I moved into this apartment 10 mths ago. Its a brand new building. The floor heating is not working. The last time I complained, the guy came and said the valves were closed. He said it has been open and should heat in days. It has been 4 weeks and still no change...any advice? I have informed the property agent again.

Keep in touch with http://www.englishforum.ch/members/63127-vugluscr.html it looks like you may have the same problem..

I will follow your advise and see how it goes...tq

Underfloor heating takes about three days to get up to the required temperature. By the second day you should already notice the room getting warm. It definitely doesn't take weeks!

If you encounter further problems in getting the issue addressed - The Mieterverband (or Renter's Association) http://www.mieterverband.ch/zh_top.0.html will inform you of your rights and the rentor's obligations. You may need a German speaker to assist you in the matter. You can receive advice as a member (yearly membership fee) or they have a phone line (or used to) where you call and pay an enhanced rate for the call in return for asking your questions and receiving advice.
http://www.mieterverband.ch/zh_top.0.html

You haven't given much information.

1. Do you have room thermostats?
2. If so, are these set low or high. Turn them up until they click "ON" if this has not been done.
3. Do you have access to the thermostatic valves? If so, when the warm water is flowing through these, any metal fittings on the pipes (such as the couplings linking the valves to the piping) should get warm in a few minutes of the thermostat switching (though the floors and rooms will take at least a day or two to heat up).
4. Our valves have a visible flow rate indicator - do yours? and if so, what's the flow rate?
5. Do your neighbours in the same building have working heating? If you don't know then ask them.
6. What is the temperature in your flat? If you don't know then measure it.

Come back here with the answers to the above and we can give more guidance.

I am getting a bit alarmed. "the guy" ? what guy exactly ? You have to find out WHO exactly is in charge with the heating and contact the person directly.

When I had underfloor heating, all the valves were left open and the flow indicators showed 9.9. We had to open the windows, it was extremely warm.

I found the control panel in the bath room (Most apartments seem to have it here, or in the toilet room)

Are your flow indicators reading 0.0?

I found a good starting point was to adjust the flows to between 2.0 and 2.5 and this ensured a steady heat of around 23 degrees. You can carefully turn the round knobs under the flow indicators.

When we went away we turned the boiler thermostat down to 15 degrees. When we returned it took a day to reach 23 degrees again.

Tom1234, below are my answers;
1. Do you have room thermostats? Yes
2. If so, are these set low or high. Turn them up until they click "ON" if this has not been done. I did it too.
3. Do you have access to the thermostatic valves? If so, when the warm water is flowing through these, any metal fittings on the pipes (such as the couplings linking the valves to the piping) should get warm in a few minutes of the thermostat switching (though the floors and rooms will take at least a day or two to heat up). Yes, but the pipes are cold.
4. Our valves have a visible flow rate indicator - do yours? and if so, what's the flow rate? There is no flow
5. Do your neighbours in the same building have working heating? If you don't know then ask them. I have not but ask tomorrow.
6. What is the temperature in your flat? If you don't know then measure it. Cold but need to measure.

I have contacted the rental agent and he has arrange for the heating company responsible to send someone this week.

The key piece of info you mentioned is that it is a new building. If you are on a/the top floor ALL of the air that is in the system when it was initially flooded with water will move up to your level and BLOCK the flow of water in your apt. I had exactly this situation in a new building where I was on the top floor.

The system needs to be "bled" of the air that is blocking the flow of water. You normally need to do this at the inlet to your apt. It will be in the wall some-place with a metal cover over it. Normally you need a square key to access it. A small screwdriver can also work. They may have installed an automatic bleeding system that is not working. In any event,tell the building service people that it needs to be done as there is no heat.

Yes. It is a new building and i am living on the top floor. Thanks for the help.

Thanks for checking

I've experienced exactly the same symptoms.

In our case the fault was with the pump that pumps the warm water round. It needed replacing (it was a new build too).

It may be that the pump isn't being switched on when the floor heating is working.

It could also be air as Verbier suggested.

Let us know how you get on and hope you survive until it is fixed!

Good news. The problem is solved. There was an air lock since my apartment is last on the heating line. The company who fitted the floor heating system removed the air lock and circulated the flow until no air pockets. I have heating at last. Thanks all for the advise and feedback.

@Dino71

Great news. You will probably need to do it one more time next year in the autumn as it takes TWO years to work all of the air out of the system. At least now you know where the issue is and what is needed.

Warm floors are nice aren't they

Thanks for sharing this info, it helps me as well

Since posting this, ours has developed a fault:

Cold bathroom and laundry room floors. Temperatures in all thermostatically controlled rooms the same as normal.

It is the pump in this case - it's turning on for half an hour or so then off then on, then off.

The thermostats are compensating so the rooms with these fitted are still warm but those without thermostats are only having warm water pumped around for half the time so are colder than they usually are.

It looks like the pump is still being turned on and off by boiler (rather than a thermal cut-out in the pump itself) and it hasn't been programmed to do this so I'll have to get someone out as the boiler and pump are shared with three other apartments.

(I like to know what's wrong before getting anyone out as it's great to see them squirm if they try to pull a fast one).