Installation of Gas Central Heating

Snookered12

Hello,


I am looking at buying a ground floor two bedroom flat.


The heating system in place is storage heaters and I am looking to install gas central heating. There is gas to the block but not to the flat I am looking to buy.


Questions:


1). What would be the rough cost of installing gas central heating into a two bedroom flat


2). If the floors are concrete does that mean I would have to have pipes running all across the walls, along the skirting board?


Many thanks for your help in advance!!!!!!!

Ectophile

Digging channels through the floor would be messy and noisy. And you'd have to be careful if there's a damp-proof membrane under the concrete.

Be aware that concrete slowly dissolves copper, so don't just shove pipes in the floor and concrete over them.

An alternative might be to rip the ceilings down and run the pipes that way. But you's still get pipes running down the walls to the radiators. That assumes the ceilings aren't concrete as well.

matelodave

depending on the layout of the flat you could contemplate a wet overlay underfloor system - look at PolyPipe Overlay. http://www.polypipe.com/housing/polypipe-underfloor-heating/underfloor-heating/overlay-system Other suppliers are available like John Guest etc see here https://www.underfloorheatingtradesupplies.co.uk/underfloor-heating/underfloor-heating-kits/overlay-systems

It's not eversop cheap but you get good even heat all over the place. The floors are warm and you dont have a problem fitting furniture and stuff around radiators.

badmemory

My house is solid floors downstairs & the pipes go up (& down obviously) the walls in the corners. Less than an inch square "ducting" & with wallpaper is barely noticable. A lot of this seems to depend on which way the joists run. I would get quotes for various ways of doing it & see which you feel most comfortable with.

ed1178

in this situation id consider underfloor heating. The installation process involves insulating the floor, which could be worthwhile as you are ground floor and may have little or no existing insulation under the floor. It also has the advantage of saving wall space- no radiators required. As there are no radiators, there are also no pipes running up and down the wall. Running costs are similar to a radiator system, but you may find it feels more comfortable at lower temperatures due to the way the system works.

Your floor would rise be a few inches and doors etc may require adjustment, so probably only worth considering as part of a full renovation rather than just a tarting up job!

If radiators are the only sensible option, find a good plumber who can help you decide on discrete locations for pipe runs. If you have wooden, suspended floors rather than concrete it should be easy enough to run them under the floor rather than round skirtigs. I would budget around £5000 for a basic system in a small flat, but there are many variable including where in the country you are!

Edit- apologies, you mentioned the floors are likely concrete. Still, worth checking- in older properties it is not unusual to have both concrete (kitchen etc) and suspended wooden floor. This is especially true if the flat is in a converted house. It may be possible to install some radiators "back to back" so you have pipes along skirtings in one room, but directly through the wall from one radiator to another in the next room, minimising the ugly pipe work. All depends on the layout of the flat obviously!

NeilForth

Costs vary depending on the situation and area, but I would advise you to expect £4000.00 upwards for just the heating work, any of the below will cost significantly more.

You can either:

Surface mount the pipework, which could be hidden in Pendock or boxing.

Create a suspended ceiling and run the pipework in there with drops to each radiator.

Chase into the concrete floor and create purpose made ducts

Go with an underfloor heating system in screed.

The first two options are likely to be the most cost-effective.

Neil M. MCIPHE RP RHP EngTech

Luke86

I have a 3-bed maisonette and looked at a 2-bed before I bought this. The 2-bed had no central heating and had storage heaters too.

My friend has just renovated a house and works with bathroom fitters and plumbers. His floor was concrete and he opted for underfloor heating.

So, id probably look at getting quotes for underfloor as Ed1178 suggests. The main reason is being ground floor, I think I lose a lot of heat to upstairs, and I get no benefit from it. In a house you could turn down the upstairs rads, but instead, Im heating upstairs for nothing. I think underfloor would retain more heat in my flat, rather than it all going upstairs!

I think the installation costs might be a little more, but efficiency is good. I found this on Nu Heats website saying they expect costs to be upwards of £2.8k for installation for underfloor: https://www.nu-heat.co.uk/underfloor-heating/costs/

I spoke to a couple of engineers and their guesses were in the £4k mark for gas heating. But they all said they need to come and look at the job properly as it could be a bit less or a lot more (a lot more knowing my luck).

I checked online and most cost guides seem to back that up: http://heatingforce.co.uk/blog/cost-installing-central-heating/

Hope that helps

mumf

Our Victorian terrace had pipes running under ( mainly) concrete downstairs,with pipes chased into the walls for radiators.When it went wrong,it became apparent that it would be a big,big job.All the piping had to be replaced according to current regulations.Fair enough.£5000 ish for new boiler,rads and piping.Floors up,walls mashed up,,boards up upstairs etc.Then replastering,redecorating,possible new carpets.And because concrete and copper does not mix,pipework all over! That was a good few thousand on top,and not allowing for the plumber sucking in breath and saying, " we have a problem. "

As we have two solid fuel stoves,and the central heating was used infrequently,we went electric.Immersion heater for water,( the shower heats it's own) and wall mounted radiators as back up. Wall mounted bathroom fan heater.House is fine,and not as expensive to run as people make out.

dogshome

The first step is to contact Cadent -( the new name for National Grid)
www.cadentgas.com


They will send out a surveyor to look at the feasability and cost of running gas to the flat, and then give you a written quote
From that point forward it's just getting quotes from local Gas Safe plumbers to fit the boiler and heating system.
Up to this point you have not spent a penny


Being a flat, the exhaust from the boiler will most likely have to go through an outside wall, and you will need permission for this from the buildings owners