Buying house .... Limescale

Nono Toure

Hi,

Wondering if someone with knowledge can help me out. I'm about to buy a house. It's 10 years old. Water was very hard (from well) until 6 months ago where it was switched over to a water scheme (soft water)

The limescale was very bad before it was switched over. I've lived as a tenant in the house for 5 years so I know how bad it was. For instance the kettle would be caked in limescale in 1 week before the water was switched from the well to the road.

Anyways, apart from the dishwasher and washing machine (which we'll be throwing out) is there anything we should be concerned about? Piping covered in limescale? The pipes appear to be plastic as opposed to copper. If the house is still covered in limescale behind the scenes, is there a way of flushing it all out or maybe there's no point? If so, big job? Costly? Thanks

Nono Toure

Nono Toure wrote: »

Hi,

Wondering if someone with knowledge can help me out. I'm about to buy a house. It's 10 years old. Water was very hard (from well) until 6 months ago where it was switched over to a water scheme (soft water)

The limescale was very bad before it was switched over. I've lived as a tenant in the house for 5 years so I know how bad it was. For instance the kettle would be caked in limescale in 1 week before the water was switched from the well to the road.

Anyways, apart from the dishwasher and washing machine (which we'll be throwing out) is there anything we should be concerned about? Piping covered in limescale? The pipes appear to be plastic as opposed to copper. If the house is still covered in limescale behind the scenes, is there a way of flushing it all out or maybe there's no point? If so, big job? Costly? Thanks

Bump

longgonesilver

Normally limescale builds up at the point of heating. You can see the kettle, much the same setup is in the bottom of the dishwasher. Do the commercial products to dissolve limescale work for you.

The other main points would be in the hot water cylinder, at the immersion if you have one, the cylinder can fill with lumps of lime.

The boiler in the heating system should be ok as there should have been a limited amount of water in the enclosed system so limited lime to cause build up, unless you had a protracted leak.

Outkast_IRE

As the poster above indicates - generally anywhere the water was heated.

If there were any electrical showers budget for a replacement down the line - i would run them to end of life.

The hot water cylinder is another possibility - Again though i would run it till end of life unless you were planning an upgrade anyway.

Getting the heating system pressure tested would do no harm , if you had the budget and were going to keep the system without any major changes a power flush and dose with inhibitor would stand well to you. Along with a boiler service, if you get a good rgi they could check for any obvious signs of buildup in the boiler such as kettling noises etc.

cruizer101

I've heard that the soft water will gradually dissolve any limescale buildup in the system. This is in the case where you get a water softener installed, it may just be a line used by the salespeople but it does sound fairly reasonable.

John.G

Hopefully, the heating system may be OK except that it was continuously being topped up but a drop of inhibitor wouldn't do any harm.