K
KevRusski
Hi,
I am looking for advice from the skilled and knowledgeable as it seems very hard to pin down a plumber to look at all the issues I have without several call outs and costs.
I bought a house about 6 months ago (30year old) and got straight on with some renovations. As part of this process we had 4 radiators off the walls in order to decorate and plaster around them.
This was summer time so we had not tested the heating to know if any of the current issues were there before. The only issue we had noticed here the awful sound of waste water constantly making a drip sound in the internal SVP and a tap tap tap noise every time we put on the hot water tap.
I think the only way to rectify the SVP is have it re-routed and the tapping noise is to locate where this is occurring and either move the pipe away from the wood local to it or put some pipe insulation around it at the point it is tapping/expanding. Sensible?
Now onto the main issues. After a couple of weeks after having the central heating on the pipes in the loft started making a really loud clanking noise, like someone was hammering them with a large spanner, and you could hear them jolting about and banging. A couple more weeks passed and the boiler started making some louder running noises when first starting up. At first I genuinely thought it was a helicopter in the sky! It certainly wakes me up. You here the pipes violently rattle in the loft first then about 10 minutes later the boiler. Its like the fan on the boiler is going into overdrive, so much that it must send a vibration though the house and together with the noise creates the sound I hear. This can last up to 30mintes from start up and it accelerates then slows down on about a 10 second cycle.
We did have an engineer out (because one time the boiler locked out) and he didn't know why this was doing it. However, after re-setting the boiler and it not coming on he discovered that the pump in the airing cupboard was not working, he gave it a few taps and unscrewed it at the front, upon reattaching that screw/valve it kicked back in. From this he deduced it maybe poor flow that is causing the pipes in the loft to rattle and boiler over compensating to disperse the heat until the pump gets going. In other words, the pumps on its way out. On the occasion the boiler tripped the pump may have failed. For info the heating went off late on the evening hours after running normally.
Other info:
My radiators have been bled, despite me still hearing some gurgling from one of them (that radiator works fine and wont bleed anymore), I have two radiators which get a lot hotter at the top and both of those seem to take a long time to heat up (an hour).
I also have a loud tapping to my bedroom radiator when it initially comes on, I think again this is from the feed pipe so probably the pipe expanding against the wood under the floor.
When removing the radiators previously the water in them was black near the end of emptying them.
I did wonder if air had got into the system or their was a sludge problem.
On a separate issue I seem to barely have enough hot water to fill the bath before the water pressure dissapears to zero? Is this an undersized cylinder?
What I maybe need is a plumber down for the day on day rate to just spend a day sorting it, otherwise this lot could cost me a fortune.
I did agree with the plumber to replace he pump but Sadly I never heard from him again......
I was thinking of changing the pump myself as it looks like all I need to do is turn the valves above and below, unscrew, unwire then the same in reverse with the new pump.
I also feel like the whole system needs flushing?
Its a standard boiler, British gas 330 , Water tank in the loft, airing cupboard with a water cylinder and their is a magna clean fitted (I am going to clean this tonight).
Any advice? Possible problem identification /solutions. I was thinking of jumping to a combi in a few years so I didn't want to waste too much money on sorting issues that become de-funct issues. I obviously cant live with this as it is though.
I am looking for advice from the skilled and knowledgeable as it seems very hard to pin down a plumber to look at all the issues I have without several call outs and costs.
I bought a house about 6 months ago (30year old) and got straight on with some renovations. As part of this process we had 4 radiators off the walls in order to decorate and plaster around them.
This was summer time so we had not tested the heating to know if any of the current issues were there before. The only issue we had noticed here the awful sound of waste water constantly making a drip sound in the internal SVP and a tap tap tap noise every time we put on the hot water tap.
I think the only way to rectify the SVP is have it re-routed and the tapping noise is to locate where this is occurring and either move the pipe away from the wood local to it or put some pipe insulation around it at the point it is tapping/expanding. Sensible?
Now onto the main issues. After a couple of weeks after having the central heating on the pipes in the loft started making a really loud clanking noise, like someone was hammering them with a large spanner, and you could hear them jolting about and banging. A couple more weeks passed and the boiler started making some louder running noises when first starting up. At first I genuinely thought it was a helicopter in the sky! It certainly wakes me up. You here the pipes violently rattle in the loft first then about 10 minutes later the boiler. Its like the fan on the boiler is going into overdrive, so much that it must send a vibration though the house and together with the noise creates the sound I hear. This can last up to 30mintes from start up and it accelerates then slows down on about a 10 second cycle.
We did have an engineer out (because one time the boiler locked out) and he didn't know why this was doing it. However, after re-setting the boiler and it not coming on he discovered that the pump in the airing cupboard was not working, he gave it a few taps and unscrewed it at the front, upon reattaching that screw/valve it kicked back in. From this he deduced it maybe poor flow that is causing the pipes in the loft to rattle and boiler over compensating to disperse the heat until the pump gets going. In other words, the pumps on its way out. On the occasion the boiler tripped the pump may have failed. For info the heating went off late on the evening hours after running normally.
Other info:
My radiators have been bled, despite me still hearing some gurgling from one of them (that radiator works fine and wont bleed anymore), I have two radiators which get a lot hotter at the top and both of those seem to take a long time to heat up (an hour).
I also have a loud tapping to my bedroom radiator when it initially comes on, I think again this is from the feed pipe so probably the pipe expanding against the wood under the floor.
When removing the radiators previously the water in them was black near the end of emptying them.
I did wonder if air had got into the system or their was a sludge problem.
On a separate issue I seem to barely have enough hot water to fill the bath before the water pressure dissapears to zero? Is this an undersized cylinder?
What I maybe need is a plumber down for the day on day rate to just spend a day sorting it, otherwise this lot could cost me a fortune.
I did agree with the plumber to replace he pump but Sadly I never heard from him again......
I was thinking of changing the pump myself as it looks like all I need to do is turn the valves above and below, unscrew, unwire then the same in reverse with the new pump.
I also feel like the whole system needs flushing?
Its a standard boiler, British gas 330 , Water tank in the loft, airing cupboard with a water cylinder and their is a magna clean fitted (I am going to clean this tonight).
Any advice? Possible problem identification /solutions. I was thinking of jumping to a combi in a few years so I didn't want to waste too much money on sorting issues that become de-funct issues. I obviously cant live with this as it is though.
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