First-time house renovation

Shimmyhill

I got my pipe from Screwfix, 30m again cheapest of the lot and they had a 5% off code and a tenner to my dad for recommending them to me ! Found the connectors cheapest in wickes (15% off there too !) but then found the equal t joints cheaper in Focus !!

Madness but well worth hunting down bargains and voucher codes etc.

jamtart6

latecomer wrote: »

Absolutely - I'll be round as soon as I've finished our house.........you're not in a hurry are you?

I got a job lot of copper pipe from B&Q which was on offer when I needed just one length so I ended up with 10 (30m in total!) and thats partly responsible for me deciding to do it. I'm actually just about to order the compression fittings for doing it although I'll probably not do it for a few months.

Apparently not, we got our 1st heating quote on 2nd Jan!:rolleyes:

Good luck with it when you do get round to it

latecomer

I'm sure I'll post about it on here when I do it. Good luck with the quotes/plumbers

I've just ordered some stuff from Screwfix and managed to get it over £50 so get free delivery, 6% cashback and there was also a 5% discount code :beer:

Shame all I really needed was a roll of scrim tape :rotfl::rotfl:

Shimmyhill

Blast ! i forgot to look at quidco

jamtart6

hate it when that happens shimmy, makes me want to cancel the order and re-order to get the £1 cashback

the plumber has basically said £2300 full system and worcester boiler or £2900 for a full system, boiler and rads (check out the plumbing lingo there). Can't complain so we are quite pleased with that. He is free in the next 2-3 weeks.

Now I don't know alot about buying rads, but I believe the btu units are important and they are based on room size rather than old radiator size? Is that right?

Canucklehead

jamtart6 wrote: »

Now I don't know alot about buying rads, but I believe the btu units are important and they are based on room size rather than old radiator size? Is that right?

Good evening: Good guide for sizing rads here as well as an online calculator. What boiler are you going with...hopefully not the WB Greenstar Junior but its much superior big sister, the CDi.

HTH

Canucklehead

Shimmyhill

I used the wickes calculator to work it out, ordered some wickes rads too. As a pro what rads do you recommend and what is the actual difference between them bar looks ?

andrew-b

Shimmyhill, assuming you mean the universal ones can you let me know what you think of the wickes' radiators as i was wondering on the quality of them as i'm after a new radiator for the bedroom . I noticed they have a 10 year warranty which can't be bad. All the rest of the rads in the house are stelrad elite radiators which are nearly twice the price.

TomsMom, your house looks even better now the scaffolding is down! I think you struck gold with your builders as they've done a great job and restored my faith in human kindness and that there are some really good builders out there that take pride in their work and look after their clients - i'm sure not many builders give their client's flowers (must be all those references to your "Hunky Army" that won their hearts! Plus you've given them free lodgings throughout!). Still i bet you'll be recommending them!

Andy

Canucklehead

Shimmyhill wrote: »

I used the wickes calculator to work it out, ordered some wickes rads too. As a pro what rads do you recommend and what is the actual difference between them bar looks ?

Hi..the Wickes own brand rads are actually Quinns (formerly Barlo) and an excellent bargain....Wickes doesn't carry the whole range though. The OH uses Quinns, Myson and Stelrad.

HTH

Canucklehead

andrew-b

Canucklehead wrote: »

Good guide for sizing rads here as well as an online calculator.

I was reading that wickes article the other day. I followed through their calculation and it came out a little on the high side. I just put my bedroom dimension into that online calculator too and it came out at over 6000 BTU and doesn't seem to consider cavity wall insulation. My own more accurate calculations using U-values etc came out more around the 4000 BTU mark. Still better to be on the high side i suppose!

There's some good articles on central heating design over at diydata.com in the plumbing section which show you how to do the calculations yourself plus a table of U-values. Even if you don't do the calculations yourself the basic theory is there.


Anyway i had a feeling someone (perhaps canucklehead/corgiguy) mentioned the wickes radiators were made by Quinn? Is that the case for their "universal radiators"?

[EDIT]Seems i was right and didn't just imagine it.. some cross-posting there!

Andy