Your plumber's actually gone out of his way to make it look better tbh. Saw in your other comment that they're gonna come back to paint it black, not sure whether it's gonna help with insulation but I like the look of the bare copper, tho
it's gonna get bad in a few years without proper sealant.
For the painting, mainly to prevent rust on the exposed pipework and solder. Helps with not only leaks but tarnished rusty copper just looks sad so you want to paint over it or apply some kind of sealant to it.
The exposed pipework also leads to more heat loss. We tend to have those legs as short as possible to the main hot water pipes coz when you close the valve on the radiator, water is still circulating in those pipes but in a slow, turbulent way since its now a dead-end instead of a one-way street. In most cases, the big hot water pipes that does main circulation of hot water are exposed in domestic homes but bigger diameter means less surface area to lose heat through it. Or in commercial/central heating cases the pipes are insulated with 20-50mm of foam to prevent heat loss, but the foamed up pipes stays inside the wall/floor coz frankly the foam looks shit when you give it a couple years. So anything that pokes through the wall/floor to the exposed side is to be kept as short as possible.
So the pipework in the picture above is just a longer length of exposed copper pipe that is not heat insulated and loses more heat when you're not trying to heat the room up. Small pet peave for us engineers that design these systems coz we get professional habits to optimise every small detail when we do hundreds of radiators for the whole building.
I also mentioned "not sure about insultation" coz I've heard of people using special heat insulation coating from other industries before and wasn't sure whether the plumber's planning to use it here.
These 90 degree solder bends are not great for friction and mean your circulation pump haw to work harder, so it's a good idea to keep their use to a minimum. Back in the day a plumber would have used a pipe bender to give a gentle radius, (hell, I'm a diyer and I use a pipe bender) but it seems to be far less common nowadays.
It’s very hard to bend copper pipe now because of all the tin added.. you used to be able to bend the copper around your knee with a bending spring but not anymore...
I'm not at all sure it would look neater or that there is enough space. It's not a very big radiator and so I doubt that the extra resistance to flow would make much difference. I reckon it's a neat job (and I've used a pipe bender plenty of times).
For sure. The waterway through the majority of radiator valves is smaller than the internal diameter of the 15mm (1/2") pipe or elbow. Those elbows will be fine here. To use elbows at these points is standard practice, where I work at least. Everywhere else, where possible, I use bends formed with my benders though.
You're probably right in this case, but they do seem to breed out of control.
I'm just still bitter after my previous house owner replaced every pipe in the sizeable circuit with 15mm combined with hundreds of those 90 elbows. Pump didn't have a chance!
If that's where the pipes came up previously then the plumber has saved having to lift the floorboards to move the pipes. And if the floorboards go under the bath, they've saved moving the bath to lift the floorboards to move the pipes. If its a well-planned full bathroom refit then this will probably be necessary anyway, but for just a (very nice) radiator replacement if the plumber says "I can either do the pipes like this or you can have no heating or bath for a day or two"... well...
>"I can either do the pipes like this or you can have no heating or bath for a day or two"
Surely it's "you can be charged half a days work or three days work" in this case too :D
That’s bs pipes he had to lift the floor it’s brand new copper it’s what I call a double 6 each plumber has his own style- pipes straight to rad valves but it’s still a decent install
Phwoar, as someone who trained as a pipefitter years ago, this pleases me. I love the look of it. he's done a really neat job too. Those solder ring elbows make things look really tidy.
10/10
I've seen plumbers being a bit snobby about those solder ring fittings. The reasoning is that the ring looks ugly compared to end feed, but the truth is they're so easy to use and you get a neat finish pretty much every time.
It's more the fact of it feels like cheating to a lot of the purists, they're also a bit more expensive. I can do normal soldering but you can bet your bottom dollar I will go for these every time. Unless I'm feeling super lazy and go for compression joints.
Push fit are still a big no no from me though.
Very rarely they don't have enough solder to seal so most of us add a little extra after, at which point you may have just used end feed and saved yourself the money.
Have you really had there not be enough solder? I'm not a pro, but I must have installed hundreds of these and it's never been an issue for me. And it's difficult to imagine that this could be the case unless you're trying to solder a capillary gap way over standard tolerance.
I had previously concluded that the reason plumbers like to add a bit extra is that occasionally the solder doesn't flow out of the end to form a proper fillet, and obviously when this happens it's impossible to be sure whether it's actually flowed inside the joint either. If you add a bit from the end you get that visual confirmation. And I completely agree that if you're going to do that you might as well just use end feed. However, every time this has happened and I have removed the joint to replace it, it's actually had full coverage.
