Underfloor heating cost per square metre: wet and electric prices

Underfloor heating costs £38 to £108 per m² fitted in a new build, with electric at the bottom of that range and a wet system at the top. Fitting it into an existing floor costs more. We give kit and fitted prices per m², wet against electric, new build against retrofit, running costs at the October 2026 price cap, and when building regulations apply.

How much underfloor heating costs

Underfloor heating has two prices: the kit, sold per m² plus VAT, and the fitted job. These are typical fitted prices, materials and labour, for a 60 m² floor.

A wet system costs more to fit because warm water from the boiler or a heat pump runs through pipes under the floor, fed from a manifold. An electric system is a heating cable or mat wired to a thermostat, so there is no plumbing to do.

A renovation costs more for both types. The heating has to go into or over a floor that already exists, rather than being laid as the floor is built.

Underfloor heating cost per m²

Per m², the kit is the cheaper part of the job. These are manufacturers' own list prices in September 2026, for supply only.

Nu-Heat lists warm water systems from £20 per m² plus VAT for a new-build screed floor, and from £67 per m² for its LoPro retrofit range. Warmup's electric kits start at £14.58 per m² for cable laid in screed, and it sells mats, insulation boards and thermostats by the room.

Kit is quoted plus VAT at the standard rate of 20%, so check which figure each quote uses before comparing them.

A from price is the cheapest kit for the simplest floor. Nu-Heat puts fitting at roughly 40 to 50% of the system cost, which is how a 20 m² room reaches the figures below.

Wet or electric underfloor heating: which costs less

Electric is cheaper to buy and fit. Wet is cheaper to run. Which costs less over the years depends on how much floor you heat and for how long.

Where each type fits:

• A bathroom or en suite: electric. A 4 m² kit with insulation and a thermostat lists at around £470 plus VAT, and the room is heated in short spells.
• A kitchen in an existing house: electric, unless the floor is coming up anyway. A mat goes down on an insulation board over the old floor.
• A new build or an extension: wet. The pipes are laid as the floor is built, from £20 per m² for the kit.
• A whole ground floor as the main heat: wet. The running cost gap grows with every square metre heated.
• A home with a heat pump, or one planned: wet, because an electric floor cannot use the heat pump at all.

Where the usual pick goes wrong:

• Electric mats across a whole open-plan ground floor, chosen on the fitting price and paid for on every bill after.
• A wet retrofit in one small bathroom, where the pipework and manifold cost more than a mat that heats the room for pennies.

Underfloor heating running costs

Running cost follows the price of the energy. At the October to December 2026 price cap, electricity costs 26.32p per kWh and gas 7.97p on average, so a unit of electricity costs more than 3 times a unit of gas.

The first two columns are Nu-Heat's annual figures at the rates it used in August 2026. The last two re-price the same energy use at the October cap, which lowers the electric figures and raises the gas ones. Standing charges are extra, and you pay them whichever system you have.

The cap covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is outside it, so the cap columns do not apply there.

Electric underfloor heating cost for a bathroom or kitchen

Electric kits are sized to the room, so one room is simple to price. A 10 m² kitchen floor takes a mat, insulation boards under it and a thermostat.

A bathroom is smaller and so is the kit. Warmup's 4 m² kit, with insulation and a thermostat, lists at around £564 with VAT. With 1 to 1.5 days of fitting at £200 to £300 a day, the whole system comes to about £760 to £1,010, one of the smaller lines in a new bathroom budget.

It is cheap to run in a room that size. A small bathroom of 2 to 3 m² costs about 4p to 10p to heat for two hours at the October 2026 cap, and one of 4 to 5 m² about 9p to 12p.

New build or retrofit: what changes the price

The same floor costs more to heat once it exists. In a new build the pipes go into the screed as it is laid, and wet kit starts from £20 per m². In an existing floor the heating goes on top, and low-profile retrofit kit starts from £67 per m², with a build-up from 15 mm.

Across a 60 m² floor, a renovation adds £1,700 to £1,900 to an electric job and £2,500 to £3,500 to a wet one. That is the price of fitting heating into a floor that was never built for it.

In an existing house, the floors should come up once. When planning a whole-house renovation, services and insulation go in before the finishes, so that is the stage to lay pipes or mats. A wet ground floor is then one line in the cost of a full house renovation, rather than a retrofit priced after the new flooring is down.

A house extension gets a new floor, so underfloor heating in it prices as a new build. The slab, insulation and screed are specified before work starts, which is the cheapest point to add pipes.

Underfloor heating installation cost

For a wet system, the 40 to 50% fitting share moves with the area of the UK and with the size and type of system.

Electric is priced by the day. Installers charge about £200 to £300 a day, one room takes 1 to 1.5 days from start to finish, and fitting a single room comes to about £400.

Labour is the part that moves with the postcode. Heating engineers in London charge more than those in the Midlands or rural areas, and the gap can be large, while the kit carries the same list price everywhere.

A wet system runs off the boiler, and a gas boiler usually lasts 10 to 15 years. If yours is near the end of that span, price a new boiler on the same job: a like-for-like combi swap costs £1,800 to £3,500 fitted.

What pushes an underfloor heating quote up

Two quotes for the same floor usually differ on one of these:

• Area and minimums. Kit is priced per m², and some prices only apply above a set area: Warmup's screed cable from 10 m², its water system from 40 m².
• Insulation. Boards for 10 m² add £322 with VAT. Warmup says insulation can cut running costs by as much as 50%, so it is the last line to cut from a quote.
• Controls. A smart WiFi thermostat lists at £170 with VAT, and every room controlled on its own needs one.

Do you need building regulations approval for underfloor heating?

In England, gov.uk lists installing or replacing a heating system and adding extra radiators among the jobs that need building regulations approval. Ask any installer adding a wet system to your central heating how the work will be signed off.

Changing electrics near a bath or shower is on the same list, which catches an electric mat in a bathroom. Elsewhere in the house, adding power points and changing existing circuits are exempt.

You do not have to apply yourself if the installer is registered with a competent person scheme. They self-certify the work and tell the council for you, and you receive a certificate within 8 weeks of completion. The owner stays responsible for compliance, and the certificate shows up in a solicitor's searches when you sell.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The approval list above is England's. Wales has its own Approved Documents and its own register of building control approvers. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate building standards systems, so the route to sign-off differs there.

Is underfloor heating worth the cost?

Wet underfloor heating is worth it where the floor is being laid anyway: a new build, an extension, or a renovation with the floors up. Nu-Heat rates it around 25% more efficient than radiators on a modern condensing boiler, and up to 40% more efficient on a heat pump.

Electric is worth it in a small room used in short spells. As the main heat across a large floor, it costs more to run every year than it saved at fitting.

The downsides to weigh:

• Upfront cost in a renovation. A wet system across 60 m² runs to around £9,000 once the floor already exists.
• Slow to warm. A wet system takes around two hours to bring a larger space up to temperature, so it runs on a schedule rather than when you walk in.
• Floor height. Even a low-profile retrofit system adds from 15 mm under the new floor finish, which can mean trimming doors.