Messy Plumbing.

johneym

hi Folks,

Im moving into a second hadn house which was built in the late 70;s early 80;s. The plumbing is a mess an everyone who lived here added their own little bit resulting in so much pipework that its terrible. There are open pipes running along the middle of the corridor and down the hall at the front door. There are so many radiators and there seems to be loops repeating themeslves all over the place. Had a plubler the other day and all he did was chase the piping in one place, about 4 foot, and lower 1 rad 4 inches. Took about 4-5 hours an charged me 230 euro. Said he would not go near anything else as even he had problems trying to figure out all the pipework. There are 40 different pipes in the hotpress alone. We are still discovering small radiators in overhead closets and the presses and wardrobes, with all related messy pipework.
I intend to pump the house next year but have to get through this winter.
The best thing of course is to re do the whole thing properly but this would cost a fortune and involve ripping up floors etc. At the moment I need to move in with my family. I am not sure what to do with it all. Unless the boiler is running constantly there is no heat at all.

Buford T Justice

What's the question?

johneym

any ideas or reccommendations you might have

yoshytoshy

If the house is close to the eighties ,it's probably only heating pipes you have to worry about fixing.
Unless theres been extension built and a bathroom added or moved ,then thats more stuff.

It's hard to paint a picture of bad work ,it's either done right or it's not.In other words ,it's hard to advise you what to do ,without actually seeing it.

wing52

Good god,I have to see this:)

So ehhhh, a (good) few pics,maybe?

On a more practical note,try turning off whatever unecessary rads you can get away with.

If its safe,obviously.

johneym

thanks folks..

I get out the camera an get a few photos..can I upload photos here?

John

Buford T Justice

Not a problem. Just resize them and attach them to your post

looksee

Been there. Bought our current house in 1989, it was built in the early 70s and had a load of 'handy' men through it. There were pipes everywhere. Somehow a pipe was going through the immersion, so if you put the immersion heater on you were heating rads. In another place we pulled down a wall that was blocking the access between two rooms and discovered a 15 inch void with a spiders web of pipes going through it.

We messed about over the years getting a bit done here and a bit there. By this year we had hopeless heating, no insulation on any pipes, no factory lagging on the hot cylinder, a boiler that was situated where it was no longer legal to be, etc.

So we got all new heating. It was done in 4 days, very professionally. A whole new system, all new pipes, factory insulated cylinder, new boiler, 3 zone regulators, floors replaced. Subsequently we upgraded the insulation. It cost us about €5000 plus grants of about 1,200.

Do you really want to put down carpets and paint and decorate then have to do it next year? If you have money put aside for decorating, get the heating done and decorate when you can afford it.

johneym

thanks to all the folks and especially looksee for all the comments. I had decided before reading you post that it was really the only thing to do.
So I got my first quote today for the new system.
Well, its the same boiler,using the same pipexs coming into the house to the cylinder. The tank and cylinder are ok. In fact there is no need to even go upstairs as I will chase a line down the corridor from the hotpress in the kitchen, and also all neat chase lines off those to each room rad. Its a regular simple rectanglular bungalow.Its not that much piping or work at all to be honest. No rads included and I will deal also with the old pipework myself. quote was 3000 plus vat at 13.5%. When i asked how much it would be if he did the chasing, an extra 600 plus vat. So we are talking about a bill of around 4200. The only materials he will be buying are a few lenghts or copper piping piping and the fittings.To me it seems a little pricey?

looksee

That sounds like a lot for what needs to be done. Make sure all your pipes are insulated before you put the floors back down.

Does it mean that most of the work is sorting the tangle of pipes? Could be that he anticipates spending a long time at it rather than a lot of supplies. It can be more trouble sorting old stuff than just putting in new.

johneym

no, I will be taking out the old stuff. The house is 1600 sq meter but as i said all connections are already as far as stove an boiler

Sparkpea

I'm looking forward to seeing a pic of this hotpress with 40 pipes. I've seen some messy plumbing in my time but this sounds like its taking the biscuit!

Good luck sorting it out, its actually a job I'd love

yoshytoshy

If it's a microbore manifold up high ,it won't be as shocking. Most guys using microbore dump the manifold in the hotpress:eek: ,messy plumbing:D