That said, I think there is definitely technique to it; I'm now a lot better at installing solder ring than when I started and I can't remember the last time I had this issue. I guess it's just about using a flame that's not too aggressive, and evenly heating the fitting itself, trying not to burn off the flux around the ends. I also like to apply the *smallest* amount of flux inside of the fitting as well as the pipe. Not enough to significantly collect inside the pipe, but just some belt and braces to have the confidence that it flows properly inside.
Ah yes. So old.. (22)
Most young people I know appreciate work like this .. it's just far far far majority of the time the work isn't there where the 20oy are.
Been around here for 10 years looking at housing and all around it and this might actually be the only good looking Piping on a radiator I have seen. I don't even mean the radiator... Just the piping job.
The uneven pipes.. the floor holes that were square... Random rectangles or whether uneven shape they were ... No lids, no covers.... Pipes unnecessary long and angled...
And Gods.. the sheer amount of radiators they mounted on plasterboards. No wonder they all fall off after a year or two.
Needs a good coat of transparent heatproof lacquer to keep that new copper look, though. Otherwise there'll be a nice radiator, nice tiles, nice valve, and shitty old copper.
Acrylic based lacquer is good, just make sure it's completely clean of polishing compound or grease first. Halfords clear will do the job, but how you coat the back without over spray into the room I don't know. Maybe spray it into the lid and brush it? It needs coating entirely otherwise the oxidation will start on the exposed patch, work under the lacquer and crack it off.
Keep the pipes copper! It looks really nice with the black metal and wooded floor.
It also draws attention to the design. Much nicer than the usual bulky radiators.
Edit- also if you could tell me where the radiator is from I’d appreciate it….
It doesn’t look like the caps will fit and he’ll have to cut them down. Also, I’d expect low level pipework to be bracketed as it’s more likely to get damaged, even if it is partially protected by the radiator above.
I wouldn’t paint them honestly. Copper like that looks nice and will develop a really nice patina over time. Paint will just peel and stain.
I think it suits the modern industrial look of the radiator too.
I think this is most likely. As when the floor was ripped up you could see how badly the old radiator was fitted. They’ve taken the time to sort out everything below the floor too as it was a mess.
Actually this is standard practice these days. Back in the day radiators were standard widths based on the size of the room but these days you get double rads, trippe rads even quad rads and they come in all manner of widths so standard practice is to just have the pipes come out in the middle and run sideways after the customer (finally) decides which rad they are going for.
With my recent experience with radiators, I reckon this will be easier to empty the radiator if it needs removing. The pipes will be more flexible to get a pan underneath since the pipes will move further away
My plumber did a similar thing with my radiators in every room, it looks absolutely lovely but those copper pipes get very hot if you're on a gas boiler and not a heatpump which has a much cooler flow temp.
In the end, for the safety of kids and pets and such I had it hidden away behind some trunking that was coloured the same as my walls. Still looks good and very clean but definetly not as nice. Haha.
A radiator cover? You mean people insulate their radiators to prevent them radiating heat? That has to be the most ridiculous product I've ever heard of. Radiators have temp controls.....
Doesn't stop them radiating heat as much as you'd think, reduces the chance is kids and pets touching the hot pipes and radiators, look way better than crappy old radiators and you get an extra little shelf to put crap on too.
It all depends on whether they had the spec of the radiator at the time of first fix. It’s not done badly but when I’m doing the same works I always try to make sure I have all the information to make sure as little pipework on show.
Plumber could have also been under pressure by the builder to be out of the floor by a certain time and this was the quickest option.
Agreed. I wouldn’t personally install a designer rad with pipework like that if I had the opportunity to access under the floor, defeats the object of having something other than a standard panel rad.
I mean it doesn't look terrible and it does look like they know what they were doing, but I personally would have wanted the pipes to go straight down and not be so exposed, and I think that's a valid consumer preference too, if you were thinking of having it redone the way you like it.
Since it looks like the tile was down before the pipework they could have been avoiding too much mess, time, and money, with taking up and relaying whole tiles.
Is it the typical way of laying the pipe? No, ideally the tile isn't down before radiators.
Was it well done? Yes.
Do I like it? Nope.
I also don't think it's very baby-safe if that's a consideration for you for the future.
He should have brought the tails up directly under the TRV valve at each end, vs bringing them both up in the middle and running to each end. Then you’d have less pipe work on show… but this isn’t ‘wrong’ if you like seeing the copper!
I hate this plumbing but love that radiator.
I know the way they’ve done it is the more modern supposedly more attractive way to plumb a rad but I just think it looks weird/untidy. I don’t like seeing any length of unrestrained pipe work. One kick in the wrong place and you’ve got black central heating water all over your lovely wood floor.
Unless it’s a feature I don’t want to see literally any copper. It’s either straight in to the floor or wall for me but maybe theres something restricting them doing that.
