(Gas) Fireplace Query

[Sir BoD]

I should have my own thread with DIY questions!

As you're probably bored of hearing now, but I bought my house last year and am very, very slowly getting round to doing DIY stuff to it. The fireplace consisted of an old electric fire ,which I've just removed to open it up so I can put some decorative logs in place. (I have central heating, darling!)

Anyway, within the fireplace, there is a flexible gas inlet pipe, very similar to the below but mine comes in from a slightly higher height, Viewing from the outside, that pipe comes from under the floorboards in one of the recesses, presumably which leads off to the gas mains which come into the property in a tiny cupboard under my stairs.

However, just above this pipe (in the fireplace) are two more older looking (capped) solid pipes, but larger (1" to 1.5" diameter approx). They also run through the side of the stack but instead, they run up the side of the stack and through the ceiling. Both pipes have been very poorly "hidden" - boxed in with some scrap bits of wood and wallpaper hung by a three year old. The boxing itself doesn't reach the floor but starts about 5" up and then it doesn't reach back into the depth of the recess either.

I guess my question is:

1. Does anyone know what these two capped off pipes might be for if I already have a gas feed already coming into the fireplace as shown above?
2. Was / is it normal practice for gas to be routed up and over like these two pipes have been?

I have put my hand up inside the boxed off section (it really has been crapily constructed) and can feel that one of the pipes has some kind of nipple (Ooo matron!) (key / valve). I have tried to trace where the pipes end up after going through the ceiling and have checked upstairs at the same place in my bedroom (an old built-in cupboard) but it looks like I may have to pull up the carpet and floorboards to see as the pipes aren't visible.

Any fragments of reasonable advice would be very much welcome, although I do know that I'll probably have to get a gas engineer to come out ultimately. Cheers.

 

[Gramaisc]

I would suspect that they are heating pipes to and from a previous back-boiler.

Whether they are still 'wet' or not is something that can be difficult to ascertain...

They were presumably still 'wet' when they were capped, or there was little point in doing it.

 

[Sir BoD]

I would suspect that they are heating pipes to and from a previous back-boiler.

Whether they are still 'wet' or not is something that can be difficult to ascertain...

They were presumably still 'wet' when they were capped, or there was little point in doing it.

Ah, the makes perfect sense (coming from a lad dragged up in the early 70s in a then 'new' build without this jiggery pokery technology. Reading on t'internet, I'm tempted to drill a small hole and see if it is live and if not, I'm tempted to remove the ugly buggers. Cheers Gram, as always, you tend to come up with the goods.

 

[Sir BoD]

Ah, the makes perfect sense (coming from a lad dragged up in the early 70s in a then 'new' build without this jiggery pokery technology. Reading on t'internet, I'm tempted to drill a small hole and see if it is live and if not, I'm tempted to remove the ugly buggers. Cheers Gram, as always, you tend to come up with the goods.

Ah, again. I've just read elsewhere that they may still be connected to a water supply so it might not be just a simple task of cutting and draining any excess. Hold yer horses Sir BoD, you nobber.

 

[Gramaisc]

If you are desperate to be rid of them, then I suspect that lifting the floorboards upstairs may give you access to cut and recap them out-of-sight.

I suspect that they are still 'wet' - or they wouldn't be capped and still in place.

 

[EasMid]

Have you got a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard or a cold water storage/header tank in the loft? If you haven't got either the chances are the pipes won't be wet. The pipes would be a cold , gravity feed from the storage tank into a back boiler & the hot feed up to the cylinder. If you've got a combi boiler it's highly unlikely tha the pipes would still be connected. Only way to be certain is trace them back to the airing cupboard etc & see if they're either cut off there or still in place but redundant. You'd probably have to lift floorboards etc. It's worth removing the copper pipes & taking them to Watson for scrap. Scrap copper wasover £4000 a ton & is probably more than that now.
P. S. The chances are that most of the pipes have been removed when the heating was installed & the installers "weighed in" the scrap pipes.

 

[Sir BoD]

Have you got a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard or a cold water storage/header tank in the loft? If you haven't got either the chances are the pipes won't be wet. The pipes would be a cold , gravity feed from the storage tank into a back boiler & the hot feed up to the cylinder. If you've got a combi boiler it's highly unlikely tha the pipes would still be connected. Only way to be certain is trace them back to the airing cupboard etc & see if they're either cut off there or still in place but redundant. You'd probably have to lift floorboards etc. It's worth removing the copper pipes & taking them to Watson for scrap. Scrap copper wasover £4000 a ton & is probably more than that now.
P. S. The chances are that most of the pipes have been removed when the heating was installed & the installers "weighed in" the scrap pipes.

Cheers @EasMid and @Gramaisc (as always!). I'm guessing that the hot water cylinder may have been in the cupboard in my bedroom, as this is directly above where the pipes lead through the ceiling in the living room. Having had a quick look in there, I can't see any remnants of pipes anywhere. However, the 'floorboards in the cupboard are actually tongue and groove slats, so they shouldn't be difficult to pull up - although I will have to remove all the crap that I initially shoved in there when I first moved in before hand!

