DIY Project To Zone My House

[Richard at Home]

Good evening and a happy new year to you all

I welcome any comments and feedback to my project I am looking at starting in 2013

now I know all this sort of thing can be done with many of the costly out of the box solutions that probably cost more than the boiler itself

What I am looking at doing is to create a heating system that has at least 3 Zones

I believe I could do this with some changes to the main Pipe work and 3 motorised zone valves and an additional time clock


Reason for project

During the day one member of my family is at home and requires heating to be on for 4 rads in part of the house.

Currently I am heating all the house all day when only part of the house needs to be heated

My daughter-in-law is also at home some times when not at Uni and may need her front room heating.

Now my logic is to have the secondary time clock switching the water flow between parts of the house during the day and in the evenings opening all valves to heat the complete house

Now I know this could also be done with the new wireless digital TVRs but this expense would be significant


I will add to this post as the project develops

If you have any questions or would like to bounce ideas or comments please reply and this may become an interesting post.


Thank you for your time

Best regards

Richard

 

[Koogatubac]

Love the towel rad though!

 

[erpkid]

View attachment 9983View attachment 9984View attachment 9985

Some pictures of my plastic pipe work in the bathroom and kitchen sink

Looks like the end of the push fits are buried/restricted in the plaster. This is not good practice whoever did it.

 

[Richard at Home]

Does your basin waste in your bathroom just go in your bath trap?
Hard to see from pictures

No the main 110mm soil pipe has 2 separate collars that take the individual outlet from the sink waste trap and bath trap

 

[Richard at Home]

Love the towel rad though!

Thanks I have another 2 to fit in the main bathroom and the other the second en suite

 

[TBServices]

Love the towel rad though!

On special at STAX this month. Hundred quid plus the dreaded.

 

[dancinplumba]

Love the towel rad though!

is it big enough tho for the Heatloss ? ;-)

 

[Howsie]

In a word, no.

 

[AWheating]

please follow Ecowarms advise about the wiring and wire it correctly save harming any future engineers. if wired with boiler interlock to all zones and it will save you money and give you good control.

make sure you lagg the pipework with min. 19mm lagging, and if you ever have rodent problems dont use plastic. Plastic needs clipping every 300mm or so, dont fit auto airvents in the loft, fit thumb vents.

 

[AWheating]

is it big enough tho for the Heatloss ? ;-)

not many are.

 

[Keefy]

4 elbows on your basin could well bring you problems in the future. Do you have enough access in case you need to take it all apart? Speaking of access - can you get under the bath without smashing the tiled bath panel?

Nice rad though, and keep posting pics Richard. This is my favourite thread of 2013 so far.

 

[AlexGas]

I do not have a picture of the boxing around the waste pipe but it is fine and looks good and does not look out of place.

If that would be me - I would lose all that pipework. I guess you like boxing. It would look better without the boxing. Hope there’s an access to the bath taps.

 

[AlexGas]

This is the bathroom looks now it is finished

I do not have a picture of the boxing around the waste pipe but it is fine and looks good and does not look out of place.

Thanks




View attachment 9986View attachment 9987

I guess you wanted a feedback on the tiling job, cos you’ve posted the pics for us to see. Here’s one from me. I do tile by the way.

Sorry Richard, not picking the holes but the tilling could be much better. The very first row of the tiles above the bath should sit above the bath lip – not to the side of bath. It would look much neater that way. You would end up with a nice silicone bead. I guess you had to use a plastic strips to fill the gap. Also, the very same row of tiles around the bath should be a full tile. It would look much better that way. I can see the top row by the ceiling would be fuller (which is always good) and you wouldn’t have the first grout line above the wash basing so close to the basin. There would be no issues to do that. Whoever was doing the tiling just didn’t bother to do that.
I don’t really understand why you end up with 3 rows of tiles on your side panel!? What’s the deal with that bottom tile strip by the floor!? Did you run out of the tiles!? A tiller wouldn’t do that. Yes, I can see the grout line on the side panel follows the grout line on the wall. You didn’t have to do that here, cos the side panel ended up looking a bit ugly. I don’t know if you can see that.

As above in the post, you should lose the skirting board.
Good try. I’m giving you 6 out of 10.

And I can’t see much drop at all on your waste pipe work from the wash basin!? It will get clogged up.

 

[AlexGas]

Where's the tolet pan!?

