Filling hole in interior concrete floor around C/H pipes

[Steve1138]

Hi all

After a long thread in the central heating board about a problem wih my boiler losing pressure I finally got someone in who managed to find a leaking pipe in the concrete floor of the bedroom. After diggin it up and repairing the leak he said to leave it a week or so before filling in to allow it to dry out.

Almost been a week now so I was hoping for some advice on how I should go about this.

This is what the hole looks like:

*Edit* Cant get the picture of my phone at the mo, will post it later tonight.

 

[tim00]

1. You should be certain that the leak/pressure drop business is definitely "solved" before making good.
2. Where is your pic?
3. "concrete floor of bedroom" - is this on the ground floor?
4. What material is the repaired pipe - copper etc?

 

[Steve1138]

Thanks for the reply.

1. You should be certain that the leak/pressure drop business is definitely "solved" before making good.
Agree, its been nearly a week now and the pressure has not dropped at all. Before the repair it was dropping to 0.0 bar overnight, every night.

2. Where is your pic?
Cant get it off my phone at the mo, will put it on when I get in tonight.

3. "concrete floor of bedroom" - is this on the ground floor?
2nd floor flat.

4. What material is the repaired pipe - copper etc?[/quote]
Mainly copper but with plastic elbows and a small run of plastic pipe connecting to the rad tail.

 

[tim00]

3. Did the flat below report any water damage?

4. Cu. in concrete must be one length of tube with no fittings under the concrete. Is your cu sheathed or wrapped to protect it from the concrete? Was the original leak due to degrading?

 

[Steve1138]

3. Did the flat below report any water damage?

No, I think it was a very small leak that was spread over a long time so our concrete absorbed most of it.

4. Cu. in concrete must be one length of tube with no fittings under the concrete. Is your cu sheathed or wrapped to protect it from the concrete? Was the original leak due to degrading?[/quote]
The copper that was already there was protected, we will be adding insulation / wrapping to the new pipes before filling the hole.

Here is the picture of what we now have by the way:

Before:

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• Steve1138
• 30 Apr 2012
• 1

After:

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• Steve1138
• 30 Apr 2012
• 1

 

[Norcon]

What a mess. 13 joints below the floor when only 5 are needed. I'd rip that lot out and start again.

 

[Filo]

Don`t tell me that a qualified plumber did that job! it looks a complete bodge job to me

 

[Steve1138]

I did have a plumber in to fix it, there was method behind the unusual repair.

The reason he did it like this is actually because the leak was caused by the line of the pipe running along the floor not being correct for the rad tail pipe (you can clearly see that they would not meet up from the pic). The builders had pulled the rad tail pipe to make it line up with the pipe in the floor which put it under tension which eventually caused it to crack and leak.

He said that repairing it this way removed the tension from the pipework, you can see the plastic coming from the rad tail going at a slight diagonal angle to meet the pipe in the floor. The pipe coming in from the left into the backwards S shaped section originally ran in a straight line to join the main pipe (ie also connecting to the weakest point under the most tension) so he re-routed it slightly as you can see to let it join a little bit further down to again assist with relieving the tension.

It made sense to me but I'm not a plumber.

Anyway, it is holding and the leak has stopped and the pressure hasn't dropped in over a week now so I just want to get the hole filled in as its not great having a hole in your bedroom floor.

 

[tim00]

1. As mentioned above, no professional plumber would have installed that dog's body. However, the original first fix was also a rubbish layout and wrong tube . I'd suggest that the cu tube did not "crack" but split due to a lack of expansion room.

2. Copper tube in concrete, if it must have fittings, can only use silver/hard solder.No compression fittings are allowed in inaccessible areas. The push-fit "speed fit" fittings are a leak waiting to happen.

3. The in-situ, compression repair coupling is redundant, and the pipe could have been bent to eliminate other excess couplings.

4. Snaking cu in concrete is best done with: Table W, soft cu coil/roll.This eliminates most fittings for elbows and bends.

5. Before filling-in, wrap everything, especially the riser to the rad tail, that stub-up must have room to move, you dont want it trapped in the concrete
.
6. Perhaps you should fill-in with a weak, semi-dry mix 5-1 of sand and cement only.

7. The concrete cracked at the pipeline, it will possibly happen again; be aware.

8. I've gone on a bit because this forum is a matter of record and perhaps others will find the info useful. It's in no way a criticism of you Steve.

 

[tim00]

Did y

 

[Steve1138]

Yeah, I appreciate that, no worries.

Just looking for a step by step guide to filling the hole really. From start to finish.

Thanks