pipes through joists

Ant555

I am thinking of getting my bathroom changed around.

Is it OK to drill holes in joists or cut notches to run hot/cold water pipes from one end of the room to the other as I cant see how I would get water to my sink due to the way the joists run?

I won't be doing this myself but just wanted to know if it was OK in principle to do this nowadays so I can plan the best layout.

Bathroom is upstairs by the way and I have no access from the room below without ripping the ceiling down.

Thanks

ComicGeek

Have a look at this http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/Notching_joist.htm

It's better to do holes in the centre of the joist rather than top cut notches - you will need to space the holes as per the above link. Holes for hot and cold water pipes would be fairly small, but drainage for the sink might be at the limit depending on your joist depth.

Wookey

If you use plastic pipe then you can drill the joists and cable in the pipe where you need it, if you use copper then you will need to mark and track the joists enough to let the pipe sit inside with a small piece of hairfelt lagging around it to prevent the pipes rubbing when they heat up/cool down.

Mark the copper pipe runs on the flooring to avoid driving nails down thru them, drilling the joists for plastic pipes in the centre should mean they are well out of harms way unless you use 6" nails to tack down flooring.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Just want to reiterate Wookey's advice - if you use copper do *not* forget to lag them correctly. When we had all of the floorboards up in our bedroom and had some pipework modifications they were not lagged and every time the heating came on for about 10 minutes there was the occasional creak as the pipe expanded and heated up. It was like chinese water torture. I eventually caved in and had to lift the carpet and floorboards to fix it as it was driving me crazy.