Long story cut short: Popped into Focus today expecting to get nothing, came out with a load of tiles and 5m2 of Vitrex floorwarm underfloor electric heating for nearly off. Hurrah, bathroom 4.9m2, perfect.

Get home, open pack and read blurb, realise that once shower, sink, toilet taken into account, it's 3m2 heatable floorspace. Can't cut heating wire of course. But CAN take heating cable off mat to do awkward areas, "but cable must NEVER be spaced less than 5cm". Cable is currently spaced by the mat to be 8cm.

So if I (or rather, someone who has a clue) took the cable off the mat and lay it all at 5cm spacing, would that help to get my bathroom floor warmer, quicker during the 4am-8am off-peak period I plan to run it, when it would be needed most? (It's FREEZING in that bathroom usually).

Why aren't I phoning Vitrex? Because Focus have 1 3m2 pack left, they're holding until tomorrow AM, and where am I ever going to get the opportunity to get almost 60% off? If it was you, would you:

A: Take back the oversize mat, leaving you with a £25 credit you had to spend there and then at a store with nothing else left you wanted?

B: Keep the oversize mat, buy the smaller mat, and chance the oversize mat on ebay?

C: Keep the oversize mat and risk doing the "packing the element at 5cm" bodge and go for a quicker-warming floor.

D: Keep the oversize mat, lay it as normal in the bathroom tiled floor, then extend the rest of the heating cable through an adjoining wall and lay it under a carpeted floor in the next room?

Any other thoughts?

(incidentally, if you're wondering why 60% when it should be 50%, the manager put an extra 15% off a door with a ding, but when we got home we realised it had applied an extra 15% to the post-discounted price of the entire receipt, which I suppose make a total of 57.5% off the total for the flooring? Anyway, we'd lose that on exchange, I'm sure).

lardconcepts wrote:
would you:

A: Take back the oversize mat, leaving you with a £25 credit you had to spend there and then at a store with nothing else left you wanted?

B: Keep the oversize mat, buy the smaller mat, and chance the oversize mat on ebay?

C: Keep the oversize mat and risk doing the "packing the element at 5cm" bodge and go for a quicker-warming floor.

D: Keep the oversize mat, lay it as normal in the bathroom tiled floor, then extend the rest of the heating cable through an adjoining wall and lay it under a carpeted floor in the next room?

Any other thoughts?


E. Not go anywhere near electrical floor heating in the first place, or
Focus.

lardconcepts wrote:
Long story cut short: Popped into Focus today expecting to get
nothing, came out with a load of tiles


So it was not just my girlfriend upto those tricks then?

I would go for the smaller mat.


--
Adam

lardconcepts wrote:
Long story cut short: Popped into Focus today expecting to get nothing,
came out with a load of tiles and 5m2 of Vitrex floorwarm underfloor
electric heating for nearly off. Hurrah, bathroom 4.9m2, perfect.

Get home, open pack and read blurb, realise that once shower, sink,
toilet taken into account, it's 3m2 heatable floorspace. Can't cut
heating wire of course. But CAN take heating cable off mat to do awkward
areas, "but cable must NEVER be spaced less than 5cm". Cable is currently
spaced by the mat to be 8cm.

So if I (or rather, someone who has a clue) took the cable off the mat
and lay it all at 5cm spacing, would that help to get my bathroom floor
warmer, quicker during the 4am-8am off-peak period I plan to run it, when
it would be needed most? (It's FREEZING in that bathroom usually).

Why aren't I phoning Vitrex? Because Focus have 1 3m2 pack left, they're
holding until tomorrow AM, and where am I ever going to get the
opportunity to get almost 60% off? If it was you, would you:

A: Take back the oversize mat, leaving you with a £25 credit you had to
spend there and then at a store with nothing else left you wanted?

B: Keep the oversize mat, buy the smaller mat, and chance the oversize mat on ebay?

C: Keep the oversize mat and risk doing the "packing the element at 5cm"
bodge and go for a quicker-warming floor.

D: Keep the oversize mat, lay it as normal in the bathroom tiled floor,
then extend the rest of the heating cable through an adjoining wall and
lay it under a carpeted floor in the next room?

Any other thoughts?

(incidentally, if you're wondering why 60% when it should be 50%, the
manager put an extra 15% off a door with a ding, but when we got home we
realised it had applied an extra 15% to the post-discounted price of the
entire receipt, which I suppose make a total of 57.5% off the total for
the flooring? Anyway, we'd lose that on exchange, I'm sure).

Wow, that was 'a long story short'? :-)
If it was me...
Phone Focus and ask them if they can give you £25 of vouchers for the
credit.
If yes (and Focus is not too far from you) swap the 5 for the 3m.
If no, then lose some of the excess around the wc pan and basin and the
rest under the carpet in the adjoining room.
I usually lose it under the bath when there's one in the room.
You may want to pack under the carpet though, so that the rise to the
element is not noticeable... Depends what the carpet and underlay is
like... A bag of levelling compound on the floor under the carpet, with the
element bedding into it might be the way to go if you do this!

Deano
--
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