We tiled over a UFH matt about six months ago, it was working, They now have a problem as its not working.
The guy we work for has asked around & he has been told he can hire a machine to go over the floor & check for
an electrical current, or breaks in the current. he thinks we can just dig up half a dozen tiles & have an electrician
carry out a repair on the matt. is this possible? i have never heard of or came across this problem before!!!!
any help/advise would be appreciated.

Unless you know where the break is its not that simple , although Uheat will sell you a kit to repair breaks. To find the break without damaging too much floor requires specialist equipment.

Has anyone checked to see if the thermostat is working properly, its often the first thing to go. Next has the previous tiler used a conduit so any faulty thermostats can be replaced?

The boss (guy we work for) has been told he can hire some sort of specialist machine from speedy to go over the floor to find out exactly where the break is, i was just making sure that a repair is possible on a UFH matt. thanks for the quick reply. cheers.

You can bypass the damaged section and kits are available (To be installed by a qualified sparky)
The problem is pin pointing the damage and removing the adhesive and possibly slc??

And when the repair is done you may end up with a cold spot.

Floors can be easily repaired, but as above, it's finding the fault that's the big problem. I've organised several repairs on my floors that have been damaged after the floor was finished, but the faults were easy to detect. There are even a couple of companies that will do it for you on the net, but they are very expensive....


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Not sure what he has tried, just got this sprung on us today, dont even know what kind of matt it is or if the electrician put any conduit in. knowing the boss it will be a blown fuse & he hasnt checked it yet.

Now that i can't answer, as luckily i've never had one go.
All i would say is, that surely if a machine is made for testing, surely it can be fixed, but don't let someone go made with a hammer though, as they could do more harm than good, resulting in more tiles being broken than neede, and more damage to the cable!

What checks / test have been carried out already to say that it is the mat that has failed, as said before, have you had the rest checked out, stat and sensor ? Has there been a continuity test done on the mat ?

Speedy do list a thermal imaging camera but thats no good if the mat doesnt work. I was told the test was done by putting a very high voltage through the cable and the use of specialist equipment.

When spoke to one of the repair companies on the web, he explained he can pinpoint a fault in the cable to within a couple of inches.......


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Whatever the fault, blame the electrician, they get the blame for everything!

As i said im not sure what has been checked & hasnt been checked, im leaving it to the boss & his Sparky. If they can find out whats wrong & it is under the floor then we said we will lift a few tiles, & slc, for the repair & replace them. Thanks for all the replys, really appreciated.

Yeah, blame the spark, its a change from the tilers getting the blame!!!!!!!!

Good morning Robson, all the answers you have got so far should be very helpful to you.
That specialist equipment and call out and 1st repair could be £500, depending upon where you are in the UK and your nearest specialist. There are only a few of them in the whole UK and they use a number of different pieces of equipment.
As above, a few tests can be carried out first. Some of which are the resistance reading on the Mat (Watt :- Volt = amp / V :- a = Resistance) and tests on the thermostat and floor sensor.
We do stock repair kits for the Elektra range of Mats and Cables, but if you find a problem with the elemnet you need the repair kit from the same supplier as the Mat or Cable came from in the first place. If it has worked for 6 months already, it may be a very, very small cut, or a problem with thermostat / floor sensor etc.

thanks again for all the replys, we are just goin to leave it to the boss to sort as we dont get paid to try & work out problems for him, hard enough to get paid for the jobs we do!!!!!!!!!!!!