Tall pretty radiators

[plasticpigeon]

Unless you know and really trust someone to do the job, then I would get Chris to do it. I wouldn't have thought it would take even the slowest and most careful person (I am very slow at diy) more than a day. A person out the directory will probably be a disaster as you will probably see floorboards and skirting reduced to matchwood as all that matters is the plumbing.

 

[robgil]

Thats a good point , you might save some cash if you do the prep work but you may as well do it all if you go that far.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Blimey it's complicated! Our Rayburn takes well water and heats it up, sending it to a hot water tank in the airing cupboard and also to 9 rads. This means our Rayburn burns oil summer and winter, though we turn the rads off in summer. The alternative is to switch the Rayburn off and to light a daily fire in the music room which would then go into the 1930s back boiler, which works fine, and creates free hot water (we harvest all our own wood). The previous owner did this but he was happy with a weekly bath and to heat water on the stove for dishes!

Unless you know and really trust someone to do the job, then I would get Chris to do it. I wouldn't have thought it would take even the slowest and most careful person (I am very slow at diy) more than a day. A person out the directory will probably be a disaster as you will probably see floorboards and skirting reduced to matchwood as all that matters is the plumbing.

I share the horror at how the plumber might treat the old floorboards (which will be lovingly waxed and on show). We always end up finding reasons to be scared of tradesmen and the house progresses sooo slowly. Hard choice, thanks for the thoughts though.

 

[robgil]

Do you not have an immersion Joce? A rayburn seems like a terribly inefficient way to heat water if you dont have the central heating on also.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I got over my fear of tradesmen once. Never again.

 

[DJH]

Joce, if you have a system installed at the moment I suspect that your floorboards have been lifted already to install pipes and therefore should be reasonably easy to take up where the pipes are. If you are happy with your floor as it is now after that work, then I'm sure you can lift them again without doing any damage.

Just to add to my posting earlier I always tried to persuade clients to install their central heating circuits in two zones, upstairs bedrooms on one circuit and living rooms on the other. It seems pointless to me to be heating bedrooms during the day and it's easy enough to install and not a great cost either. You might need a good sparks though, one who's familiar with relays etc.

Have you had a date yet for your treatment? I've got a date of 29th January but I've had to have a private consultation which is going to cost a bob or two but I may get on the conveyor belt a bit quicker when he sees me crawling in on all fours. :lol:

Doug

 

[JoceAndChris]

29th Jan for your op Doug? Oh, sending good thoughts, hugs, best wishes. Mines the 1st Feb! Let's hope that by the weekend after next we're both feeling we've been given a new lease of life. I'm currently panicking that they expect me to walk to the car a few hours after my double cystectomy/ possible oophorectomy which will be done under general, will take one hour and involve three small openings. I just think it's outrageous I'm to be discharged more or less straight away if the surgery goes well, and wish we could have had private treatment but it would have made a mess of 10 k. But grumbles aside, it's a good thing we have the NHS as who puts 10 k aside for such a thing?

Thanks for the reassurance about the boards, going to have a good look at them now.

Yes, Rob, agree, terribly inefficient system meaning that the bathroom radiator belts out heat on a summer's day as the hot water seems to travel through it. But very expensive to get it changed. In the long run, possibly.

Plastic pigeon - :lol: that sounds extremely bad though!

 

[DJH]

Sounds like your bathroom radiator is connected into the primary flow and return pipes from the Rayburn and you should really leave it like that as a heat leak. It's still nice to have a warm towel in the summer.

I've got to pay this chap €180 to tell me what the GP and hospital have told me anyway. Still, I might be able to persuade him to move me up the list a bit in the clinic. If I go private it could be up to €15k. Might have to sell a donkey... or a couple of name plates. :lol:

Doug

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, good luck with that Doug. That worked for me in 2004 when I had a "slipped disc" operated on - I paid for a private MRI scan, private consultant and he kindly put me into the NHS's Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital one month after seeing him rather than waiting another 6-12 months on the NHS. I hope you can, it must be so very horrible not being able to get about. I hope Mrs DJH is proving a lovely nurse.

And I think you're spot on about our heating system, and last summer I only recall a couple of days where summer heating was actually a problem! :lol: It's a cold stone house at the best of times.