Warm Air Ducted Heating System Removal

Reeves

We have had an offer on a house we are interested in accepted but have become concerned about the heating system.

The property is a 3 bed semi approx 35 years old and has had a ducted warm air heating system installed from it’s original build. Due to negative feedback from viewings before we found the property and the consideration of taking the property to the rental market the vendor has just had installed a wet radiator system including new combi boiler and radiators throughout.

They have installed the combi boiler where I presume the hot water tank used to be on the landing and currently the warm air boiler is still in place in the kitchen. We assumed it would just be a case of removing the warm air boiler and boarding and plastering over the vents throughout the house but is it that simple?

After some googling it seems asbestos could be a concern either in the boiler location or in the ducting which would require specialists to remove.

The estate agents made a comment at the time of the viewing that it was not the original warm air boiler but to my untrained eye looks fairly old.

Is this true and how much would I expect to pay?

Could there also be a problem with condensation/germs if we just seal over the vents/ducting without removing them first?

Also after agreeing the sale price with the vendor would the survey question the leaving of the warm air system in place and could we go back and renegotiate to have it removed before the sale?

McKneff

Ive lived in my semi for 22 years and I love my warm air heating. It has an inegrated water heater with it.

It's instant heat throughout the house, I wouldn't swap, but that';s only my opinion.

Reeves

McKneff wrote: »

Ive lived in my semi for 22 years and I love my warm air heating. It has an inegrated water heater with it.

It's instant heat throughout the house, I wouldn't swap, but that';s only my opinion.

Too late really to choose as the new system had already been installed.

UPDATE!
just checked with the estate agent and it turns out that since we last viewed the property they have now removed the warm air boiler from the kitchen so that just leaves the ducting and vents around the house.

Any advice would be appreciated on whether we can just board over the vents and leave the ducting in place or would this be storing up trouble.

wallbash

I love my warm air heating also.

There is no asbestos in my heating ducts , why do you think you have any ?? Have checked at the joins / corners , nothing .

McKneff

I do believe that the only asbestos is on the door to the boiler.

Gloomendoom

I had exactly the same situation with my last house. The heating ducts were galvanised steel. I found no asbestos anywhere.

The worst problem we had was when a neighbour's kitten disappeared down one of the ducts while I was doing some work on the floor. He reappeared ten minutes later in the cupboard where the old hot air boiler was housed.

Ken68

Hi Reeves...Could the ducting be used for a Heat Recovery System.?

muckybutt

ACM's were used a lot in the installation of warm air heating depending when it was installed.

I am not going to bore you with the facts, however IF you think there may be boarding that contains acm DO NOT DISTURB IT, the easiest way to cope with acm's is to MANAGE IT. By manage I mean encapsulate it and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesnt start to degrade.

If you do have it on the door as you suggested thereare two options available to you.
1) You can completely remove the door, place the door and the acm onto a large plastic sheet and carefully wrap it up TWICE. Mark it ASBESTOS, ask your local council where the nearest asbestos skip is and they will dispose of it safely.

2) The cheapest way is to encapsulate it, paint it firstly with a watered down pva and water mix, that will seal the surface. Then with a good gloss paint paint the whole board and the edges, that is all you need to do. It would be advisable to write on the board once the paint is dry to advise that it is / maybe asbestos.

BTW I am UKATA trained in acm management, if it doesnt need stripping out then dont simple as that. Perfectly safe if managed correctly.

alleycat`

Reeves wrote: »

Too late really to choose as the new system had already been installed.

UPDATE!
just checked with the estate agent and it turns out that since we last viewed the property they have now removed the warm air boiler from the kitchen so that just leaves the ducting and vents around the house.

Any advice would be appreciated on whether we can just board over the vents and leave the ducting in place or would this be storing up trouble.

My parents just sealed up the ducting when they removed their warm air system.
To be honest i think they'd like the old system back and to get shot of the combi/wet system they replaced it with...

tm9

Hi Reeves, Could I just ask - would you have purchased the property if the warm air had not been replaced with the new wet system. I only ask because we are going through the same dilemma at present - should we change to a a wet system. The warm air works fine but we might want to sell the property and are worried that it might put people off. Thanks and congrats on the new house.

retired2011

The warm air works fine but we might want to sell the property and are worried that it might put people off.

Did it put you off?