New central heating upheaval?

[Betty1980]

Has anyone ever had central heating installed? On a scale of "might want to give the duster a flick about" to "re plaster, redecorate, recarpet" how much disruption is it likely to cause?

Ooh I want to know this too. We have electric and want gas.

Same as us. Do you have storage heaters?

It's pretty disruptive. You won't have to re plaster and you can probably save carpets. But if done in the winter the house is freezing and all the floorboards are up. Only lasts a week though.

Yup! Want to change to central heating. Do you have any idea of costs?

Not yet but getting some quotes next week. I'll keep you posted.

We have concrete not floorboards... So might need to work how to cover pipes.

If you have no gas at your property you need to contact wales and west utilities/national grid etc to get that installed first. Prob about £1000.

It's only 200 to get connected where we are as the gas is just behind our house.

OK, if you have concrete floors then you are just like us.

We had ours put in three years ago before we moved in and pre-renovation so there wasn't much to mess up.

The carpets and floorboards upstairs (presumably there are floorboards up there) will need to come up. You will need chases in the walls to hide the pipes presumably, so you'll need the plaster patching up afterwards. It can just be better to get the wall in question reskimmed otherwise it might look crap. If you're not running pipes under floors downstairs then the downstairs flooring will probably be left alone.

It can be done pretty quickly if you've got a bog-standard house or flat. Ours took about 4 days and cost around 5 grand inclding a decent worcester bosch boiler and plastic (as opposed to copper) piping runs.

Does the one company do the chases as well? That sounds better than boxing pipes in.

Is wall skimming expensive?

We might have to go stay with dad for a week...

unless the wall is unusually thick, chasing it enough for pipes would weaken it too much.

Ah thanks pigletjohn. So pipes and boxing in is better. I don't think it will look that great but when we come to sell presumably it will look better than no gas central heating...

I haven't yet got quotes but am anxious about being ripped off as I don't have a clue about any of it.

You can run pipes down from the ceiling so they are hidden behind curtains (if you see what I mean).

Eek. What counts as 'unusually thick'?

Yes, our heating engineers had their own builder who did the chasing.

I would do everything I could to avoid boxed in pipes. They look bad IMHO

I copied this (below) from some website. It is probably about right. I expect the source would be on some structural engineer's tables. I would disregard any plaster or render, it's the brick or block that counts. Some houses already have cracks in them, so I wouldn't do anything to encourage more. I use sand and cement mortar to fill in chases, with a thin plaster skim (is stronger, and has fewer shrinkage cracks).

•Chase cut-outs should always be vertical or horizontal between start and finish on the wall – never cut a chase at an angle between these two, nor step the channel.
•Vertical chases should be no deeper than one third of the wall thickness – with standard 100mm bricks and blocks, that going to be 33mm, which is quite deep anyway – that’s not allowing for any plaster coating which could be 10mm so the maximum depth then works out at 36mm from the front face of the plaster.
•Horizontal chases should be no deeper than one sixth of the wall thickness - with standard 100mm blocks, that going to be 16mm which is usually quite sufficient – that’s not allowing for any plaster coating.
•Chases on opposite sides of a wall should not be in line, i.e. ‘back to back’.

Ours doesn't have cracks. It's 1980s housing authority end terrace redbrick. 3 bedrooms but 2 are vsmall. Any idea?

I would be happier with exposed pipes, perhaps coming down in a corner.

Anything concealed is liable to get nails or drills through it.

A house that age probably has a plumbing duct in a corner of the kitchen and the bathroom above, so pipes can go up in that. The new boiler needs to be close to an internal drain for the condensate, the sink drain probably goes into the same duct so can be used.

Remember the flue will billow steam in winter, especially if it is a combi, so position it where this will be least troublesome to you and your neighbour.

Ok, thanks for that Pigletjohn. Going on that, we are OK. We have reasonably thick walls and the chases are all vertical and all not very deep.

I guess it's a personal choice. Boxed-in pipes don't fit with my aesthetic and I'd rather have them chased and just not nail/ drill willy-nilly into walls. I know where they are and would make a drawing for any new owners if we ever sold. Fingers crossed for no leaks.

OP sorry to hijack..

I guess a gas leak from a random nail would be quite scary.

It's hot water in our pipes, not gas. We don't have any gas pipes chased into the wall....

Oh yes! I think I might be ready to sleep....

See why I'm worried about getting fair quotes ;)

First lot round to quote this morning. Will see how much they say.

Ah yes. Connecting is costing a lot more than were quoted 5 years ago!

We don't want to waste money replacing storage heaters when to sell the house eventually we will need gas ch but not sure we will have the money!

Hope it goes well betty.