DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We're moving to an older (just pre 1900) brick built, non cavity wall house, its quite big, and grade II listed.

It has a single pipe system (the pipe is steel about 2.5 inches diamter i'd say) and the boiler is in the basement. The boiler has had its day, its literally falling apart.

I have spoken to a couple of local installers, one would use the pipework and "power flush" it then replace. Another said he'd never touch it as the pipes would be full of rubbish, also being a single pipe system modern day boilers wouldn't handle it well.

Every room in the house needs decorating so if we ever had a time to rip it all out and put a new modern flow/return copper pipe system it would be now.

I had the british gas guy out to have a look, he got scared and backed out. He said the calculated heat loss was 51KW and the best boiler they do is a 42KW unit.

This leaves joining two boilers together? having a seperate "upstairs/downstairs" boiler/system.

Has anyone got experience of doing this sort of thing? We have an older house at present and it never gets warm, its one of our most impotant things to ensure the house is warmer when we move.

Do you think we can use the existing pipework? single boiler and zones or two seperate boilers?

anyone know of any good installers that might cover this sort of thing in the cambridgeshire area (huntingdon specifically)

thanks!

adam

would definately rip out single pipe system, works on convection not very efficient! if ur doing the house up may as well do it now! alot of bigger houses require two boilers to cope with demand (outlay more, but bills won't be as can time them seperately!) Also old pipework probably been on open vented system, if ur converting to a sealed system could blow the old pipe work! Better to pay out now then later when a small boiler won't cope!