Leaky copper & fixing backer boards

J

johnheritage

Fixing the house up for mum.

Two problems.

LEAKY COPPER

Sanding the floors, lifted one block and discovered green on the copper. The floor it's self isn't damp elsewhere, but is over the green (suggesting the radiator loop may be corroding, house was built in the 20's). The level of damp is very low and confined to a few inches around the green. FOR NOW. Is there any injectable solution that can ****** the process in case this is happening elsewhere? Pulling the entire floor would be extremely messy and difficult. She's just retired and isn't on a great pension, so I'm trying to keep the costs as low as they can be without killing it. I sanded the floor on the top, the one on the bottom if the original 'nicotine amber' stain. Don't want to sand anymore until I sort the copper for obvious reasons.



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FIXING BACKER BOARDS

Just finished tidying up the downstairs toilet. Moving on to the bathroom. Got the bath / toilet / basin / tiles, but need to get some secure fixings and level it up.

Pulled around a mini skip's worth of cement and lath off with the roto hammer, back to the studs. Absolutely FILTHY job (wall chasing / chimney breast style dirty).

Around the bath, I'm planning to go with 12mm Hardiboard. I will screw this to the studs at the door end, but am considering dot and dab for the walls to improve leveling. Considered 6mm, but the subsurface isn't level enough I feel and it'll likely be prone to bending.

Rather than put a vapour barrier behind the backer board (tricky over the brick), I am thinking of using SBR over the boards (under the tiling). I have a container of it from rendering, so it's spare and I can seamlessly tank the boards that way. Once I get beyond the door / window, I will switch to green MR boards, as they won't be exposed to direct water splashes, it'll reduce the cost and the difficulty of chopping / fixing and increase the rate it's finished. Worth tanking the entire room (floor too)?

I would like to hear any feedback on those ideas and particularly if you've ever used Siroflex's board foam?. Something is telling me it may not be a good idea for backer boards due the weight, and around a shower I expect people will be leaning on the walls as they get washed.

It's quite a bit more expensive than dot and dab, but also very quick, and she'd like the house to be guest friendly by chrimbo, for the first time in over a decade. Dad is dead (over a decade), brother is helpful when shifting muck but can't do any of this, so it's me alone on this.

Old bath



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Stud wall at the door end, cement board going up there



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Window end, the boiler is almost directly below the bath in the garage, who's roof ends just by the taps, so I can run the feeds through outside and not have them in the walls. Cement board going up there and there'll be a thermostatic mixer on that wall. The bath will be P shaped.



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The victim, erm... customer.... er.... mum.... watching Strictly Come Dancing; not knowing she's about to appear on DIYNot... "Cheers DIYnot!" ;)



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I will try to keep you updated with some fun pictures on this if you like
 
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The leaky copper may be fixed, if it's a heating pipe, by adding something like Fernox F4 Leak Sealer to the system. Use more rather than less, if it's a large system chuck two or three in, it's very difficult to use too much but quite easy to not have enough.

As for the backer board, you'd be better off asking the builders or the tilers about that
 
have you got the heating turned off!?! She sat there in an overcoat watching tv :LOL:
 
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:D

@Moderator

I'll try to get a picture of her when I've got her hauling plasterboards around.

I'm secretly helping her by keeping her physically active, and reducing delivery costs.

@Muggles

That is EXCELLENT news in terms of the stress it'd cause her if I started chiseling up the floor. It was hard enough to get the floor sanding to happen, now she loves it. Replacing all the pipe would be a more solid fix, but this isn't my house and the idea is stress reduction over gain.

I will get on the leak sealer pronto tomorrow (been up since 6am, and it's 1am the next day now; edit 2am now I've tidied up and got a wash).

There is a fair bit of black sludge in the radiators, pitch black. Should I use flushes on it, drain it down, refill, put in the sealer and then an inhibitor once the sealer has had time to settle? I need to absolutely pin the leaks down before I start sanding and varnishing things again.

Cheers for that quick reply, it's going to really help.

@htgeng

The heating is actually on, and up around 21 - 23C. But with the amount of crap on the radiators and blocking them (like sofas pushed right up), they're not convecting properly. But yeah, she suddenly gets cold and whips the coat / heater on. Falling asleep with the 2kw element going is something I've been trying to discourage for a long, long, long time. There's a snoopy hairdryer there on the floor as well. Looks like an advert from the Fire Brigade. :p

To be fair, I think she'd just come in this time.

@gasbanni

Got to happen ain't it mate, this is her home, not some naRsty NHS home. :p
 
:D
@Muggles

There is a fair bit of black sludge in the radiators, pitch black. Should I use flushes on it, drain it down, refill, put in the sealer and then an inhibitor once the sealer has had time to settle? I need to absolutely pin the leaks down before I start sanding and varnishing things again.
Personally I think you will be wasting your time. If the copper has that amount of corrosion visible then the pipework will be shot to pieces and leaking like hell, hence the black water caused by constant topping up with fresh water.
 
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I know yeah, it's not the best solution.

I'm hoping this is one particularly bad joint and that there's a union under there. Mum and a neighbour have suggested I don't touch it in case it goes when I do.

But that doesn't seem like a good idea to me. If it's that badly gone that it goes just with my digging round it with my fingers, it's probably going to at least cause problems soon and possibly major ones later, so it may as well get sorted before I start spending hours sanding and varnishing over it to me.

Also, we did dig some of the run up in the kitchen when the new boiler was going in, and (although the pipe was mucky), it wasn't bright green or falling apart.

I may investigate further today or tomorrow. Got to remove the bath and toilet from the bathroom and possibly sort some boards today.

We had a Vaillant boiler, one of the early combis (a turbomax I think), and the membrane in the diverter went at least two or three times. I got seriously annoyed replacing that.

It used to have a big problem with dropping pressure. Sometimes it'd drop a bar within a week or two. Other times, it'd last months. It was constantly being refilled.

I spent a long time trying to find where the pressure was going. Looking at the seals in the boiler, the membrane for possible leaks, the TRVs on the rads, other builders did and more. Never found where the problem was.

We've just had one of the new Glow Worm UltraPower SXI pressurized tank floor standing combi's put in, the ones that look like a big fridge freezer.

It has been in for almost a year and not been recharged once, yet the pressure is staying as it was charged.

I haven't read the technical manuals for it yet, but is there any chance this one is retopping the loop it's self? So, it's leaking, but just not showing up on the panel?[/img]
 

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