Central heating pipes in concrete floor

[Davey]

Not sure if this question should be in this section, in building or in plumbing but here goes:

Our flat is built over a car park and it has a concrete floor. This is presumably a screed laid over a series of concrete beams that are butted together (like floorboards) and visible from the car park below. I am building some built-in units and I need to drill several holes into the concrete to secure the units (using rawl plugs). However the central heating pipes run in the screed and I am terrified of putting the drill through them!

I have tried a pipe/stud detector (useless) and turning the heating up full for a couple of hours (I was able to detect parts of the floor getting warm - presumably where there is not as much insulation on the pipes - but not enough to determine accurately the position of the pipes).

Can anyone advise what depth of screed is commonly used? Is it usual for the pipes to be at the bottom of the screed depth or are they likely to be midway in the screed? I need to drill holes at least 3/4" deep if possible.

thank you

Davey

 

[chappers]

if tghe pipes were put in as new then they will be towards the bottom of the screed also depending on when the flats were built there may or may not be insulation between the screed and the beams. I would however suspect that you have an unbonded screed and thus it should be at least 75mm but you can never be sure.
I would try fixing with gripfil if you are not sure just weigh it down with something heavy overnight while it goes off.

 

[Davey]

Problem is that what I want to secure does not have a very large surface area so I could not use much adhesive.

Thanks for the advice on the depth on screed.

I will have a think about it over the weekend. To misquote Clint, I suppose the question is - "Do I feel lucky???"

Davey

 

[masona]

Can you not fix it to the wall instead of the floor?