CH installation & plastering - order of play etc

[wwwebber]

Hi folks,
I'll soon be moving into a victorian house in need of refurbishment and I'm starting to plan things early and have a couple of questions :-

I intend to have the central heating system replaced and may do some of the plumbing myself before getting someone in to do the important bits. All of the externally facing internal walls need thermal plasterboard about 30mm + skiming whilst the rest of the internal walls simply need skimming.

I intend to install the new CH piping (10mm microbore to rads) within a conduit and then have the 30mm thermal plasterboard placed around it thus creating a natural channel to be filled in with plaster before the skimming is done. Is this good practice ?, I do I need to put any kind of lagging around the pipes within the conduit ?.

Also, I'm struggling with which order to do things in. The radiators & brackets need to be installed after the skimming has been done - but what about leak testing etc ?. Or should this be done before the skimming ? and if so do you simply remove the rads / brackets after leak testing and then replace after skimming ?.

Lastly, I notice that all rads in my current home are earthed - is this a regs thing / something I need to have done ?.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

 

[bengasman]

Plastering to be done last.
Install all pipes and rads, pressure test, drain and take rads off for plastering. Leave brackets in place.
Do not use microbore.
No point to have bonding on the rads.
Have your electricity thoroughly checked asap, chances are it will need some upgrading; now is the time to do it.

 

[wwwebber]

Plastering to be done last.
Install all pipes and rads, pressure test, drain and take rads off for plastering. Leave brackets in place.
Do not use microbore.
No point to have bonding on the rads.
Have your electricity thoroughly checked asap, chances are it will need some upgrading; now is the time to do it.

Thanks for your reply. I assume that the thermal plasterboard will need to be in place before installation of radiators ?.

I have microbore in my current home without any issues but then again I do maintain the system very well. Any particular reason why I shouldnt use microbore ?

Thanks I intend to have the house rewired anyway so thats covered.

What about the lagging / insulation of pipework inside the conduit - what do you think about this ?

 

[bengasman]

No real advantages to microbore, but potential for serious problems.

Only insulate under the lowest floor and in loft, unless it is cheap and easy to do.

Make sure you don't mount the brackets on the board unless there is a stud behind it; stick in extra bits of wood to accommodate brackets if need be.

Get the piping done before the wiring; damn site easier to change the run of a cable than it is to change a pipe.
Keep an eye on the sparky when he routes the cables through the joists; a lot of them don't really care where they drill/notch. There are clear rules about where and how you can go trough joists to avoid unnecessary weakening.

 

[wwwebber]

No real advantages to microbore, but potential for serious problems.

Only insulate under the lowest floor and in loft, unless it is cheap and easy to do.

Make sure you don't mount the brackets on the board unless there is a stud behind it; stick in extra bits of wood to accommodate brackets if need be.

Get the piping done before the wiring; damn site easier to change the run of a cable than it is to change a pipe.
Keep an eye on the sparky when he routes the cables through the joists; a lot of them don't really care where they drill/notch. There are clear rules about where and how you can go trough joists to avoid unnecessary weakening.

Great advice again thanks.

In regards to mounting the brackets - I'm assuming at the moment that the plasterboard will be applied to the walls using "dot & dab" so would using extra long screws going into the brickwork behind the plasterboard suffice ?

 

[bengasman]

Should be ok I guess.