Hi. I want to move a radiator in my living room from its current position against a blank wall, 90degrees round a corner to under a window (please see first picture). At the moment the radiator blocks a nice wall where I could put furniture or wall-mounted TV or whatever, whereas under the window it will be out of the way. I've not worked with copper piping before, so I have a few questions about extending the pipework. I'd like to do a neat job, although keeping within my limited abilities.
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The floor is concrete, and at the moment the pipes are buried in the concrete. Looking closely at the curvature at the bottom-most visible part of the pipe, and confirmed by a pipe finder, the pipes are coming from the direction perpendicularly away from the wall - i.e. they are definitely buried in the concrete, not coming down the wall. Please see the second close-up picture.
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I guess the neatest thing to do would be to chase out the concrete and bury a new length of copper pipe in it, coming out of the floor in the correct new positions, but I think this is beyond my abilities (and tools and time). Also, this would require at least one joint to be buried, which is a bad idea.
So, I was thinking of taking the pipes along the blank wall that used to house the rad, and round the corner under the window, at about skirting-board level. I would like to hide the pipes as much as possible along the blank wall, for aesthetic reasons as well as a worry of banging the exposed pipes with furniture. I'm not worried about the pipes being visible along the wall with the window, as they will be directly under the new radiator position and so protected and not too visible.
The blank wall is an external wall and I understand that it is best to keep the pipes half an inch away from that wall to protect from frost, so I cannot really chase the pipes into the plaster or hide them in the skirting, so I am thinking of trying to box them in somehow, with the skirting board being a bit further from the wall than it would normally be.
I can think of three ways to proceed:
1, The easiest thing to do, I think, would be to leave the pipes coming out of the floor in their current position, have the skirting board in front of that and box in that way. The only problem with that is that the box will be a three and a bit inch deep 'step' at the bottom of the wall, which will be quite obtrusive.
2, Alternatively I could keep the pipes coming out of the floor in their current position, add a 90deg bend towards the wall, then run the pipe close to the wall, having the skirting board at about only an inch from the wall such that it covers the majority of the pipe run but you will see the two small pieces of pipe coming out of the floor and bending into the skirting. This too would be quite easy to do, I think, but I worry that the two bits of pipe might be obtrusive and get knocked, especially as they will be no radiator above them to help protect them.
3, So my final thought is to somehow extend the pipes within the concrete, just for the couple of inches necessary to get closer to the wall, then come out of the floor much closer to the wall and go round the perimeter. That way I can hide the pipes completely from view on that wall, and only have a skirting board an inch or so out from the wall.
Although option 3 is less work than chasing out a whole run of burying in concrete, I am still a bit concerned, as I've never done anything like this.
So my questions are:
Assuming I can chip away a suitable small trench in the concrete behind the pipes, what are my options as to how to make the pipe come out of the floor closer to the wall? Is it possible to somehow straighten out the current bend in the pipe, and make another bend further towards the wall? Or is it the case that once a pipe is bent it cannot be straightened? Or maybe you'll say that it would be risky to try and straighten or bend a pipe that is already half-embedded in concrete?
If necessary, I guess I can try digging out more of the concrete, cutting the pipe where it is still straight, and extending from there, but again that would mean a joint buried in concrete which is not ideal.
Any ideas?
click for bigger
The floor is concrete, and at the moment the pipes are buried in the concrete. Looking closely at the curvature at the bottom-most visible part of the pipe, and confirmed by a pipe finder, the pipes are coming from the direction perpendicularly away from the wall - i.e. they are definitely buried in the concrete, not coming down the wall. Please see the second close-up picture.
click for bigger
I guess the neatest thing to do would be to chase out the concrete and bury a new length of copper pipe in it, coming out of the floor in the correct new positions, but I think this is beyond my abilities (and tools and time). Also, this would require at least one joint to be buried, which is a bad idea.
So, I was thinking of taking the pipes along the blank wall that used to house the rad, and round the corner under the window, at about skirting-board level. I would like to hide the pipes as much as possible along the blank wall, for aesthetic reasons as well as a worry of banging the exposed pipes with furniture. I'm not worried about the pipes being visible along the wall with the window, as they will be directly under the new radiator position and so protected and not too visible.
The blank wall is an external wall and I understand that it is best to keep the pipes half an inch away from that wall to protect from frost, so I cannot really chase the pipes into the plaster or hide them in the skirting, so I am thinking of trying to box them in somehow, with the skirting board being a bit further from the wall than it would normally be.
I can think of three ways to proceed:
1, The easiest thing to do, I think, would be to leave the pipes coming out of the floor in their current position, have the skirting board in front of that and box in that way. The only problem with that is that the box will be a three and a bit inch deep 'step' at the bottom of the wall, which will be quite obtrusive.
2, Alternatively I could keep the pipes coming out of the floor in their current position, add a 90deg bend towards the wall, then run the pipe close to the wall, having the skirting board at about only an inch from the wall such that it covers the majority of the pipe run but you will see the two small pieces of pipe coming out of the floor and bending into the skirting. This too would be quite easy to do, I think, but I worry that the two bits of pipe might be obtrusive and get knocked, especially as they will be no radiator above them to help protect them.
3, So my final thought is to somehow extend the pipes within the concrete, just for the couple of inches necessary to get closer to the wall, then come out of the floor much closer to the wall and go round the perimeter. That way I can hide the pipes completely from view on that wall, and only have a skirting board an inch or so out from the wall.
Although option 3 is less work than chasing out a whole run of burying in concrete, I am still a bit concerned, as I've never done anything like this.
So my questions are:
Assuming I can chip away a suitable small trench in the concrete behind the pipes, what are my options as to how to make the pipe come out of the floor closer to the wall? Is it possible to somehow straighten out the current bend in the pipe, and make another bend further towards the wall? Or is it the case that once a pipe is bent it cannot be straightened? Or maybe you'll say that it would be risky to try and straighten or bend a pipe that is already half-embedded in concrete?
If necessary, I guess I can try digging out more of the concrete, cutting the pipe where it is still straight, and extending from there, but again that would mean a joint buried in concrete which is not ideal.
Any ideas?