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We've been on holiday in the fabulous Isles of Scilly for the last week or so which has meant zero progress but a very much needed break 😊 We drove back from Lands End airport yesterday and after a good night's sleep to recover from the gruelling drive I'm back at it afresh today 😊
First job was to re-do some of the plumbing that had been niggling at me all week. I knew I'd got a cold solder joint on one of the hot water 15mm tee's - I'd fitted them up and forgotten to disassemble and flux one of the joints before hitting it with the blow torch. I could tell immediately, but since I'd run out of pipe and it was late in the evening I'd left it for another day. I cut out the offending pipework and came up with a slightly neater way of routing the pipes, its now all sweated up so this little corner is essentially finished 😊
I've yet to connect the risers, the two left hand pipes are the heating flow and return and will eventually connect via a tee to the main 22mm flow and return in the corner. The third open ended pipe is the hot water which will continue up the wall and go in to the airing cupboard to connect up there.
I've fitted quarter turn valves to the new flow and return pipes under the stairs, ready to connect the new heating pipework once the downstairs loo is built 😊 Along with the hot and cold pipes this means I've got everything through to where it needs to be now so the kitchen can go in once it arrives.
In another exciting development, the block splitter I ordered whilst on my hols has just arrived 😊
Theres not a great deal more plumbing I can do until MrsBssll is out of the house as it will mean turning the water and heating off and draining everything down, so I'll likely get the mixer out shortly and lay some blocks - I've got a fifth pallet of them arriving today so I should really start getting them down
First job was to re-do some of the plumbing that had been niggling at me all week. I knew I'd got a cold solder joint on one of the hot water 15mm tee's - I'd fitted them up and forgotten to disassemble and flux one of the joints before hitting it with the blow torch. I could tell immediately, but since I'd run out of pipe and it was late in the evening I'd left it for another day. I cut out the offending pipework and came up with a slightly neater way of routing the pipes, its now all sweated up so this little corner is essentially finished 😊
I've yet to connect the risers, the two left hand pipes are the heating flow and return and will eventually connect via a tee to the main 22mm flow and return in the corner. The third open ended pipe is the hot water which will continue up the wall and go in to the airing cupboard to connect up there.
I've fitted quarter turn valves to the new flow and return pipes under the stairs, ready to connect the new heating pipework once the downstairs loo is built 😊 Along with the hot and cold pipes this means I've got everything through to where it needs to be now so the kitchen can go in once it arrives.
In another exciting development, the block splitter I ordered whilst on my hols has just arrived 😊
Theres not a great deal more plumbing I can do until MrsBssll is out of the house as it will mean turning the water and heating off and draining everything down, so I'll likely get the mixer out shortly and lay some blocks - I've got a fifth pallet of them arriving today so I should really start getting them down
Yeah I'm using fittings with the solder rings inside but you still need to clean and flux the joint before you push them together and heat them up for the solder to flow nicely. I cleaned them all but forgot the flux on one joint so the solder melted but didn't fill properly. It might have held, but it was easier to change it now than once everything else was connected up and full of water I've got some extra solder and had tried fluxing and adding more to the old joint to fill it up, but it started getting messy pretty quickly
I've got some extra solder and had tried fluxing and adding more to the old joint to fill it up, but it started getting messy pretty quickly 
ClichéGuevara
Legendary Member
- Location
- Kingston upon the River Hull
That looks lovely John. Is that the design you're going for next?
Yeah once I've finished the drive, kitchen and garage I'll start dismantling the new porch
I'll probably bury the driveway in top soil then turf over it, so when we want a driveway again I can just dig it up...Right, tomorrow morning I shall be draining down the heating. I've made a start, so as far as I can tell all I need to do first thing is open the drain cock then slowly open the rad bleeds starting from the highest and working my way down... How long it takes to drain an entire heating system is anyones guess though
I've turned the heating off at the mains so the pipes will be nice and cold. I've connected a hose to the drain cock. I've even got some Fernox to dose it with when I come to refill it...
I got a little bored watching TV this evening so started cutting bits of copper to length and have cleaned the old pipes to a nice coppery shine ready to cut chunks out of them
Once the heating has been refilled I'll be turning the water off and finishing off the mains water pipework Once that's been rerouted I'll do the hot water pipework last 😊 And when all that's done, I'll start on moving the electrics 
What could possibly go wrong? Tune in tomorrow to find out
I've turned the heating off at the mains so the pipes will be nice and cold. I've connected a hose to the drain cock. I've even got some Fernox to dose it with when I come to refill it...
I got a little bored watching TV this evening so started cutting bits of copper to length and have cleaned the old pipes to a nice coppery shine ready to cut chunks out of them
Once the heating has been refilled I'll be turning the water off and finishing off the mains water pipework
Once that's been rerouted I'll do the hot water pipework last 😊 And when all that's done, I'll start on moving the electrics What could possibly go wrong? Tune in tomorrow to find out
Jenkins
Legendary Member
- Location
- Felixstowe
It's almost worth popping up to The Crown and sitting outside with a couple of pints to watch & find out. What time do you start?<snip>
What could possibly go wrong? Tune in tomorrow to find out
irw
Quadricyclist
- Location
- Liverpool, UK
Right, tomorrow morning I shall be draining down the heating. I've made a start, so as far as I can tell all I need to do first thing is open the drain cock then slowly open the rad bleeds starting from the highest and working my way down... How long it takes to drain an entire heating system is anyones guess though
...
