How to tidy these radiator pipes?

ChasingtheWelshdream

Hi All,

We have a microbore system which seems to work well enough, except for some radiators which have rusted and started to leak. Long-term, once the boiler reaches the end of its life, we would look to replace the system with better placed/sized rads. We are in a period property and the pipes run in surface-mounted trunking (through the original cornicing  ), looks horrendous, and so we would sort all the pipe runs and repair the damage. This is unlikely to be for a few years though. 

 In the meantime, I'm in the process of replacing the broken ones, just so we can get proper heating this winter.  In most rooms I am replacing like-for-like, using existing pipework just to get the things working and all is fine so far. I am happy to amend pipework but it's not worth it in these rooms at this point, so I've just accepted the ugliness.

However, in our front reception rooms I would like to smarten things up and ideally replace with some sympathetic period style rads. Here's a couple of pics (please excuse the state of everything!). The pipes drop from above, behind built-in cupboards, and along the skirting. Taking up the flooring/units is unfortunately not an option. (I would, but DH started sputtering and turning rather puce at my suggestion . .)

So my question is, is there anything I can feasibly do to sort this pipework? Behind pic 1, the radiator it pretty much just hanging on plasterboard. We will remove this and add battens to hang the new brackets on, so there maybe space to possibly cut the pipes near the left hand corner, then join a new short run within conduit behind the new plasterboard. This is in a bay window, with another as a mirror image on the other side.

Or is it just better to leave well alone, replace with standard rads and maybe paint to blend in? As much as I would like a couple of column rads, using the pipework as it stands would ruin the effect. And of course they cost more, which I don't want to spend if they still look rubbish.

Any and all thoughts welcome!



I told you it's ugly!

grumbler

Difficult to say, but the only way to make it look this nice is to hide the pipes either behind the plasterboard or under the floor.

For plasterboard now they use plastic pipes

ChasingtheWelshdream

Thank you. Coming up from the floor is unfortunately not an option. In one room we have the original terrazzo flooring, and in the other, well, I value my marriage....      In one room I could probably take the drop back to the floor above, chase out the wall and do it properly. In fact, I hadn't considered that at this point, but I may well just bite the bullet and do it. That radiator has been out of action for 2 years so I can wait until spring when we were planning on decorating that room.

But where the bay window/plasterboard is, I'm struggling to see how/where I could start to re-route behind the plasterboard as the drops are behind built-in units, before following the skirting.


Edited to add: We have been trying to get a plumber for literally months with no luck. So I'm just doing what I'm confident to do, to last a few years.

Jeepers_Creepers

That's pretty small microbore - 8mm? In which case, if you want to carry on using it when you renew some rads, you need to make sure your system is nicely clean. That would involve fitting a magnetic filter and adding cleaning chemicals.

Anyhoo, these pipes... Sorting the skirting ones is relatively straight-forward, I think. I did this a couple of houses back - it was 'Georgian' style house, although built in the '70s, so had all the exterior trimmings (pillars and that triangular portico thing going on. Fancy? Yup, but it was a terrace of 6 houses made to look like a 'pile', so we essentially had a 3-bed terraced house in the middle. Still, it was fun to show folk for the first time as we pulled up :-)  ). Anyhoo, the inside made do with plain '70s skirtings & archi - a real disappointment. I converted them by adding a sheet of 6mm MDF over them - probably around 6" high - and topped this with 65mm ogee architrave. It then looked like 8+" ogee skirtings, so suited the place better, but also had a hollow section behind where stuff could be run. Can't remember if I actually did...

Looking at your skirtings, they already have a recess near the top seemingly deep enough to take the pipes. The skirting also looks slightly thinner than the door archi where they meet, so it looks to me as tho' you could stitch, say, 3 or 4mm MDF sheet over this, and then do the ogee topping trick. If the recess ain't deep enough, then continue the sheet higher than the whole skirting to leave a space for the pipes, and then 'top' it. (For this method, you'd have to run a spacer bead - the same thickness as the skirting - along the top, between the panel and the wall.)

When it comes to the rads, core-drill a nice hole through the skirting board to align with each valve, and to allow space to take the microbore to there and 'reducer' it up to 15mm. The new rad valves will then go straight down towards the floor before elbowing in through the new skirting covering. Add decor collars and jobbie jobbed.

Or, rip out all that old skirting, cut horizontal channels for the pipes, and fit new over it.

The vertical runs in the trunking is more tricky, but the simplest way would be to rip off the archi on that side, channel out a groove for the pipes and refit using adhesive.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Thank you Jeepers, that's what I love about this forum. Options that we've never thought of. 

That reminded me of our previous 70s house where the pipes did indeed run behind the skirting - I'd completely forgotten!

I've just read that out to DH, and to my surprise he agrees it would indeed be a simpler solution in the bay window!   I don't want to rip off the skirting, but as the bay is the width of the room, terminating in the built-in cupboards either side, it would not look out of place to build over the top as you say. Visually there would be a break before the skirting on the other walls so I don't think it would look odd with the differing depths.

In the other room, again I hadn't thought of chasing behind the architrave at all. But I've just been staring hard at it for 10 minutes and it seems doable. 

Oh, don't worry, we have a filter and I added inhibitor in as soon as I'd replaced the other rads. Touch wood, for all the horror stories I hear about microbore, this seems to be working OK. The boiler is approx 6 years old (pipework is anyone's guess), but we're hoping we get a few more years yet.   Now, if only we can find a heating engineer to come out and service it..... Our previous guy has disappeared and everyone else is too busy. But it's due now and I'd much rather have an independent rather than British Gas. 

Thanks again!

Jeepers_Creepers

If a system is kept clean and 'inhibited', then microbore just shouldn't be a worry.

Sounds as tho' you are on the case :-) 

You can get cloth tape - for racquet handles and stuff - and I think it would be worth wrapping that around all hidden pipes to reduce likelihood of noise as they expand and contract (wrap it lengthways as it's faster, if that makes sense? Doesn't have to be tidy...) They are bare copper, not plastic-coated?

Jeepers_Creepers

Oh, and don't worry too much about annual services. If your boiler is working fine, just book one in whenever they are free.

But DO check that filter to see how much gunk it's collected, and wipe it clean.