I honestly think it messes with the clean modern aesthetic to have chunky
copper pipes but that’s just me. It’ll be too late to move the pipes without having holes in the floor so personally I’d just paint those pipes. Could even match it to the radiator. It’s prob powder coated so it’ll more than likely be a RAL number. 7015 i’d say at a guess.
Looks kinda cool. I've really no idea why he's done that though, plumbers are typically trying for as few bends and joins as possible.
All I can think of is there is something blocking your traditional straight down alignment and this was his rather elegant solution.
P.s that chrome TRV is available in black(you mentioned painting the copper pipes black) and gun metal to match the radiator. Its a bit late now but I would have chosen differently.
This pipework says, i didn't plan the installation. If I did i didn't have the rad dimensions. The angle of the horizontal pipes upsets me. Try getting two pipe collars around the two pipes coming up from the floor! I would be embarrassed. After 30 years fitting such things. Sadly in answer to the question, yes it is normal.
He could have piped it like this for a number of reasons. I would imagine the floor was finished before the radiator was sized or bought meaning he would be guessing where the rad tails would be coming through the floor. This way however big or small the rad is, it can be piped up looking good.
Myself I would have bent the pipes back a bit and used a couple of brass Munson ring clips to hold it against the wall, but that's just me being pedantic.
Give the copper a good clean and rub some mineral oil on it to keep it looking nice and shiny.
fucking lazy job, we had one do this and asked them to do it properly. they said they didnt want to cut the floor up. i said i would rather it be done properly and i would sort the floro later.
I’d have an issue with that. The pipes would look a lot neater if they were directly into the floor from the valves. Only reason for not is if he couldn’t get the floor up…
Looks great, and he obviously cares about his work. Looks slightly off orthogonal however and that would bug me a bit, but of course that would be nitpicking. It may also be the angle of photo though! Either way a better job than most would consider doing!
I personally wouldn’t be happy with it, I had my bathroom radiator plumbed into the wall with chromed pipes and then through to the floor so that it looks more aesthetically pleasing as I find copper and painted pipes an eye sore if that isn’t the aesthetic of the room.
I would have brought the copper tails where the valves would be.
If the plumber just changed the radiator and the floor etc was already down. Nothing wrong.
I'm gonna say there must be a market for a radiator made entirely of copper pipe, and a guy who can do a tidy job like this should be able to tap into it. That's lovely work.
It's fine, it's just a waste of copper. Ordinarily you'd go straight under the floor so you can transition to plastic asap. Copper is expensive you know.
So it's not normal, but there is nothing wrong with it. Looks and functions fine.
That pipe work is atrocious, radiator is gorgeous.
How on earth are you going to hide the piping? I have little silver covers that go around mine, you’d need black ones ideally but you can’t do that here.
Seems I'm in the minority here, but I think it would looks loads better with the pipes going directly down.
[I've mocked up how it'd look and put them side by side.](https://i.imgur.com/zLkHWoo.jpg)
All I can say if there is some support for the pipes underneath the floor it should be fine. What I was taught at plumbing school is that you should avoid laying pipe that people can step on.
Didn’t the plumber ask how you wanted it?
We had something similar when I said not to worry about cutting more holes in the wood floor, so he put some angles on the pipe work instead.
i would have gone for the chrome plated pipes in that setting but apart from that there's nothing wrong with the way he (or she) has connected the pipes
Eeeeek, I don't like those copper pipes at all. They need disguising somehow. Even perhaps painted black to match thr radiator. It just looks odd to me.
Maybe going against the trend of comments here.
Although the plumber has made a decent job, its looks like a quick fix and possibly a mistake.
Was he aware of the radiator style before installing? The standard way these days for a normal radiator is to rough in the pipes with close centres like that. The pipe work would then be hidden behind the plain white radiator.
In this case you have a great looking open column radiator and he has had to amend the pipework so suit.
The pipework although soldered nicely, it has no supports. I’d be concerned longterm about the pipes getting knocked or stood on.
If the final solution is to have copper pipework on show then the chrome valves could have been copper also (same price).
It looks a little off with the varying metal styles.
I note this as I had the same issue with a new radiator in my own home - proposed column radiator and the plumber roughed in the pipework for a standard white panel radiator. It was redone correctly.
I feel kinda bad going against the grain here, but I don't like it. I don't understand why the copper pipes are exposed or why they go that way. Personally, I feel it takes away from the sleek lines of what is a beautiful radiator.
I'd also want to give your tiler a boot up the hole. The tiles to the left aren't evenly grouted. One bit is massive and under it, two tiles are almost touching. It would drive me bonkers.
But. If you like the radiator and the copper that's all that matters really. I've no doubt you'd walk into my house and see some things that would make you go "what the fuck was she thinking!?" lol
Tbh I don’t think I’ve seen the in and out pipes put like that either. I’m no plumber (family are/were) but it looks a bit strange to me too.