What could possibly go wrong? Tune in tomorrow to find out
If it's a vented system, don't forget to close off the inlet valve on the expansion tank, or you might be waiting a while for it to empty...!
neil_merseyside
Guru
- Location
- Wirral
I augmented the original drain cock with extra fast drain points, basically teed off somewhere accesible, one branch low downstairs, the other at first floor level. I used quarter turn full bore isolators, so with a bit of hose (+jubilee clip) the sections drains very quickly compared to a standard drain cock, attach hose and crack open valve, go and drink tea.It's not, just a very small pressurised combi system. Hopefully won't take long once I can start. Predictably it was decreed that the hot water had to come back on this morning so I'm now waiting to start
The first floor drain is just below radiator level and means I can swap a valve/trv/radiator[1] easily without having to guess how much to drop the system through a tiny drain point. The downstairs extra drain is not quite lowest point but again allows valve/rad swapping, the original drain can still be used should I want a lower level.
[1] I turn radiators off with lockshield[2] and the decorators cap on TRV to avoid draining any radiators I'm not working on [3]
[2] Do make a note of lockshield setting first.
[3] Refill is quick!
bikingdad90
Guru
Don’t forget to bleed after you refill as there will be some air in the system that needs to be removed! Also check the amount of ferox you need as from memory one bottle does up to about 6/7 radiators which covers a 3 bed house. Most 4 beds need two bottles.
As your draining down you could unhook the radiators off the wall and give them a clean out too? Bit more work but would give you a nice clean system.
As your draining down you could unhook the radiators off the wall and give them a clean out too? Bit more work but would give you a nice clean system.
I'm glad I read this AFTER I'd refilled the system as otherwise I would have been tempted to accept more project creep
To be honest the system was flushed fairly recently when the boiler was replaced so there shouldn't be too much muck in there So it's gone rather well so far - I've drained down, cut the tee's in, trimmed the rad pipes to fit the new plinth heater and fitted the valves for that and have just refilled the system. There's no water squirting out anywhere yet!
I'd planned my pipework to maintain access to the drain cock which was handy
The draincock is the only one I can find on the whole system and is higher than the point I needed to cut the 10mm flow and return for the plinth heater, so I knew I was going to make a mess. I also knew that it wasn't going to spray out so I got everything ready including a big old towel and chopped the first pipe. I was easily able to stem the flow with my thumb over the open end, then quickly pop the pre-prepated (and closed!) valve over the end. Once pushed on there was hardly any water coming through so I was able to nip the nut up without too much haste. Same again for the other one, again it went well with minimal water lost.
Then on to the scary job. I marked the pipe then cut the section out with my multitool. On inspection I decided against the solder tee's - there was a pretty constant drip and I wasn't confident I could get a good joint so used the backup compression tee's I'd ordered just in case.
Same again for the other one before fitting the remaining pipe and fittings. So far I've neither set fire to nor flooded anything
Time for some lunch now before I consider my next move
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I had a very small drip from one of the compression tee's that I've now nipped up, hasn't dripped for a few hours so should be good. Otherwise no issues so far 😊
I've spent the afternoon doing all the bits I can to minimise the time the water is off and I plan to make the connections tomorrow - I don't want to start it this evening when everything's closed and find I need a skyhook or wotsnim from screwfix
The main task was getting the pipework ready under the sink, so Ive extended the 22mm cold water pipework around and tee'd off for the new dishwasher suppy, new outside tap supply and new cold sink tap supply. I've also finished off the 15mm hot by bringing it up and over the 22mm cold pipe and finishing in a full bore isolator valve.
Essentially in the picture above the low level stuff is new and will stay, the high level stuff is all old and being replaced. The two 15mm pipes going vertically up near the corner at the top of the photo are the existing hot and cold risers to serve upstairs so will be defunct and capped at high level. They'll be fully removed when I do the bathroom above the kitchen as having seen the state of it I'll be re-plumbing everything in there too
I've made up most of the pipe and fittings ready to do the changeover in the morning so it shouldn't take too long, it all depends how many leaks I've got once the water is back on
The pipe that goes under the floor is the one I installed a while back which serves the washing machine in the larder cupboard. I'll cut it off below the capped tee and then fit a new isolator at the same height as the others. Once the new kitchen unit is in I'll mark and drill access holes so the valves can be operated
I'm quite enjoying plumbing so far but I'll be pretty relieved when its all done and the house is still dry
I've spent the afternoon doing all the bits I can to minimise the time the water is off and I plan to make the connections tomorrow - I don't want to start it this evening when everything's closed and find I need a skyhook or wotsnim from screwfix
The main task was getting the pipework ready under the sink, so Ive extended the 22mm cold water pipework around and tee'd off for the new dishwasher suppy, new outside tap supply and new cold sink tap supply. I've also finished off the 15mm hot by bringing it up and over the 22mm cold pipe and finishing in a full bore isolator valve.
Essentially in the picture above the low level stuff is new and will stay, the high level stuff is all old and being replaced. The two 15mm pipes going vertically up near the corner at the top of the photo are the existing hot and cold risers to serve upstairs so will be defunct and capped at high level. They'll be fully removed when I do the bathroom above the kitchen as having seen the state of it I'll be re-plumbing everything in there too
I've made up most of the pipe and fittings ready to do the changeover in the morning so it shouldn't take too long, it all depends how many leaks I've got once the water is back on
The pipe that goes under the floor is the one I installed a while back which serves the washing machine in the larder cupboard. I'll cut it off below the capped tee and then fit a new isolator at the same height as the others. Once the new kitchen unit is in I'll mark and drill access holes so the valves can be operated
I'm quite enjoying plumbing so far but I'll be pretty relieved when its all done and the house is still dry
