Loft Conversion All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Robin's Nest]

We are currently planning a loft conversion and require some independent plumbing advice. We have a conventional boiler which was recently installed to allow for extra heating demands due to the loft once converted and do not wish to change this. Once the conversion has been completed there will be four bathrooms – two with a bath and power shower, one with just a power shower and the fourth is a cloakroom with just a toilet and sink. There is a large vented heated water tank in the airing cupboard and in the loft there are three cold water tanks, although these can be moved to another loft area which is not being used for the conversion. We do not wish a combination boiler, due to difficulties when using more than one hot water outlet at the same time together with the loss in water pressure when other demands are put on the system. Also I understand you cannot use a combination boiler with power showers? Given these criteria what plumbing system would be best suited? Is it possible to use either a pump or even a second boiler? Many thanks. 

[bobtb007]

HI Rob

With your current system your biggest problem will be to maintain the static head in the system.

I take it you will be putting some form of hot and cold water and then also some heating via radiators in there

The header tank for the heating system will need to be at least 0,5m above the highest point that is served in the loft i.e. 0.5m above the highest radiator.

The cold water storage tank will need to be 0.5m above the highest hot water pipe (shower head?)

It will need some careful thinking to be sure and it all depends on what you want to do, you also will need to pay close attention to the storage capacity of the cold water storage tank(s?).

Huh, power showers, now that depends on what you mean, do you have a shower that is gravity served and has a pump on it or do you have a shower that has an integral pump but it is still served with hot and cold water?

Combi boilers dont need pumps on them to feed showers as they use mains pressure

I prob need some more details to make sense of what you are trying to do

Russ