retrofit quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
More takeoffs
Other job takeoffs
Electrical rough-in
3 tradesA starting outlet count by the North American spacing rule, the lighting load and the conduit run for first-fixing a single room.
Run this takeoffService panel upgrade
3 tradesCalculated service load by the NEC methods, a simplified floor to read it against, and the main breaker for the service being considered.
Run this takeoffRecessed lighting layout
3 tradesWhether the fittings you plan give the room enough light, how many a target level needs and at what spacing, and whether the circuit will carry them.
Run this takeoff
Frequently asked questions
- What does the underfloor heating retrofit takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Floor to be heated 20 m² · Circuits (loops) off the manifold 2 · Manifold to the heated floor, one way 3 m · Doorways where the new floor meets another 2 · Floor sheeted along the route through the house 8 m² · Loose waste, as a depth over the heated floor 0.02 m, it orders: Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorways, 2 items; Grooved panels (low-profile boards), 8 sheets (2400x1200 mm); Pipe loops and leaders (PEX), 156 m of pex; Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment), 120 L; Floor tiles, 62 tiles; Tile adhesive, flexible, 5 bags; Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorways, 1.89 m; Skip (dumpster) for what is taken up, 0.3 m³. Opened at Floor to be heated 220 sq ft · Circuits (loops) off the manifold 2 · Manifold to the heated floor, one way 10 ft · Doorways where the new floor meets another 2 · Floor sheeted along the route through the house 86 sq ft · Loose waste, as a depth over the heated floor 0.59 in: Dust sheets on the route, and tape round the doorways, 2 items; Grooved panels (low-profile boards), 8 sheets (4x8 ft); Pipe loops and leaders (PEX), 524 linear ft of PEX; Levelling compound or latex screed (self-leveling underlayment), 34.3 gal; Floor tiles, 61 tiles; Tile adhesive, flexible, 5 bags; Transition strips (door bars, T-moldings) at the doorways, 6.3 ft; Skip (dumpster) for what is taken up, 0.4 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the underfloor heating retrofit takeoff run?
- 8 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Foam Board Insulation Calculator, Radiant Floor PEX Tubing Calculator, Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume Calculator, Floor & Wall Tile Calculator, Thinset & Tile Adhesive Calculator, Floor Transition Strip Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the underfloor heating retrofit takeoff leave out?
- 9 things, each named on this page: The heat source itself, a boiler or a heat pump, and whether it can run as cool as the loops ask; The loop layout, the heat each room's floor gives out and the pipe centres, which the designer sets; Whether a suspended timber floor carries a screed's weight, which is flagged; Raising door frames, the stair, kitchen plinths or fitted furniture to the new floor level; Whether the chosen tiles, boards or carpet suit being heated, beyond naming the question; An electric mat or cable system under the floor, which is heated another way; the heated bathroom floor takeoff counts one; Removing asbestos the survey finds in the old floor, which is specialist or licensed work with its own programme; Damp found in the floor once it is opened up, and whatever damp proof layer or damp-proof course it then needs; Redecorating the walls marked where the old emitters hung; making good their brackets and pipe holes is listed.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The underfloor heating retrofit quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.