Retro fitting exposed QualPex CH piping

banchang

Currently looking at a house which obviously had oil central heating fairly recently so installed at lowest cost, as 2 QualPex pipes are exposed in each room pinned to the skirting boards running to the rads. Looks ugly.

Any idea of the cost per room of retrofitting them beneath the floorboards the way they should have been done in the first place? Rads are in 2 bedrooms & a living room.

Wearb

You can get chrome (plastic really) over pipes that wrap around the existing pipes. Might be something you could live with.

Full replacement will be expensive.

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If the existing pipes are installed with a single run to a manifold, I'd be very reluctant to swap that out and have joining fittings beneath the floor, where none exists at present.

Some people get on a high horse over those pipes, but there's a lot to be said for having a system without concealed joints.

banchang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121033194#Comment_121033194

In terms of dealing with issues in the future, better to have them accessible?

I’ll have a look to see what kind of boxing in materials are available to cover them in situ.

Wearb

These come in chrome and other colours. I've never used them so I don't know how effective they are. But that's what they're made for.

GreeBo

Even just painting them would make them almost disappear in my experience, certainly much better than having plain QP looking at you :)

antoinolachtnai

Might be able to put them behind skirting board. Might be able to put them into the wall. Might not be too hard to put them under floorboards. It takes a bit of ingenuity. In a lot of ways it’s a carpentry/ decor job rather than a plumbing job.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058311052/retro-fitting-exposed-qualpex-ch-piping

they should have been done in the first place?

Thats not your call: it was the then home owners call.

The library in Roscrea has this done when heat pump was fitted, pipework is white so you could look at replacement of the qplex

banchang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121041145#Comment_121041145

Thanks for this. I’ve seen these used to mask vertical pipes going down into floorboards, but unfortunately in this house there are 2 QualPex pipes pinned horizontally to the skirting boards running around the room (& because QualPex, they’re not perfectly straight). I think I would prefer to try to box them in somehow & then paint white so they become ‘part of the skirting’ if you know what I mean.