Plumbing joints for under the floor

Joined
9 Aug 2009
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Location
Buckinghamshire
Country
United Kingdom
I am refitting my bathroom (ground floor) which will include a tiled wooden floor - the floorboards are being replaced by ply. I am replacing the old floor mounted towel rail for a new wall mounted one. I will be connecting to the existing central heating pipes under the floor and running the new pipes in the wall to where they will be connected to the new towel radiator. My concern is that being a bit old fashioned, I would prefer to have soldered joints under the floor because after they are covered by the flooring/tiles, they will be completely inaccessible and I think soldered joints would be more reliable than compression or push fit. The job would be considerably easier however if I could use plastic pipework because the existing CH pipes are iron and so I have to connect to where the existing connection is. The plastic pipes would not only allow a more flexible pipe run with far fewer joints but also I would not need to wrap them for where they run up in the wall. Am I right to prefer soldered joints or are the plastic push fit ones reliable enough for this job?
 
Sponsored Links
Soldered joints for inaccessible pipes every time. However, you say you have iron pipes - these cannot be soldered
 
Sponsored Links
You will have to get rid of the iron pipes.
Soldered copper, or good pushfit (full metal grippers), either will do fine. Pump up to 10 bar and leave for an hour. If that holds, 2 bar will not leak anywhere in the next few decades.
Compression is an absolute no-no.
Don't worry about quality, modern plastic; it is fine. I pressure tested my last installation so heavily that the rads started to groan, but the plastic stayed in place.
 
Thanks for all the replies folks.

I'm OK changing from iron to copper, done it in other rooms using the connector mentioned by kevplumb, also it is not practicable to change the whole CH system to copper at this stage, big job, maybe later (but then again maybe not!)

However to use plastic, I would still need a short piece of copper after the iron bsp connector because I don't think you can change straight to plastic from a 3/4 bsp female. Also although the plastic run would be largely in one piece, it would still need to be connected to this short piece of copper and also an elbow in the wall where it changes from vertical up inside the wall to coming out of the wall. This would need to be a plastic push fit elbow and (to me) an unknown quantity reliability-wise.

Looks like I'm stuck with soldered copper in a very fiddly run, then. Shame cos the plastic would have solved several probs.
 
Many on here (including bengasman obviously) advise that plastic fittings are as reliable as soldered copper. Thus your solution of having a short connecting piece is entirely viable.

Personally I'd go for copper every time, but maybe I'm just old fashioned.
 
I would still need a short piece of copper after the iron bsp connector because I don't think you can change straight to plastic from a 3/4 bsp female

"Conex" 303 22mm X 3/4" bsp Fi x cu compression straight coupler, or "Conex" 303 15mm x 3/4" bsp Fi x cu compression straight coupler.

Mi is "Conex" 302 or 302TA (tapper thread).

Just use the normal copper olive.
 
Trouble with these connectors is that I don't want to use compression under the floor which everyone agrees is a bad thing. The 3/4 bsp to 15mm soldered jobby is fine.

Then I guess I will chicken out and stick to copper with soldered copper connectors, protecting the pipes in the wall. The plastic method is very attractive and would no doubt be fine but as I won't be able to inspect it, I would always have that nagging doubt.

Thanks for all your suggestions.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top