H
HeatingHeadache
Hello everyone,
I stumbled across this forum whilst searching for possible solutions to what has become a bit of a nightmare.
My home is 11 years old. During my annual boiler check with Scot Gas around 9 years ago I was advised it appeared the building company's plumbers hadn't flushed the central heating system through when it was first installed and this had caused debry in the system and black water.
I got a Heating Engineer I knew to carry out a Power Flush for me. The system seemed to run fine until 2010 when my bedroom radiator stopped heating up well and gradually became stone cold. This was quickly followed by 3 more radiators.
I now have no heating in 2 bedrooms, my en-suite bathroom and my daughter's room which has 2 radiators, only has 1 which works. Back in 2010 when I became aware of this problem I contacted Scot Gas who removed the radiators from the wall and took them outside and flushed them using a garden hose. Once they were put back on the wall it was suggested that the blockages had to be in the pipework rather than the radiators themselves.
Scot Gas advised that the system needed another Powerflush but I did not have £800 to have this done at the time.
I finally got the funds together for a Powerflush last year, Scot Gas said with so many radiators not working atall it was not certain the Powerflush would work. It didn't :disappointed:. It made no difference atall.
I had a Heating Engineer who worked for one of the big companies take on the job of fixing things. His first suggestion was to create 2 access hatches in our upstairs landing to see where the pipework from our heating system went and to check if there was a manifold. We have chipboard flooring panels so a ripsaw was used. He didn't find any manifold which he was really surprised about. He said the pipes he could locate were all warm and the blockages were likely to be further towards each individual radiator. His next suggestion was to create access hatches close to the radiators which were cold and try and locate the blockage, and clear it. Basically after this we didn't hear from him again and despite numerous attempts at contacting him he hasn't been in touch. I take it he doesn't want to do the job.
We have had 3 quotes over the last few weeks. One company has suggested repiping and bringing new flow and return pipes to each radiator from under the floor (our current radiators are fed from pipes coming through our walls) the exisiting wall pipes would be closed off and pushed back through the wall then the wall would be filled in and painted. This would need to be done for each affected radiator and with our daughter's bedroom having one working radiator and one not working, it would look silly with one being fed from the wall and one from the floor so we would need to make a decision about changing the way the working radiator was fed to match the other one. The company in question quoted £1000 and 2 days work.
We had another plumber suggest attaching the power flush machine to each individual radiator feed and try clearing the blockages, he said Scot Gas Powerflush didn't work because they run it through pump rather than individual radiators, I'm not sure this would work. He quoted £350 but only if it fixes the problem otherwise we don't pay.
Lastly an ex Scot Gas Heat Engineer has quoted around £1200 to have a joiner cut various access hatches and locate blockages and clear them rather than repiping. He feels repiping should be a last resort as leaving the blocked pipes in place could cause the downstairs radiators which are presently unaffected, to become blocked in the future.
I'm just not sure which way to go and wondered if anyone had any input into this saga.
Many Thanks in advance.
I stumbled across this forum whilst searching for possible solutions to what has become a bit of a nightmare.
My home is 11 years old. During my annual boiler check with Scot Gas around 9 years ago I was advised it appeared the building company's plumbers hadn't flushed the central heating system through when it was first installed and this had caused debry in the system and black water.
I got a Heating Engineer I knew to carry out a Power Flush for me. The system seemed to run fine until 2010 when my bedroom radiator stopped heating up well and gradually became stone cold. This was quickly followed by 3 more radiators.
I now have no heating in 2 bedrooms, my en-suite bathroom and my daughter's room which has 2 radiators, only has 1 which works. Back in 2010 when I became aware of this problem I contacted Scot Gas who removed the radiators from the wall and took them outside and flushed them using a garden hose. Once they were put back on the wall it was suggested that the blockages had to be in the pipework rather than the radiators themselves.
Scot Gas advised that the system needed another Powerflush but I did not have £800 to have this done at the time.
I finally got the funds together for a Powerflush last year, Scot Gas said with so many radiators not working atall it was not certain the Powerflush would work. It didn't :disappointed:. It made no difference atall.
I had a Heating Engineer who worked for one of the big companies take on the job of fixing things. His first suggestion was to create 2 access hatches in our upstairs landing to see where the pipework from our heating system went and to check if there was a manifold. We have chipboard flooring panels so a ripsaw was used. He didn't find any manifold which he was really surprised about. He said the pipes he could locate were all warm and the blockages were likely to be further towards each individual radiator. His next suggestion was to create access hatches close to the radiators which were cold and try and locate the blockage, and clear it. Basically after this we didn't hear from him again and despite numerous attempts at contacting him he hasn't been in touch. I take it he doesn't want to do the job.
We have had 3 quotes over the last few weeks. One company has suggested repiping and bringing new flow and return pipes to each radiator from under the floor (our current radiators are fed from pipes coming through our walls) the exisiting wall pipes would be closed off and pushed back through the wall then the wall would be filled in and painted. This would need to be done for each affected radiator and with our daughter's bedroom having one working radiator and one not working, it would look silly with one being fed from the wall and one from the floor so we would need to make a decision about changing the way the working radiator was fed to match the other one. The company in question quoted £1000 and 2 days work.
We had another plumber suggest attaching the power flush machine to each individual radiator feed and try clearing the blockages, he said Scot Gas Powerflush didn't work because they run it through pump rather than individual radiators, I'm not sure this would work. He quoted £350 but only if it fixes the problem otherwise we don't pay.
Lastly an ex Scot Gas Heat Engineer has quoted around £1200 to have a joiner cut various access hatches and locate blockages and clear them rather than repiping. He feels repiping should be a last resort as leaving the blocked pipes in place could cause the downstairs radiators which are presently unaffected, to become blocked in the future.
I'm just not sure which way to go and wondered if anyone had any input into this saga.
Many Thanks in advance.
