When burying copper pipes in a concrete floor

[Nozzle]

When burying copper pipes in a concrete floor I know the copper and concrete should come in contact so can use denso tape to prevent corrosion.

I've just dug up a screed floor and the copper pipes are sat in a trough in the concrete subfloor and packer around with some sort of grain stuff then topped off with a light skim of very brittle mortar.

What is the grain stuff? It's like large chunks of oats, that appears to be made out of something like shredded up celotex. It looks easier to repeat this method rather than struggle wrapping denso tape around all the pipes.



Nozzle

 

[Corgigrouch GTi]

That's Vermiculite..

 

[KenGMac]

Nozzle, good evening.

Could the material be Vermiculite? Just a consideration?

OK it looks "dirty" not unexpected in its position.

Is it light weight? or does it have a sparkly appearance when split?

As for isolating the Copper? use Split Insulation? or a split plastic pipe [not easy to cut a length of plastic pipe?]

Ken.

 

[Doggit]

Oddly enough, using vermiculite won't be the easiest option. The grey pipe insulation from Wikes can be threaded onto the pipe, or split, and wrapped round it.
Denso will stop any corrosion problems, but won't insulate the pipe. When you try and put concrete on top of the vermiculite, it's all just move around, and the concrete will soak down towards the pipe, so proper pipe insulation will always work best.

 

[Nozzle]

Problem solved! Thanks folks... I google-imaged it to make sure and it sure matches up. And only then did I note there is an association with asbestos and perhaps I need to be very careful how it is disposed of. Both links I saw suggested the problem may be limited to USA/Canada as it picked up some contamination from a particular mine. Laying tubular insulation might work find, I can use denso tape on the corners where the insulation can't be garanteed to keep the concrete away from the copper.

Nozzle

 

[Doggit]

You could also use Duct tape, but the pipe insulation can be cut at 45deg to get a corner, and then cover it with duct tape to keep it in place. I've yet to find a corner I can't get the pipe insulation round with a bit of judicious trimming.