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How do I replace screed over 15mm copper central heating pipes in a 3 inch channel around a few walls (about 6 metres worth)?

After changing our boiler from a gravity-fed to a pressurised unit in the summer, I kept losing pressure from my central heating pipework. Having found nothing above ground and watching my brand new boiler slowly being destroyed as the inhibitor repeatedly diluted to nothing, I took the drastic action of digging up the screed around a few walls in my lounge to reveal the central heating pipework. In the end, the area I dug up wasn't the problem (our plumber found the leak in another room). So I now need to put screed back over the exposed pipes so I can put carpets back down.

The copper pipework is anything up to 40 years old and is sheathed in a kind of beige hessian sleeve.

I don't want to go down the avenue of grinding out a neat channel to put trunking in (maybe that'll be a summertime job, when I can replace my pipework and radiators and redo the whole lot). For now, I just want to put things back so that I can get my carpets back down in the next few weeks and get through the winter.

The old layout appears to be pipework in a hessian sleeve, covered in a thin layer of sand and then covered in screed. Should I just do the same, or should I do something better to protect the pipework first? Whilst I just want a quick fix to get my house back in order, it could turn out to be what we're stuck with for the next 10 years!

I've never done anything like this but am happy to get my hands dirty, so if I need to buy stuff, knowing what to get from where would be useful!

The original method seems to have stood the test of time and in your favour as you never had to struggle to expose the pipe and create damage.As the pipes are old and may or may not need attention in the future I would replace like for like making sure there is no bare copper,You can buy pre mixed morter in small quantities that will do the job,If you mix youre own sand and cement dont go stronger than 4-1 ratio,that is 4 parts sand to 1 part cement.

Thanks for that. The insulation sheath isn't quite complete, so think I should get a bit more to patch it, or replace what I can see. Any idea what it is called, or what I should replace it with? I keep reading about plastic coated insulation but it doesn't seem to correspond to stuff I can find.