Low Boiler Pressure / Under Floor Leak (concrete floor)

[roastbeeef]

Hi All,

Just joined this forum in search for some advice regarding my boiler pressure dropping constantly and an under floor leak in a 4th floor flat with concrete floors.

So I've lived in this flat now for about a month, I'm house-sitting for some friends that have gone of travelling Asia. Just as they left they warned me that the boiler pressure has gradually been dropping and 3 weeks after they left it suddenly dropped down to zero pressure and I lost all heating and hot water.

At this point I paid for a plumber to come out and re-pressurise the boiler for me (I couldn't find the release valve), he sorted me out in the short term by bleeding the rads, checking for surface leaking and showing me how to re-pressurise again if necessary.

Unfortunately it has been necessary, and frequently. I have to re-pressurise the system daily to have any hot water. At first I thought maybe it was a problem with the boiler as we couldn't find any surface leaking, but it turns out that the flat beneath me has suddenly sprung a leak in their ceiling, and in turn, the flat beneath them also has a minor leak in their ceiling too. We've traced this back through the flat I'm living in and found some minor damp directly above the leak in the flat below.

So, I had a plumber pay me a visit this morning and his recommendation was that we seal off the existing heating loop and run a new system above the surface, using the existing radiators but raising them by a couple of inches to allow for piping to run underneath.

Is there any other option?
Is there any way to find out exactly where the leak is through the concrete floor?
Is it even possible to dig up the concrete and fix it?

Thanks in advance for your advice,

 

[snowhead]

It could be more than 1 leak
Once fixed you could end up with another leak.

Best option would be to repipe.
It'll get expensive if the flat owner has to pay for repairs to the 2 flats below

 

[oz-plumber]

The best thing would be to get a professional leak detector in.
Now days that use a gas with a small amount if hydrogen in it. Very accurate for locating leaks.
They would also be able to detect if the are any more leaks.
It would be good to find out the age of the systems and if possible, the brand / type of pipe.
This would be beneficial, there may only one small leak and it could be repairable.

You might be lucky and have this repaired under insurance.

 

[Centralheatking]

Hi roast beef,

you have come to the right place for help - this is my take
1. its not your place
2. flooding ur neighbours is not good - so cap off the underfloor stuff
3. get a few rads hung on the walls near to the boiler - pipe up and u will have
heat and hot water. Rads cost from £20 tiny ones - £150 big doubles -

so 3 rads a. £200 b. pipe.£100 labour c. £30.00 per hour one day £240


a nice neat temp solution from Centralheatking