We just bought a house with a lounge extension on a suspended concrete slab. The room has nice views of the backyard, a wet bar, and concrete that we believe will polish up nicely. It will be primarily an entertaining space.

I have received a few exorbitant quotes (everything’s expensive to have done in AU) for having in-screed electric heating put over the slab, then another couple inches of concrete poured over top and polished. We just bought a premium ducted gas heater for the rest of the house which works great, and since this is a single (but important) room, we don’t want to spend an arm and a leg to keep it comfortably warm in winter (we’re melbourne so relatively cold in winter).

It occurred to me today that the suspended slab (which is just4” thick) is fully accessible from the crawl space - we’re on a slope so you can just about stand under it. There are half a dozen brick pylons underneath, and no joists to navigate around with the wiring.

Is it theoretically possible to attach an electric floor heating kit underneath the slab, and obviously insulate underneath that, possibly along with an aluminum heat shield? I gather that in-screed heating often allows for even more than 4” concrete so I don’t see why we couldn’t do this, but maybe I am missing something.

Would appreciate any input on how to keep our tootsies cozy in this most important room, without breaking the bank!