 

[Sir BoD]

Cheers @EasMid and @Gramaisc (as always!). I'm guessing that the hot water cylinder may have been in the cupboard in my bedroom, as this is directly above where the pipes lead through the ceiling in the living room. Having had a quick look in there, I can't see any remnants of pipes anywhere. However, the 'floorboards in the cupboard are actually tongue and groove slats, so they shouldn't be difficult to pull up - although I will have to remove all the crap that I initially shoved in there when I first moved in before hand!

Your pair are stars. I've just managed to pull up the floorboards (well, tongue and groove, which had been solidly nailed down) and underneath there was a section of floorboard. A quick lift up of that revealed the two pipes from the living room - cut off! This is a relief. Also, there's a mass of unconnected copper piping at this end that was probably used to heat the house from the back burner. However, it looks like I would need to pull up all the carpets around the house get it out as it seems to stretch quite a distance. I guess I could call it my 'savings under the mattress' for my retirement fund.

 

[Gramaisc]

Is the capping soldered or screwed? If it's screwed you could just loosen it to check, but you could still have a handful of water left in a dead pipe. If it's soldered, you could drill a small hole and have a jubilee clip handy with a few bits of rubber - for emergencies.

Not hot tank and they should be dead.

 

[Sir BoD]

Is the capping soldered or screwed? If it's screwed you could just loosen it to check, but you could still have a handful of water left in a dead pipe. If it's soldered, you could drill a small hole and have a jubilee clip handy with a few bits of rubber - for emergencies.

Not hot tank and they should be dead.

Cheers Gram, but I've already ripped the buggers out. Dry as a whistle they were. The hardest part was the pulling apart of the boxing around them.

Then, as with any job, you see something else that needs doing, so I decided to start pulling the wallpaper off because I've suddenly thought that I don't like embossed wallpaper that's been painted on yearly since 1948 - probably.

I've managed to get it down to the plaster in some parts and the plaster is decidedly solid and flat. There is still a load of lining paper that I'm going to have to soak to remove but that will have to wait for a few days. (note, months).

 

[Sir BoD]

Okily dokily, when I removed the pipes from the fireplace, I had to cut them as close to the chimney breast, as it was not possible to remove them completely as they run too deeply. To prevent the pipe ends sitting proud of the chimney, I had to chip away some plaster and a little bit of brickwork so I could cut them to below the surface, but now I want to patch the craters back up. Would I be better using cement or mortar to do this? The holes are about 2" deep and 3" wide and are on the outside. I am guessing cement as I've looked about cutting the other ends of the pipes that are sticking out in the interior of the fire and for that it's suggested fire cement (just in case it becomes a working fire again.)

Any advice is very much welcome. Again! Ta.

 

[Gramaisc]

If the pipes lead from the interior of the fireplace out into the room, then filling the pipes with fire cement might be worthwhile, to prevent a fire making an excursion via an impromptu flue at some future point.

Largely fill with mortar, if there's a big hole, then a skim of plaster/filler on the decorative side, and fire cement where there could be a fire...



A trawl of the Forum has not revealed the Events thread for the Housewarming...

 

[Sir BoD]

If the pipes lead from the interior of the fireplace out into the room, then filling the pipes with fire cement might be worthwhile, to prevent a fire making an excursion via an impromptu flue at some future point.

Largely fill with mortar, if there's a big hole, then a skim of plaster/filler on the decorative side, and fire cement where there could be a fire...



A trawl of the Forum has not revealed the Events thread for the Housewarming...

Cheers, yet again, Gram. Believe me, the house is nowhere near ready for a housewarming. Although having said that, if people were to come round and enjoy some alcoholic debauchery, they would probably end up making the place look in a better state than it is currently.

 

[Glam]

We should all pool our talents and muck in and help. I'm useless at most things, like being a mum, but I'm a bloomin good cleaner. I'm sure others would help too.
If you needed/want help that is? x

 

[Sir BoD]

We should all pool our talents and muck in and help. I'm useless at most things, like being a mum, but I'm a bloomin good cleaner. I'm sure others would help too.
If you needed/want help that is? x

Aww, that's very kind of you, @Glam . Because of money constraints, I think it's a combination of having to attempt to do DIY that you've no idea what you're doing and scared of messing up and it costing you even more money, finding the time between my day job to do the DIY, and then also maintaining the motivation to start and or finish the jobs.

I never knew that buying a house that needed 'some' repair would be so tiresome and time consuming as it is, and if I had my choice again, I would certainly buy a place that had very little work needed on it other than general decorating to get it to a reasonable standard of living.

 

[Glam]

Aww, that's very kind of you, @Glam . Because of money constraints, I think it's a combination of having to attempt to do DIY that you've no idea what you're doing and scared of messing up and it costing you even more money, finding the time between my day job to do the DIY, and then also maintaining the motivation to start and or finish the jobs.

I never knew that buying a house that needed 'some' repair would be so tiresome and time consuming as it is, and if I had my choice again, I would certainly buy a place that had very little work needed on it other than general decorating to get it to a reasonable standard of living.

I've had this place 12yrs, 2 combi boilers, new fencing and all ceiling lights changed. It needs loads more doing, but I can't afford it. We'll get there