New Home, Warm Floors: Our Underfloor Heating Melbourne Story

Building a new home in Toorak was the most stressful and exciting project my partner and I had ever taken on. We had strong opinions about the kitchen, the layout, the joinery. But when our builder started asking us about heating, we realised we hadn't given it nearly enough thought. A friend who works in construction told us to talk to Livella Underfloor Heating before we locked anything in. That turned out to be the best advice we received during the entire build.

We knew we wanted underfloor heating as our primary heating source. It fitted the kind of home we were building, a contemporary double-storey with polished concrete on the ground floor and engineered timber upstairs. What we didn't know was exactly how to specify it properly, or how to make sure it would actually deliver the even, radiant warmth we were after. Livella stepped in and sorted all of that out for us.

The Challenge: Specifying Underfloor Heating for a New Build

New builds in Melbourne give you a real opportunity to get underfloor heating right from the start, but that opportunity can also be wasted if the system isn't designed properly for the specific floor construction and the home's thermal envelope. Our builder had worked with one supplier previously, but when we brought Livella into the conversation, we quickly realised there were details that hadn't been fully considered.

The polished concrete slab on the ground floor needed to be assessed for thermal mass and heat-up time. The engineered timber upstairs required a different approach entirely, as excessive temperatures under timber floors can cause warping and gapping. We also wanted zoned control so we could heat the bedroom zones independently from the living areas, and the builder wasn't sure how to coordinate that with the electrical and plumbing runs.

Beyond the technical side, we just felt uncertain. Electric floor heating is a significant investment. We wanted to know we were doing it correctly, not finding out after we moved in that the system took three hours to heat up or that the upstairs zone was running too hot for the timber floor.

How Livella Underfloor Heating Helped Us Get It Right

We brought Livella in during the planning and approval stage, which turned out to be the right time. They reviewed the architectural drawings and had a direct conversation with our builder about the slab specifications. We appreciated how collaborative the process was. There was no friction between Livella and the builder; they clearly had done this before and knew how to work within a construction timeline.

Livella's team explained everything in plain language. Each zone had its own circuit, controlled by a wireless thermostat. The ground floor slab would be specified to allow for in slab installation, and the upstairs system would use a low-profile overlay product suitable for engineered timber.

We asked a lot of questions, probably too many, and Livella was patient with every one of them. They explained how electric floor heating differs from ducted systems in terms of air quality, even temperature distribution, and energy efficiency. By the end of the meeting, we felt genuinely informed about what we were building.

The Result: A Home That Heats Beautifully

We moved in last autumn and had our first full winter in the house this year. The system is everything we hoped for. The ground floor polished concrete is warm from the moment we get up, and the upstairs timber floors feel noticeably comfortable without any of the fluctuation we'd worried about. The zoned thermostats work exactly as described; we only heat the bedrooms from late evening, and the living areas run during the day.

Friends who visit for the first time always comment on how warm and comfortable the house feels without any visible heating system. That's the thing about a well-designed electric floor heating system: it just works quietly in the background. No fan noise, no dry air, no cold spots near the windows. Just consistent warmth at floor level, rising through the space.

Our energy bills have been reasonable, especially considering the size of the house.

What We'd Tell Anyone Building in Melbourne

If you're building a new home anywhere in Melbourne, from Toorak to Fitzroy to Port Melbourne, get underfloor heating into your plans early. It's much easier and more cost-effective to install during construction than to retrofit later. And get the right people involved from the start. Livella Underfloor Heating know how to spec a system that works for your specific floor construction and your home's layout.

If you're in the planning stages of a new build and want proper underfloor heating Melbourne advice from people who actually know what they're talking about, give Livella a call. You won't regret building warmth into the bones of your home from day one.