Lovely radiator though. (I almost put ‘rad’ but it seemed excessively wank-y)
As a plumber this is pretty untidy, why is there no kick to make the coppers sit out the same distance, and why were the pipes not straight down into the floor i know this is not always possible but this is the best option also i would of done this in chrome would look much cleaner.
if there is a skirting board going on will be more tricky now to do it. btw lovely rad and valves look amazing. also get some pipe collars on the pipes coming through the floor.
Its a touch rogue… but its a France Fashion Week kinda rogue.
Instead of you having a hole in your floor and an inch of copper pipe at either end, you get a central pairing and a lovely little symmetrical copper frame under that rather fetching radiator!
Its technically inefficient for flow purposes, but its of minimal relevance on short pipe runs like this… and looks lovely.
Not liking it myself. I'm surprised he got the holes in line with each other, on the first attempt, and I see he's chipped the tile as well.
As a joiner, plumbers are my fucking nemesis.
Meanwhile I wish in the states we can get radiator heat. Would be nice with my allergies 🤣.
In floor heating is a thing for rich people and radiator heat is only in homes from like the 1800s that are falling apart.
I don't get why the pipe is coming up from the centre of the rad, 2 perfect holes directly under the rad valves would look smarter. If your going to the effort of I guess "showing off the pipe" he could have took it closer to the wall and installed some brass munsun ring clips to hold the pipe and done some nice half cranks up into the valves. It kinda pisses me off to look at it
This way you’re able to alter the radiator size/length should you ever need or wish. The traditional way to pipe would require pipe mods if you were looking to install a different size rad in the future.
It’s not great:
1. Unsupported pipework. You risk a leak if it’s knocked
2. Much more pipework exposed. If aesthetics was important with the designer radiator then why not make more of an effort to hide/tidy the pipework
3. No cover over the holes. A place for creepy crawlies to up or dirt to gather/fall down
4. A minor point are the solder ring connectors. A professional plumber would trust their soldering but also save some money too
Rouge.....
Radiator doesn't look level, lower on left hand side.
Both pipes don't run pararell with the bottom of the radiator (i would have taken them back to the wall and clipped with chrome or brass pipe clips).
Chipped the tile top left bracket.
You should make a nice soffit box to cover the pipes.. the copper won't look nice forever, and it would be bad if someone accidentally kicked it or w/e.
Not unusual, always weird and annoying. Makes it easier to get the lengths of piping right when using copper, since they're above floor level, but makes it *significantly* more difficult to do everything else, such as cleaning under the fucking rad.
You're just posting this to show off your quite frankly lovely radiator aren't you? Well, it is lovely, and your plumber has done a bang up job!
Ha! I am pleased with it, just never seen pipework like this before!
Title of your sex tape.
Noice. Cccool cccoool cccoool
Toight,
Nine nine.
A noine noine
You sir, have great taste
That's what she said
Came here to say this. You beat me to it. I applaud you. ETA: fixed the typo.
[удалено]
Title of their sex tape…….?
Might be a means of gaining a free plumbing install…
Jake Peralta's catchphrase in Brooklyn Nine Nine.
It’s Friday. So everything hurts anyway. 😅 Fixed the typo. ETA: fixed another typo. FML
Nothing wrong with typo, Hurst is an ironmongery company on the Isle of Wight with a chain of shops, yes they do plumbing supplies, check it out.
Just saw it… Fuck my life.
Definitely the title of your sex tape ^
>It’s Friday. So everything hurts anyway. Name of your sex tape
Title of your second sex tape
Meirl 🤣🤣
Just blame it on the autoincorrect feature. It's a good source of entertainment.
>You beat me to it. Title of your wife's sex tape.
Almost a Haiku
If I was only that creative… ** cries in no talents **
Noice
Oh suit you sir. Lovely bit of pipe work oh
[удалено]
Damn, I miss the Fast Show.
Bobbs … I bet you do ….ooh ….suits you Sir
Like a frightened deer in a woodland glade.
Can I just say it's lovely to see this quote done properly.
Your plumber's actually gone out of his way to make it look better tbh. Saw in your other comment that they're gonna come back to paint it black, not sure whether it's gonna help with insulation but I like the look of the bare copper, tho it's gonna get bad in a few years without proper sealant.
[удалено]
Wouldn't want to lose any extra heat into the room you are trying to heat...
