Floor-heating - a science

I am a simple person. I thought that floor-heating meant that the floor can be either warm or cold, depending on the thermostat. Hah! I have now lived with a floor that on one half is nice and warm, and the other half is ice-cold. So yesterday the floorheating-man came around. Turns out there is a lot to know about floor-heating, even though I must admit I wasn't very interested. Just make it work is my approach. There was talk about airing, about main pipes and other pipes, about layout and whatsit. Plus the fact that there is 5 centimeters of concrete between the pipes and the floor. Why you ask? I have absolutely no friggin idea. But I learned that if I put the thermostat up on maximum the whole floor will be warm, but unfortunately so will the whole room and 25°+ is really too much. Meaning I will probably have to live with a warm floor in the kitchen and a cold floor in the rest of the room. Ah well, I'm sure there are worse things in the world.