Advice on pipes in concrete

justnotsure_2

We have recently moved into our house and had new carpets laid. As they were leaving the fitters said that there were pipes in the concrete floorunder the lounge which had not been lagged and were in danger of corroding. I'm not sure what to do. THe thought of having the whole floor dug up to sort the pipes out is horrendous, the thought of a flood not much better except that then the insurance may cover it. Anybody got any advice?

macman

How could the carpet fitters see through the concrete floor to tell whether they were lagged or not? I'm assuming that the CH pipes do not run along the surface of the floor?
Might have been more helpful if they'd mentioned it before fixing the carpet down though...

paddypaws101

Tricky.....Pipes in conctrete ARE a disaster waiting to happen, but then again it might never happen while you are in residence. If you decide to let sleeping dogs lie, check your insurance policy CAREFULLY to make sure it includes 'search and find', otherwise you will find that if a leak DOES happen, they may pay out to repair the damage done by the water but not all the digging up looking for the leak and the damage that causes!!
Top tip...if you have a water meter fitted you will always be able to check if there IS an internal leak!

justnotsure_2

Thanks Paddypaws, my fear is that because the central heating system looks old it might well go while we are in residence. Useful tip on the insurance and water meter.

macman

I would still like to know how they could see through the concrete floor-the pipes do not run at surface level, they must be several inches down?

justnotsure_2

I asked him this and he said that the corrosion to the pipe had caused the concrete to disintegrate by the radiator and he could see down to the pipe. He said there was no sign of any leakage tho.

macman

Could just be a slight leak from the rad valve running down the pipe? Copper doesn't corrode in the way that steel does, but it can be affected by the alkalines in the cement.

Wookey

A far faster cause of a leak with poorly lagged pipes in solid floors is down to the expansion and contraction caused by the copper pipe heating and cooling down when the heating system has been run, a small stone within the concrete rubbing against the copper will rub a hole thru fairly quickly.

andrew-b

Without digging up it's impossible to say for sure how the pipes are laid and if any protection of the pipes is there - the rest may be lagged in something and only the last inch or two not.
In our bathroom we had central heating pipes under the floor supplying the radiator..i dug up the floor to remove them (whoever had installed them hadn't filled in behind them very well so it was easier than it sounds and the floor needed a bit of rebuilding anyway) what i found was that there was some kind of sticky paper protecting the top of them but not the bottom. The pipes themselves were showing signs of corrosion where they were not protected and i daresay given a few more years would have started to leak.

Anyway you don't necessarily have to dig up the floor to remove them - just cutting off where the pipe enters and leaves the concrete is sufficient (cut near to floor - fit a piece of hose and use it to blow the water out, use cold chisel to bend the protruding edge into the pipe - fill over top). Our bathroom radiator pipes are now rerouted via the loft and down the wall from above and boxed-in.

paddypaws101

andrew-b always gives such good advice!
Of course there are so many variables and 'what if's' My recent leak happened in pipework which was laid approx 1975...no it was not several inches down! Those pipes also seemed to have some thin paper wrapping. When you think about it the whole idea of laying pipes in a solid floor is crazy...but it is still done.
Like I said...check your water meter regularly, check your insurance policy REALLY carefully and upgrade if necessary. Then relax.

DVardysShadow

justnotsure wrote: »

The thought of having the whole floor dug up to sort the pipes out is horrendous, the thought of a flood not much better

Work out how you would run the pipes not in the floor. Then when you decorate rooms, run the pipes via the new routes. Don't just wait for the inevitable.