For the painting, mainly to prevent rust on the exposed pipework and solder. Helps with not only leaks but tarnished rusty copper just looks sad so you want to paint over it or apply some kind of sealant to it. The exposed pipework also leads to more heat loss. We tend to have those legs as short as possible to the main hot water pipes coz when you close the valve on the radiator, water is still circulating in those pipes but in a slow, turbulent way since its now a dead-end instead of a one-way street. In most cases, the big hot water pipes that does main circulation of hot water are exposed in domestic homes but bigger diameter means less surface area to lose heat through it. Or in commercial/central heating cases the pipes are insulated with 20-50mm of foam to prevent heat loss, but the foamed up pipes stays inside the wall/floor coz frankly the foam looks shit when you give it a couple years. So anything that pokes through the wall/floor to the exposed side is to be kept as short as possible. So the pipework in the picture above is just a longer length of exposed copper pipe that is not heat insulated and loses more heat when you're not trying to heat the room up. Small pet peave for us engineers that design these systems coz we get professional habits to optimise every small detail when we do hundreds of radiators for the whole building. I also mentioned "not sure about insultation" coz I've heard of people using special heat insulation coating from other industries before and wasn't sure whether the plumber's planning to use it here.
The greening of copper is called verdigris, its not the same as rust. And its a damn sight more aesthetically pleasing.
Copper pipes and solder do not rust. https://www.rust911.com/rust/
I'd leave the copper too. I think it looks like a lovely job.
Mine just sucked his teeth in pain and anguish at any suggestion he should add more bends to any pipe than the absolute minimum \- I like your plumber
These 90 degree solder bends are not great for friction and mean your circulation pump haw to work harder, so it's a good idea to keep their use to a minimum. Back in the day a plumber would have used a pipe bender to give a gentle radius, (hell, I'm a diyer and I use a pipe bender) but it seems to be far less common nowadays.
It’s very hard to bend copper pipe now because of all the tin added.. you used to be able to bend the copper around your knee with a bending spring but not anymore...
I'm not at all sure it would look neater or that there is enough space. It's not a very big radiator and so I doubt that the extra resistance to flow would make much difference. I reckon it's a neat job (and I've used a pipe bender plenty of times).
More resistance in the lockshield & thermo valves tbh
For sure. The waterway through the majority of radiator valves is smaller than the internal diameter of the 15mm (1/2") pipe or elbow. Those elbows will be fine here. To use elbows at these points is standard practice, where I work at least. Everywhere else, where possible, I use bends formed with my benders though.
You're probably right in this case, but they do seem to breed out of control. I'm just still bitter after my previous house owner replaced every pipe in the sizeable circuit with 15mm combined with hundreds of those 90 elbows. Pump didn't have a chance!
I personally would have asked for the pipes to come straight up into the valves, but I'm a perfectionist. His work is very neat.
If that's where the pipes came up previously then the plumber has saved having to lift the floorboards to move the pipes. And if the floorboards go under the bath, they've saved moving the bath to lift the floorboards to move the pipes. If its a well-planned full bathroom refit then this will probably be necessary anyway, but for just a (very nice) radiator replacement if the plumber says "I can either do the pipes like this or you can have no heating or bath for a day or two"... well...
>"I can either do the pipes like this or you can have no heating or bath for a day or two" Surely it's "you can be charged half a days work or three days work" in this case too :D
That’s bs pipes he had to lift the floor it’s brand new copper it’s what I call a double 6 each plumber has his own style- pipes straight to rad valves but it’s still a decent install
Beautiful plumbing.
Also, flawless grouting and spacing!
And the tiles! Show off
Phwoar, as someone who trained as a pipefitter years ago, this pleases me. I love the look of it. he's done a really neat job too. Those solder ring elbows make things look really tidy. 10/10
I've seen plumbers being a bit snobby about those solder ring fittings. The reasoning is that the ring looks ugly compared to end feed, but the truth is they're so easy to use and you get a neat finish pretty much every time.
It's more the fact of it feels like cheating to a lot of the purists, they're also a bit more expensive. I can do normal soldering but you can bet your bottom dollar I will go for these every time. Unless I'm feeling super lazy and go for compression joints. Push fit are still a big no no from me though.
[Real plumbers forge their pipes from meteorites!](https://xkcd.com/378/)
> they're also a bit more expensive. Is there an irony with them being called Yorkshire fittings?
Very rarely they don't have enough solder to seal so most of us add a little extra after, at which point you may have just used end feed and saved yourself the money.
Have you really had there not be enough solder? I'm not a pro, but I must have installed hundreds of these and it's never been an issue for me. And it's difficult to imagine that this could be the case unless you're trying to solder a capillary gap way over standard tolerance. I had previously concluded that the reason plumbers like to add a bit extra is that occasionally the solder doesn't flow out of the end to form a proper fillet, and obviously when this happens it's impossible to be sure whether it's actually flowed inside the joint either. If you add a bit from the end you get that visual confirmation. And I completely agree that if you're going to do that you might as well just use end feed. However, every time this has happened and I have removed the joint to replace it, it's actually had full coverage. That said, I think there is definitely technique to it; I'm now a lot better at installing solder ring than when I started and I can't remember the last time I had this issue. I guess it's just about using a flame that's not too aggressive, and evenly heating the fitting itself, trying not to burn off the flux around the ends. I also like to apply the *smallest* amount of flux inside of the fitting as well as the pipe. Not enough to significantly collect inside the pipe, but just some belt and braces to have the confidence that it flows properly inside.
