moving a radiator - advice

Kristok

Im looking to have a radiator moved from one wall to another wall in an attic conversion. I rang a plumber and was quoted €200 to get this done but it seems quite steep to me.

I was thinking about doing this myself and I've seen plastic piping and fittings in B&Q and was wondering would it be possible for me to do it. I am fairly handy when it comes to these sort things but I never moved a radiator so the first question is is it safe for me to be messing about with this or could I end up doing damage to the central heating (its gas powered)

Also do I need any special equipment to connect up to plastic fittings to the copper pipe?

KoNiT

200 euro for a days work, incl. fittings, pipe,?

Goto B&Q & price it up, theres a fella in the plumbing section who'll help you out with fittings, pipe & tools.

how far are you moving the rad? is it to an opposite wall?

Kristok

one side of the room to another (about 6 feet) where it is at the moment the bed blocks all the heat so i want to move it under the window now that its getting colder.

Is 200 cheap or expensive ?!? seems really expensive to me as its just looks a matter of cutting the pips and reattaching them the other side of the room.

KdjaCL

Plumbers can get a grand a day so he obvously would like 4 more of tose jobs to do in one day.

200 isnt bad but its not a hard job i be doing it meself soon. Only thing is hiding the old pipes unless you dont mind the pipe running along the floor.

i want mine under the floor so some floorboards be coming up.

Make sure you have all fittings you will need make sure water is off to rads and bleed each one any air in them and you getting wet. Then dissaemble and move the rad and fixings. Attach the pipes when the rad is safely attached to wall. get a 2nd person to help there is a "how to" on www.bbc.co.uk

kdjac

Kristok

KdjaC you get round to moving the rad ?!? im planning on doing mine in bout 2 weeks wondering did you encounter any probs.

stiofanD

For what its worth, I replaced a small rad with a larger one a couple of months ago and found it to be a fairly handy DIY job. One thing to look out for is the black sludge that will come out of the rad when you remove it. If this gets on your floor, you'll never get the stain out

If your rad is an older steel rad (20 years+ old) then you'll almost certainly have this gunk in it due to corrosion. I'm not sure if newer rads suffer as much.

Kristok

na its a newish rad put in when we had the attic converted about 10 years ago but its no where near big enough for this room and its in a cornor away from the window and the room is not even insuated hahaha its horribly cold when the heating is not on and even then its only just warm enough not too see your breath, decided this year is the last of my cold times so im doing what i can to sort this stuff out but its fairly hard to do without ripping the plaster out and starting again.

hmm i think i know the gunge your talking about it was in our old water tank a few months ago too i was hours cleaning the thing out during hte summer it dosnt have a lid on it so god knows what it was thank god i dont drink that water.

tapest

stiofanD wrote:

For what its worth, I replaced a small rad with a larger one a couple of months ago and found it to be a fairly handy DIY job. One thing to look out for is the black sludge that will come out of the rad when you remove it. If this gets on your floor, you'll never get the stain out

If your rad is an older steel rad (20 years+ old) then you'll almost certainly have this gunk in it due to corrosion. I'm not sure if newer rads suffer as much.

That is probably not black sludge, but black water....and it should be there. Its a chemical added to prevent inside of rads (made of steel) corroding and bits of rust jamming up pipes and ruining circulation pump. I usually turn off both sides of each rad to keep as much in system as possible, before starting work. Saves you having to buy / add more later.
Mount rad first and work your pipework back from here....much easier.
If rad not big enough and space limited consider a double or even triple convector rad.
If using plastic, (and although I dont llike it, it has its uses, can expand when carrying very hot water) DO not under any circumstances use the recommended push on fittings. Your seal is a rubber ring and to prevent the pipe pulling loose there is an anti tear metal ring. But you only catch the final 1/16 inch of pipe....plastic pipe....which tends to expand. Thats why they sell special sissors for cutting pipe absolutely square...remember 1/16 inch grab. If you decide on plastic for gods sake use special copper inserts and normal compression fittings. This makes it a doddle, even for muppets. These inserts are ment for joining plastic to copper pipe..but you use them at all joints. Have a few spare olives before you start and you'll be fine.
Hope this helps
t