moving radiators

bugsntinas

new to me.i've done loads of work on the plumbing in our house,just turn off the stop cock and run the tapes,but i've never worked on the rads before.i need to move 2 and extend the pipe by about 6/7 inches but not sure what o do with the water supply.do i have to drain the rads or will the stop cock do the job?

Joey the lips

Turning off the stopcock wont do and tbh you knowledge is so poor i would really get a plumber to move the rads.

Buford T Justice

Is your system a vented or unvented system?

bugsntinas

sorry don't know how do you tell?
i'm no plumber but i have moved a loo cistern,plumbed in dishwasher and washing machine extended piping and done white pipe work so not totally
inexperinced.

Davy

bugsntinas wrote: »

sorry don't know how do you tell?
i'm no plumber but i have moved a loo cistern,plumbed in dishwasher and washing machine extended piping and done white pipe work so not totally
inexperinced.

Heating systems are a little more tricky though.

Sparkpea

like others have said its a bit more complicated than a plumbing system.

the best way for a newbie would be to tie up the ballcock in the header tank or turn off the stop cock and drain the system at the boiler, then open the radiator vents to make sure the system has drained properly. once the water stops at the boiler then u can make whatever changes u want.

the hardest part is refilling the system and making everything heat again because you may get airlocks etc.

to refill close the drain at the boiler, close all the air vents and drop the ballcock/turn on the stop cock again, wait til the tank fills then start bleeding the radiator at the ground floor then working your way up.

thats the best way for a newbie but its long and time consuming a proper plumber would probably plug the system but im not going to start explaining that!

if you're trying to save some costs what I'd do is the donkey work and take the rad down/remount it and the morning the plumber is coming have it drained and ready for him so all he has to do is alter the pipework and refill the system.

Buford T Justice

Sparkpea wrote: »

like others have said its a bit more complicated than a plumbing system.

the best way for a newbie would be to tie up the ballcock in the header tank or turn off the stop cock and drain the system at the boiler, then open the radiator vents to make sure the system has drained properly. once the water stops at the boiler then u can make whatever changes u want.

the hardest part is refilling the system and making everything heat again because you may get airlocks etc.

to refill close the drain at the boiler, close all the air vents and drop the ballcock/turn on the stop cock again, wait til the tank fills then start bleeding the radiator at the ground floor then working your way up.

thats the best way for a newbie but its long and time consuming a proper plumber would probably plug the system but im not going to start explaining that!

if you're trying to save some costs what I'd do is the donkey work and take the rad down/remount it and the morning the plumber is coming have it drained and ready for him so all he has to do is alter the pipework and refill the system.

Provided its an unvented system yes.

bugsntinas

definately sounds more complicated.basically what i want to do is move a stud wall about a foot into the bathroom.there's a rad each side of the wall so the pipes need to be extended by a foot.i'd be surprised if a plumber would do a little job like that

Sparkpea

theres no reason why a plumber wouldnt want to do it and especially in this financial climate no one should be turning work away and to be frank people should be employing the professionals to do their jobs to keep the economy ticking.

I've very much a believer that everyone has their own jobs to do, tilers should tile, sparks should do electrics and not install showers etc. plumbers do the plumbing.

cowboys are bad, diy people that don't know what they are doing can be even worse..

none of this is aimed at you personally just my general view

Stratus

bugsntinas wrote: »

definately sounds more complicated.basically what i want to do is move a stud wall about a foot into the bathroom.there's a rad each side of the wall so the pipes need to be extended by a foot.i'd be surprised if a plumber would do a little job like that

LOL hi Bugsntinas Plumbers will do any job these days trust me just to be working!!

The quickest way to find out what kind of a system you have is to stick tour head up into your attic and see what storage tanks are up there if its a Vented system there should be to tanks one big one that holds some where in the region of 40 -> 60 gallons and a smaller one roughly 15 gallons its about a foot square (that would do a 3 bed semi-d house) if there is only 1 large tank then you most likely (if done right) have a sealed system once you have that figured out let me know.......:)

Sparkpea wrote: »

theres no reason why a plumber wouldnt want to do it and especially in this financial climate no one should be turning work away and to be frank people should be employing the professionals to do their jobs to keep the economy ticking.

I've very much a believer that everyone has their own jobs to do, tilers should tile, sparks should do electrics and not install showers etc. plumbers do the plumbing.

cowboys are bad, diy people that don't know what they are doing can be even worse..

none of this is aimed at you personally just my general view

i agree with you on that one Sparkpea everybody to there own.
On another note i'm detest trv's (thermostatic rad vlaves) cheapest for of heating control that leads to more problems down the line ;-)

bugsntinas

cheers for that stratus but there lyes the problem.we've been here 3 years and i've never been in the attic because the previous people decided to build the studwall right thru the loft hatch giving no access hence the need to move the rads and the wall.the overflow has been leaking for ages as well and can't access that either:mad:

Sparkpea

surely its just a matter of cutting another trap door out? its actually a fundamental thing that you can access your loft, god help you if you have a burst pipe..

bugsntinas

the trouble is this house is so bodged that i wouldn't like to be cutting another hatch as i don't know what's up there.it might sound silly but if you saw the plumbing, the outside drainage, the electrics and everything else you'd understand and that's on top of the fact we've been flooded 3 times in 3 years from the weather.

Stratus

Hi bugsntinas if the system is as bodged as you say it is then you should at least get it looked over by somebody qualified on site, the reason being is that the advice you get from pps here will more than likely be based on the system being plumbed right, if this isn’t the case and you change something on the system based on advice that was given to you for a system that was plumbed correctly you could actually be make matters worse. At least if you had some one look it over and point out the problems with the system then you have a solid base to start from and you can get better advice on how to proceed. Just a though

bugsntinas

hi stratus
i think we may have crossed wires.i don't think the heating system is bodged,probably the only thing that isn't:) it's just everything else that is.are there any plumbers on here that could give me a rough estimate on extending the pipe work on 2 reads(4 pipes) by about 10 inches in length by the rads?