Central Heating Piping

angeljay

My house needs re-plumbing for the central heating to work correctly, I have a combi boiler only 5 years old but wanting to get the plumbing done correctly.


Firstly I was told plastic piping is cheaper and quicker to fit is this correct or would you suggest cooper piping?


It is a 2 bed terrace, with living room and kitchen 5 radiators in total.


Anyone have an idea of how much this would cost to fit, upstairs would be lifting floorboards downstairs is all piping in a cellar.


Should I get a price to include all new radiators as well what sort of difference would they make in my quote?


Thanks

C_Mababejive

Are you saying that the installer of the 5yr old boiler bodged it or did he just fit a new boiler to what was a carp system anyway?

Plastic piping should be fine on the heating circuits. Copper will have to be used within a few metres of the boiler. I do prefer to use copper for mains pressure cold/hot water though..

angeljay

It seems the boiler was fitted to an incorrect system, the boiler company are trying to say it is a blockage and needs a power flush. But a friend who is a heating installer has said the piping is incorrect and really they should have told me that before fitting the boiler.


The boiler was moved position as well due to the new one being a combi boiler.


The old boiler looks like it had one pipe into the radiator pipe system.


The main pressure cold and hot water are copper its just the pipes to the radiators I am looking for.


Is plastic cheaper than cooper?

jhs14

Unless you're thinking of a DIY job, a large part of the cost of fitting the pies will be the labour. The cost saving for using plastic rather than copper would be fairly minimal compared to that, especially for a small house.

The advantage of plastic for the DIYer is that it's a lot easier. There's nothing wrong with it as such, although under floorboards and in other inacessible places I'd stick with copper. If a pro was doing the job I would insist on copper. (Soldered joints rather than compression)

angeljay

Thank you, I have a friends husband who fits central heating for a profession come round tomorrow to quote, I will ask difference in cost for copper and plastic. I was just trying to get an idea of price to think about if I have to save over summer or get the money together quicker.

jayyar66

Absolutely nothing wrong with plastic pipe, for either heating or hot/cold water. As has already been said though, difference in materials cost will be minimal and the first metre or so from the boiler should be in copper. Personally, if possible, I always like to use copper with soldered connections, but that's just me. I have, and do use plastic occasionally, and plastic pipe when installed correctly, does have a number of advantages over copper. Although aesthetics isn't one of them. The lingering poor reputation of plastic pipework has arisen largely because of poor or non-existent installation practices with very very few failures being as a result of manufacturing defects or due to a fundamental flaw of the product. HTH :-)

bridgedino

Mice love plastic pipes

brightontraveller

The problem with plastic systems is not the material itself, but the failure rate through incorrect installation, fitted properly its just as good there are pro’s and cons for both but plastics main advantage is speed ? Rodents bs there to busy munching on cables, leaks just as many with soldered joints , many moons ago the same argument were made for lead and copper,,,

motherbored21

In my experience, plastic is quieter than copper. Fully plastic house was silent, whilst copper house creaked, banged etc.

roddydogs

Anyone know of a case of rodents biting thru plastic,(not someone down the pub told me)

Davesnave

roddydogs wrote: »

Anyone know of a case of rodents biting thru plastic,(not someone down the pub told me)

Previous to our ownership here, mice got into the loft and set up home, judging by the amount of their carp up there, now removed.

They shredded the pipe insulation into 5mm pieces, but the plastic pipes of both kinds were untouched.

Edit: As an aside, my installer says he will fit either plastic or copper for much the same price. Plastic is more expensive, but faster. He proposes to use copper where it shows, and plastic for the loft and within stud work etc.