Chasing water pipes into wall - opinions

[confused30000]

I apologise in advance that this might not make sense or be full of silly/obvious questions, but I am a novice at all this!

We have recently knocked through from our kitchen to a new extension to create an opening. Various things have been moved from the wall that was knocked through, including the fuse board and electricity meter. The walls have then just been plastered over last week.

One thing that remains though, is water pipes. This is my first time dealing with this so apologies if this is wrong - we have two pipes that come from the bathroom upstairs, directly above the kitchen, down the kitchen wall and then make their way to the sink behind the kitchen units. During the knockthrough and to make room for the plastering, the builders have put a right angle pipe in and replaced the old copper (I assume copper) pipe with plastic pipe. They are currently away from the wall as the plaster dries.

I think these two pipes are hot and cold water - they are 15mm piping going from the label on them so too narrow for one to be waste I assume? Photo attached of the current set up to hopefully help (please excuse the mess!)

I thought that these pipes were going to be in the wall (we were away during the plastering phase) but is there a reason they couldn't be? I haven't yet had chance to speak to the builder about it. I believe it isn't common practice to chase waste pipes into walls, is the same true of hot/cold water?

We are having a new kitchen fitted - the fitters are coming for a final survey and said they could probably bring the pipes straight down vertically alongside the edge of the new opening, box them in with plywood that could then be painted the same colour as the wall.

Was just looking for opinions really - would you do that or explore the idea of chasing them into the wall, even though it would mean disturbing the newly plastered wall?

If it helps, it's plasterboard onto the brick of the external wall (I'm not sure if it's D&B, sorry!) which then has insulation and the outer brick.

Again, sorry if that is all confused word soup, any help gratefully received!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6403650/chasing-water-pipes-into-wall-opinions#

 

[terryplumb]

Just have them boxed in .I wouldn't at the point you are at start hacking out and re plastering. But it's entirely up to you.

 

[jj4091]

15mm pipe trunking

 

[CBW]

Pipes shouldn’t be embedded into the walls unless protected as per water regulations . Some “pro’s” will disagree. I agree with @terryplumb - get them boxed in, seems a waste disturbing that plastering. I would also say yes, they are hot and cold.

 

[confused30000]

Thank you all, that makes sense. Yes, it does seem a shame to disturb the plastering (especially considering the time it took and mess it made!)

I'll speak to the kitchen planner and their plumber - thinking we box them in from ceiling to floor along the edge of the opening and paint it the same colour as the wall. There will be a gap between the edge of the new kitchen cabinets and that opening, so the box in might form a border of sorts and fill the gap. Plus, the kids produce a range of artwork so we might be able to use it as a 'vertical art gallery' to hide it even more!