Warm Air Heating System

[sarahgeorg1]

Hi - new to the forum and looking for help!! I am about to embark on my second renovation project. We are buying a 70's built house that has had central heating fitted very badly - i.e. all the rad pipes are on the outside of the walls and look awful! We had envisaged having to chase all the walls to recess pipes until the owner told us it used to have warm air heating.

I know it is now much more efficient than it used to be. Does anyone know if a. they would have left all the ducting? b. how easy it would be to revert and to have it reinstated? c. if at that age my ducting would be asbestos?

Any advice on this would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[simond]

To answer your questions;

Is the ducting still there?
This is rather a silly question, who could say without seeing it? Someone may have removed some of it in the old boiler cupboard.
If you can't see any of it in the old warm air unit location it is probably not salvageable.

Can it be reinstated?
Only economically viable if it is complete or repairable, see above.

Is it asbestos?
No, only the old flue is likely to contain asbestos. The warm air ducts will be steel.

 

[sarahgeorg1]

Perhaps I should have phrased it "would it be likely they would have left the ducting there" obviousley no one can tell me for certain without seeing the house. Silly me.

Thanks for your response anyway.

 

[clf-gas]

Sarah,

It is very very likelt that most if not all the duct work is still in sittue.
The bits that will of been removed are the plenum and registers.

The plenum would of sat beneath the unit and its ductwork would of traveled underfloor and in walls. The register positions will become apparant when you strip the walls back.

Better to get someone in to take a look when stripped and he can lift boards to see. You will find it will be more likely a cheaper option to re install wet central heating or maybe underfloor heating.

Good luck

 

[sarahgeorg1]

Many thanks for that - I shall definately get a specialist to take a look. We are looking at all options at the moment - namely the easiest and cheapest but it has to look good and be efficient.

At the moment pipes are running up all the walls downstairs - and they have tried to cover them with some nice white plastic trunking! Not attractive!

Would be fine if we lived in a timber framed house like we do now - but its traditional brick and concrete which makes life a lot harder with regards what to do with the pipes!

 

[clf-gas]

When you do get your "specialist" in, make sure he/she has DAH1 on his/her card. thats the module for warm air.

Your propery will have the concrete ground floor so is possible to chase out for pipes to ground floor and upstairs can run under the floor boards.
More work but better when done correctly.

 

[sarahgeorg1]

Thank you - all very helpful.