 

[nickelarsed]

Well for a diy tiling job I'd say that's pretty damn good. It's not professional because you didn't measure out correctly first and start from the centre of the walls. Which is why you have smallish cuts at the top and at the end of the walls, and they are not symmetrical at each end . TBH I think people are being a bit picky about the tiling, in all honesty I've seen so called pro's do worse. But those wastes will block.,Get rid of unnecessary knuckles etc and put a proper fall on them. You can read up about falls etc in any good plumbing book. I would suggest you read and absorb several of them before trying to continue with your project. Good luck

 

[kay-jay]

omg.

never under any circumstances tile in a complete bath panel without access! this becomes so much more imperative when you have used plastic pipe and flexible tap connectors behind the panel.

but im sure im worrying about nothing....as an engineer im sure you will have thought of this and no doubt built an access hatch into the other side of the wall from the bath taps, and cunningly disguised it with a floor standing cupboard.

 

[Richard at Home]

Thanks Guys for the feedback

There is more fall on the pipe from the sink waste that than can been seen in the picture so i think this will be ok, No problems so far 12 months

The bath panel is removable and is only secured by a bead of silicone and magnets on the back so i can remove it if needed

I have added a pic of the tiles and the ceiling how its finished.

Also a pic of the toilet as requested, Roding point inside the cupboard for building inspector

This complete panel behind the toilet is also removable you can see the clearance gaps. I have sealed these gaps post this picture with white silicone to neaten the finish it and it now visually looks like the bath panel

I am not a tiler and i know my job is just average but it looks ok and is functional

It is just the spare bathroom in the annex


Also in reply to the question about access to pipe work in kitchenette, yes i have full access to get to all my pinwork in case anything needs changing

This looks a lot different from when i started the extension.

 

[Howsie]

You've done alright for a DIY'er IMO.

 

[Richard at Home]

From an earlier post someone asked how i was going to box in the pipe work from the bathroom basin to the bath

I did not actually have a picture of this but i have taken one just to show how i have covered it up

This box is removable again in case i have to remove the bath panel

I do understand that somple people do not like the skirting board in this area of the bathroom.

Regards

Richard

 

[MrMeek]

Tbh despite what others say, you have done a really good job for a DIY person, seriously give your self a pat on the back

 

[Richard at Home]

Thank you I have worked hard on it

Would anyone like to see 1 pic of the start of the extention

 

[MrMeek]

Thank you I have worked hard on it

Would anyone like to see 1 pic of the start of the extention

Go on...

 

[Howsie]

A little but of architrave and skirting have done the trick. Looks OK to me.

 

[Koogatubac]

The finish looks very very very good for a DIY

However underneath the boxings you WILL get problems

However if your happy, at the end of the day its your house, and the famous saying "you learn from your mistakes"

all the best

 

[Richard at Home]

Good evening

Just purchased Automatic by-pass valve Honeywell DU145

Now looking for 50M of JG Speedfit Layflat polybutylene pipe coil 22mm

Phase 1 is to install a common return that captures all rads.

I will be installing this first as it will not affect any of the current setup

estimated install time including drain and connect to all radiators 2 days

Day 1

Clear Space ( General )
Make plan of layout path for new pipe work once all space is made available.
Lay single floor boards down the length of the loft across rafters to give flat base for the pipe to lay on
Install many clips and clip pipe work in.


Day 2

Drain system,
Remove all current copper and plastic pipe that is currently associated to the return only.
Connect all return pipes from radiators back into the new run of 22m Pipework
Fit bypass valve
Refill and test.

I will keep you updated.

Regards
Richard

 

[kay-jay]

Good evening

Just purchased Automatic by-pass valve Honeywell DU145

Now looking for 50M of JG Speedfit Layflat polybutylene pipe coil 22mm

Phase 1 is to install a common return that captures all rads.

I will be installing this first as it will not affect any of the current setup

estimated install time including drain and connect to all radiators 2 days

Day 1

Clear Space ( General )
Make plan of layout path for new pipe work once all space is made available.
Lay single floor boards down the length of the loft across rafters to give flat base for the pipe to lay on
Install many clips and clip pipe work in.


Day 2

Drain system,
Remove all current copper and plastic pipe that is currently associated to the return only.
Connect all return pipes from radiators back into the new run of 22m Pipework
Fit bypass valve
Refill and test.

I will keep you updated.

Regards
Richard

Lay flat pipe won't lay flat its just a bit better than the other stuff on a coil. You will need a load of clips also.