Outside Central Heating Pipes

snowstorm

Hi,

We've had an offer accepted on the property and the vendor agreed to install central heating prior to us moving in. Now the heating has been installed we have viewed the property again and notice with some concern that approx three metres of two parallel running pipes have been run outside of the house (presumably to save cost/time).

Does anyone know whether this is acceptable/sensible? We presume that unless the system is on most of the time in the winter then the pipes will simply freeze?

All advice gratefully received!

Thanks, Kind Regards

mummytofour

I would get an heating enginer round to inspect the system, at least that way you will be covered, Im not sure that I would of had the vendor install the system, at least if you had, had it done on your behalf you would know no corners were being cut.

tanith

Sounds iffy to me too , get it checked before carrying on with your purchase...
Are they Copper pipe or something else...... ??

tanith

payless

Gas or water pipes?

mancitychick

Now i'm worried. Had central hating installed in October and opted for boiler in garage, gas meter on outside of garage wall. The guy who installed it has ran the copper pipe and plastic waste pipe along outside of garage wall. Hubby wasn't best please as he though it wpould be run inside the garage out of sight. Is this ok / safe outside?

Doozergirl

Could it be the services (ie. gas, water) running from the mains into a newly positioned boiler, rather than the actual heating system pipes running outside? They've got to get the services in somehow!

snowstorm

We think it's the water pipes, although we're definitely not an experts. I think I was slightly naive when we requested that they put in the central heating. At the time I thought central heating was fairly standard, only later I realised about the importance of radiator size/location, boiler quality/output etc.

It looks like the boiler is at one end of the kitchen where the gas supply came in to an old gas water heater. Rather than drill through all the kitchen units to get pipes to the lounge and the rest of the house they have simply gone outside! It is only the pipes from kitchen to the lounge, not the whole house, but it is still worrying.

In hindsight I realise we should have paid for the installation ourselves and negotiated money off the price. If we were going to ask for a discount to rectify this does anyone have a figure they could suggest? Say £500?

Thanks for all your replies.

snowstorm

Doozergirl, it could well be the water supply, I hadn't thought of that. Although it is very near the sink/other plumbing in the house so I'd of thought water could have come from there. Also the pipes do seem to go from the kitchen to the lounge.

Ken68

The gas pipes run outside of my property..i.e..from the meter to the boiler in the house and carries on to the kitchen for a gas cooker. Have covered it with square style brown plastic guttering to afford some protection as it is at ground level.Blends in well too.

cattie

A gas pipe runs along the outside of my house to enable me to have a gas fire in the living room. There was laminate flooring downstairs when I moved in, so the gas fitter said unless I wanted to have it all taken up to enable a gas pipe be fed through to the living room, that the best option would be running the gas pipe from the meter under the stairs along the front of the house. It is then fed through the wall along the skirting board to the fireplace. Obviously it was also the cheapest option.

I'd be really concerned about water pipes for the central heating outside though. It does sound a bit dodgy & you need to get all sorted before you proceed with the purchase.