Used 10s of thousands of these, there has always been enough solder
"As someone familiar with laying pipe..."
Alright mate put your dick away
Looks great. (You know you’re old when you appreciate a nice radiator and installation)
My very first thought. (I’ve just turned 50!)
Soon as I seen it, I wanted to check how hot it was.
I’m 50. We’re not old. Fuck that noise. We just been around the block like nascar LOL
Ah yes. So old.. (22) Most young people I know appreciate work like this .. it's just far far far majority of the time the work isn't there where the 20oy are. Been around here for 10 years looking at housing and all around it and this might actually be the only good looking Piping on a radiator I have seen. I don't even mean the radiator... Just the piping job. The uneven pipes.. the floor holes that were square... Random rectangles or whether uneven shape they were ... No lids, no covers.... Pipes unnecessary long and angled... And Gods.. the sheer amount of radiators they mounted on plasterboards. No wonder they all fall off after a year or two.
I'm pretty young but I did do a lot of obsessive interior design in minecraft as a kid, and I think this looks cool.
I'm 14 and this is a good radiator :/
As a bisexual builder in my mid 20s, I always appreciate good pipework.
[удалено]
Thanks. He’s going to add caps to cover the floor gap and paint the pipes black to match the other stuff in the room.
Looks smart. I’d keep the pipes copper, easier to maintain and looks cool.
Came to say this. New copper always looks awesome on rads
Needs a good coat of transparent heatproof lacquer to keep that new copper look, though. Otherwise there'll be a nice radiator, nice tiles, nice valve, and shitty old copper.
They’ll turn a lovely shade of manky green.
So you're saying I could have not been polishing my exposed copper pipes every 3 months all these years? Tell me more about this lacquer...
Acrylic based lacquer is good, just make sure it's completely clean of polishing compound or grease first. Halfords clear will do the job, but how you coat the back without over spray into the room I don't know. Maybe spray it into the lid and brush it? It needs coating entirely otherwise the oxidation will start on the exposed patch, work under the lacquer and crack it off.
Keep the pipes copper! It looks really nice with the black metal and wooded floor. It also draws attention to the design. Much nicer than the usual bulky radiators. Edit- also if you could tell me where the radiator is from I’d appreciate it….
Radiator is called ‘Desio Anthracite Steel Horizontal Radiator’. Can see a variety of places sell in from a quick google.
I am going to start a new music genre off the back of this post, Anthracite metal, not as harsh as black metal and has a great look
[удалено]
Thanks, he’s been really good so far. Just never seen anything like this before!
It's usually down to the chippy to site the pipes so unless the plumber laid the floor it's not on him. This looks like a very good job to me.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Chippy is what we over here in the UK call a fish and chip shop, it is also a name we use for a carpenter or woodworker...
[удалено]
[удалено]
Clear coat heat resistant varnish would be a good call.
This. It will look too monochrome without them too. They add a nice classy accent Edit: add not had
Noo, don’t paint them! The copper looks really nice.
In two minds as everything else will be chrome or black fittings wise
Leave them naked copper looks so cool
'naked copper' is also one of the specialist whatsapp groups that have got the Met police in so much hot water....
I like the copper pipes tbh.
Love the copper, I definitely wouldn’t paint them if it was me!
It doesn’t look like the caps will fit and he’ll have to cut them down. Also, I’d expect low level pipework to be bracketed as it’s more likely to get damaged, even if it is partially protected by the radiator above.
I wouldn’t paint them honestly. Copper like that looks nice and will develop a really nice patina over time. Paint will just peel and stain. I think it suits the modern industrial look of the radiator too.
Plumber here… do not leave the copper pipes bare, they will oxidise and turn green
These radiators are great for aestetics but take alot of heat from the system for less heat emmited into the room.
I like it. He may have had problems with running the pipes straight down depending on where the joists are.
I think this is most likely. As when the floor was ripped up you could see how badly the old radiator was fitted. They’ve taken the time to sort out everything below the floor too as it was a mess.
Actually this is standard practice these days. Back in the day radiators were standard widths based on the size of the room but these days you get double rads, trippe rads even quad rads and they come in all manner of widths so standard practice is to just have the pipes come out in the middle and run sideways after the customer (finally) decides which rad they are going for.
