Towell Radiator Doesn't Line Up With Pipes

[DoItLikeHomer]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and I'm in a bit of a pickle. We got our bathroom done a few months ago, tiled floor, re-boarded walls and tiled walls etc.

Anyway, I was quoted £150 to take the towell heater radiator off, and then put it back on once the job was done. I'm no DIY afficionado by any means but I've replaced our bath and sink taps and fixed some dodgy pipework in the kitchen and thought to save myself a few quid it'd be no trouble to sort the radiator myself. The guys who did the bathroom were fine with this and offered to put the radiator brackets back on when they'd re-boarded and tiled the walls.

My problem emerged a couple of weeks ago when I tried to put the radiator back on - the plumber has moved the pipes about 4cm away from the wall and re-boarded the floor, then tiled the floor. I went back to him and he tried to blame the tiler then refused to accept responsibility for it. He offered to do the work for £80 and when I was sure he had no intention of sorting out his own mess I told him I'd sort it myself. I know now I should have tried to put the radiator on as soon as they'd done the brackets, but I was naive and expected it would all fit ok.

Anyway, all I have now is my useless plumbers advice - a text telling me to use a swept soldered elbow - and this post to see if I can find the best solution.

Now for the technical bit that I'll probably struggle with. If anything sounds unclear let me know, I've done my best to describe piping but I'm not 100% sure I'm right:

The pipe comes out of the floor 38mm from the wall. There's loads of vertical give in the pipe but nothing horizontal/lateral. I've scraped into the tile at the back of the pipe and the boards that were tiled onto had holes drilled into to fit the pipe through. Potentially I could remove part of the tile and saw through the floor boards and move the pipe toward to wall manually but it could be messy and I might break tiles which would be a nightmare. More measurements:

The pipe from the floor is connected by a male to male elbow. A Female to female joining pipe is connected to this pipe, running parallel with the floor. Another male to male elbow pipe connects this to the towel radiator valve. The valve then connects vertically to the bottom of the radiator.

I've attached a couple of pics that show the piping, hopefully they'll show the problem better than my explanation! Anyway, ultimately I need to get the valve part of the pipe from 10cm from the wall to 6cm from the wall in order to allow me to connect my radiator up.

Any advice would be gratefully received, I'd rather not do soldering or bending if I don't have to, and if it's a proper plumbers job I'll get someone in to do it. But if I can have a go myself I will.

 

[Best]

If pipes from the floor are right width for towel rail then not easy judging by the pics. " male" fittings are actually brass elbows. Changing bottom elbows to chromed compression connectors & then offset chrome pipes may do, but u havent much height to valves. If there def is forward movement in pipes ( without forcing them) then maybe 20mm track in front of pipes will sort it. Then just connectors & pieces straight chromed copper.

 

[DoItLikeHomer]

The width is fine, valves meet up fine with the radiator. I'm not sure what you mean about height to valves? There's loads of give vertically with the pipes, I can pull the pipes up 6" from under the floorboards. Height isn't an issue if that's what you mean, I can easily pull the pipes upwards to meet the radiator if I need to. It's all about the distance from the radiator bracket to the valve - approx 40mm - that I need to take care of.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

if there is enough upwards play in the pipes and the back of the bottom elbow is where the valve needs to be just change the elbow for a straight connector and bring the valve up to the radiator. the pipe shouldn't disappear under the floor because the bottom nut will be held by the olive.

 

[DoItLikeHomer]

I'd love to do that but I've already tried it and the radiator and valve are out by an inch or so.

 

[SimonG]

Why didn't you just get the people doing the bathroom to sort this at the same time?

Anyway that horse has gone, I would do as Best has said. Chrome straights and offset chrome pipe. Ideally the pipes should have gone in the wall and angled valves.

 

[Best]

The height of towel rail is what I meant if pipework as low as in pic, as u need maybe 200mm for offsets but I know u don't want to attempt yourself. 40mm is a lot to go! Think at floor pipes are about 40mm to centre? You need them 60mm u state. That means only 20mm forward needed. Forget about rest of fittings, just connectors and straight pipes. That's if u r right & they move if u cut small piece of tiles in front.

 

[Gray0689]

Looks a mess cut a trap in floor and do it right or will always look sloppy

 

[Best]

I hate to see pipework that looks like add ons. When a bathroom all nicely tiled, your eye tends to stop at the rough pipe bits - esp to a plumber. Should look fairly decent if done as good as poss though!

 

[REDSAW]

ok, your system needs draining.
strip down to pipe only and remove olives.
get a push-fit copper elbow shove it on the pipe, get a push-fit spiggot shove that in the elbow.
pop some copper pipe into that and replace valve onto pipe.
if necessary the valve may need a slight angle when fitting to rad but not much.
do this both sides et viola!.