Can plumbing be mapped?

Addle

2nd hand house with some mysterious pipes.
Been here a whole, and we've never had any bother, but we'd still like to know that they are for.
Can someone map existing pipe work?

sullzz

Addle wrote: »

2nd hand house with some mysterious pipes.
Been here a whole, and we've never had any bother, but we'd still like to know that they are for.
Can someone map existing pipe work?

I think it would be more important to know where to turn water off in case of an emergency, where to turn off incoming mains, where to turn off water to your hot water cylinder, where to turn off water to showers and toilets, where to turn off water to your heating and where to drain from if needed.
I think the above would be more benifical to know rather than pipe mapping, any plumber doing work in your house would know what pipe serves what, you don't really need to know.

wersal gummage

sullzz wrote: »

I think it would be more important to know where to turn water off in case of an emergency, where to turn off incoming mains, where to turn off water to your hot water cylinder, where to turn off water to showers and toilets, where to turn off water to your heating and where to drain from if needed.
I think the above would be more benifical to know rather than pipe mapping, any plumber doing work in your house would know what pipe serves what, you don't really need to know.

Bought a house recently and had plumber in (who I don't trust at all so not sure if this is accurate) and asked to zone the heating into different floors etc.... He said that basically the plumbing is a mystery (he hasn't looked at it whatsoever) and would require an unknown amount of exploratory work to understand how the house has been plumbed, then to create circuits on each floor, with each circuit then piped directly to the boiler.... Couldn't give even a ball park quote for the work....

So, while maybe very different to the OP question, perhaps there's other benefits to being able to "map" plumbing? Not sure how you'd do it, some sort of expensive imaging system that could see pipes through plaster /floors etc???

the_pen_turner

wersal gummage wrote: »

Bought a house recently and had plumber in (who I don't trust at all so not sure if this is accurate) and asked to zone the heating into different floors etc.... He said that basically the plumbing is a mystery (he hasn't looked at it whatsoever) and would require an unknown amount of exploratory work to understand how the house has been plumbed, then to create circuits on each floor, with each circuit then piped directly to the boiler.... Couldn't give even a ball park quote for the work....

So, while maybe very different to the OP question, perhaps there's other benefits to being able to "map" plumbing? Not sure how you'd do it, some sort of expensive imaging system that could see pipes through plaster /floors etc???

he sounds like he knows his stuff. that kind of job is a real mistery untill its all opened up


you could be right , thermal imaging could be used to trace some pipes

Addle

I was hoping that you could just stick a rod down a pipe and see where it shows up!
If it's expensive, we won't be getting it done.

Sleeper12

wersal gummage wrote:

So, while maybe very different to the OP question, perhaps there's other benefits to being able to "map" plumbing? Not sure how you'd do it, some sort of expensive imaging system that could see pipes through plaster /floors etc???

Wouldn't you still have to pay a plumber, an unknown amount to do an unknown amount of exploratory work in order for him to map out the plumbing in the house?

It would be a very time consuming task imo

Cerco

On a related note, is there any easy way to find a pex pipe run behind plaster board.? I normally use a metal detector to check before drilling, this works for copper but pex plastic pipes are a mystery to me.
Appreciate any suggestions.

the_pen_turner

Cerco wrote: »

On a related note, is there any easy way to find a pex pipe run behind plaster board.? I normally use a metal detector to check before drilling, this works for copper but pex plastic pipes are a mystery to me.
Appreciate any suggestions.

a screw is usually the most accurate. it always seems to pinpoint the pipe