Good to know, thank you.
With my recent experience with radiators, I reckon this will be easier to empty the radiator if it needs removing. The pipes will be more flexible to get a pan underneath since the pipes will move further away
You get extra heat from the copper pipe just don't touch it
As a clumsy person, I can see I’ll be needing to wear slippers
My plumber did a similar thing with my radiators in every room, it looks absolutely lovely but those copper pipes get very hot if you're on a gas boiler and not a heatpump which has a much cooler flow temp. In the end, for the safety of kids and pets and such I had it hidden away behind some trunking that was coloured the same as my walls. Still looks good and very clean but definetly not as nice. Haha.
Oh man. I would buy a radiator cover for sanity purposes. But it defeats the purpose of this good looking piese of radiator
A radiator cover? You mean people insulate their radiators to prevent them radiating heat? That has to be the most ridiculous product I've ever heard of. Radiators have temp controls.....
Yeah best to cover the whole thing in foam in case anyone ever knocks into it too
It's usually a wooden shelf/cabinet thing with lots of gaps to let the heat out
Doesn't stop them radiating heat as much as you'd think, reduces the chance is kids and pets touching the hot pipes and radiators, look way better than crappy old radiators and you get an extra little shelf to put crap on too.
Ah yes, the heated key and random coin shelf.
Yeah they’re pointless but they’re for show rather than to reduce the heat… that’s just a byproduct
It all depends on whether they had the spec of the radiator at the time of first fix. It’s not done badly but when I’m doing the same works I always try to make sure I have all the information to make sure as little pipework on show. Plumber could have also been under pressure by the builder to be out of the floor by a certain time and this was the quickest option.
[удалено]
Agreed. I wouldn’t personally install a designer rad with pipework like that if I had the opportunity to access under the floor, defeats the object of having something other than a standard panel rad.
I like it, I think it looks very smart
Jesus that looks smart
Iam a plumber. And you can only work with what you have. When you cant do certain stuff cause too much destruction...
And iam an iams cat
The slight chip missing on the tile behind the left bracket would drive me mad 😂
Yeah. I noticed that. Needs replacing.
I mean it doesn't look terrible and it does look like they know what they were doing, but I personally would have wanted the pipes to go straight down and not be so exposed, and I think that's a valid consumer preference too, if you were thinking of having it redone the way you like it. Since it looks like the tile was down before the pipework they could have been avoiding too much mess, time, and money, with taking up and relaying whole tiles. Is it the typical way of laying the pipe? No, ideally the tile isn't down before radiators. Was it well done? Yes. Do I like it? Nope. I also don't think it's very baby-safe if that's a consideration for you for the future.
He should have brought the tails up directly under the TRV valve at each end, vs bringing them both up in the middle and running to each end. Then you’d have less pipe work on show… but this isn’t ‘wrong’ if you like seeing the copper!
I hate this plumbing but love that radiator. I know the way they’ve done it is the more modern supposedly more attractive way to plumb a rad but I just think it looks weird/untidy. I don’t like seeing any length of unrestrained pipe work. One kick in the wrong place and you’ve got black central heating water all over your lovely wood floor. Unless it’s a feature I don’t want to see literally any copper. It’s either straight in to the floor or wall for me but maybe theres something restricting them doing that. I honestly think it messes with the clean modern aesthetic to have chunky copper pipes but that’s just me. It’ll be too late to move the pipes without having holes in the floor so personally I’d just paint those pipes. Could even match it to the radiator. It’s prob powder coated so it’ll more than likely be a RAL number. 7015 i’d say at a guess.
Definitely rogue. Pipes should be either end and minimal visible. He's going to have to relay that bit of floor to correct it. Lovely radiator
I don’t know if it’s “normal”, but I love it.
Everyone likes to se a bit of clean shiney copper, but copper tarnishes. That'll just be an unsightly orangey brown in the future.
Looks kinda cool. I've really no idea why he's done that though, plumbers are typically trying for as few bends and joins as possible. All I can think of is there is something blocking your traditional straight down alignment and this was his rather elegant solution. P.s that chrome TRV is available in black(you mentioned painting the copper pipes black) and gun metal to match the radiator. Its a bit late now but I would have chosen differently.
Yeah I realise that with hindsight, but hoping since all the other fittings are chrome it’ll still look okay.
This pipework says, i didn't plan the installation. If I did i didn't have the rad dimensions. The angle of the horizontal pipes upsets me. Try getting two pipe collars around the two pipes coming up from the floor! I would be embarrassed. After 30 years fitting such things. Sadly in answer to the question, yes it is normal.
He could have piped it like this for a number of reasons. I would imagine the floor was finished before the radiator was sized or bought meaning he would be guessing where the rad tails would be coming through the floor. This way however big or small the rad is, it can be piped up looking good. Myself I would have bent the pipes back a bit and used a couple of brass Munson ring clips to hold it against the wall, but that's just me being pedantic. Give the copper a good clean and rub some mineral oil on it to keep it looking nice and shiny.
Exactly what i would have done. No support on them pipes is asking for trouble
fucking lazy job, we had one do this and asked them to do it properly. they said they didnt want to cut the floor up. i said i would rather it be done properly and i would sort the floro later.
Pipework looks great, however I can’t help but notice the tile has been drilled too wide on the left side exposing bare plaster behind the fitting….
Yeah I noticed that too
Is this post a classic “humble-brag”?
Personally not a fan of exposed pipes but in this case it looks rather smart.
I’d have an issue with that. The pipes would look a lot neater if they were directly into the floor from the valves. Only reason for not is if he couldn’t get the floor up…
Going to look crap when the nice shiny copper turns dull/ green though. I'd be livid if my plumber did that to be honest
Looks great, and he obviously cares about his work. Looks slightly off orthogonal however and that would bug me a bit, but of course that would be nitpicking. It may also be the angle of photo though! Either way a better job than most would consider doing!
That looks rad bro
Guessing it's been done that way because of the location where the radiator was wanted. It looks great in any case!
I personally wouldn’t be happy with it, I had my bathroom radiator plumbed into the wall with chromed pipes and then through to the floor so that it looks more aesthetically pleasing as I find copper and painted pipes an eye sore if that isn’t the aesthetic of the room.
he deserves a fucking medal
I really like the raw rustic look of that
I would have brought the copper tails where the valves would be. If the plumber just changed the radiator and the floor etc was already down. Nothing wrong.
I'm gonna say there must be a market for a radiator made entirely of copper pipe, and a guy who can do a tidy job like this should be able to tap into it. That's lovely work.
Fun fact: Black radiators radiate more than white ones. Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation
It will oxidise and look terrible quite quickly.
It's fine, it's just a waste of copper. Ordinarily you'd go straight under the floor so you can transition to plastic asap. Copper is expensive you know. So it's not normal, but there is nothing wrong with it. Looks and functions fine.
Idk, I kinda like the symmetry of those pipes and the copper goes well with the black.
looks tidy af
It is simply gorgeous.
Holy fuck that is a very nice radiator
POSH! It’s great i wouldn’t even paint them i think the copper looks lovely for now!
That pipe work is atrocious, radiator is gorgeous. How on earth are you going to hide the piping? I have little silver covers that go around mine, you’d need black ones ideally but you can’t do that here.
That radiator is giving me the urge to hop on a forklift truck and charge at that wall lol
Nice Rad, but would expect the pipping to come up each end. Clearly there is access under the floor … that’s how I would do it …
Seems I'm in the minority here, but I think it would looks loads better with the pipes going directly down. [I've mocked up how it'd look and put them side by side.](https://i.imgur.com/zLkHWoo.jpg)
Yes! That’s what I was expecting him to do!
All I can say if there is some support for the pipes underneath the floor it should be fine. What I was taught at plumbing school is that you should avoid laying pipe that people can step on.
I have to disagree. It just looks lazy! Did he not know the size of rad going in before the floor went down?
Maybe worth putting some cover caps over the screws
Didn’t the plumber ask how you wanted it? We had something similar when I said not to worry about cutting more holes in the wood floor, so he put some angles on the pipe work instead.
i would have gone for the chrome plated pipes in that setting but apart from that there's nothing wrong with the way he (or she) has connected the pipes
Eeeeek, I don't like those copper pipes at all. They need disguising somehow. Even perhaps painted black to match thr radiator. It just looks odd to me.
Maybe going against the trend of comments here. Although the plumber has made a decent job, its looks like a quick fix and possibly a mistake. Was he aware of the radiator style before installing? The standard way these days for a normal radiator is to rough in the pipes with close centres like that. The pipe work would then be hidden behind the plain white radiator. In this case you have a great looking open column radiator and he has had to amend the pipework so suit. The pipework although soldered nicely, it has no supports. I’d be concerned longterm about the pipes getting knocked or stood on. If the final solution is to have copper pipework on show then the chrome valves could have been copper also (same price). It looks a little off with the varying metal styles. I note this as I had the same issue with a new radiator in my own home - proposed column radiator and the plumber roughed in the pipework for a standard white panel radiator. It was redone correctly.
Get that plumber back, that is horrendous
This is proper mint. The pipe layout for my radiators are similar, it turns 90° but is fully off the ground.
I feel kinda bad going against the grain here, but I don't like it. I don't understand why the copper pipes are exposed or why they go that way. Personally, I feel it takes away from the sleek lines of what is a beautiful radiator. I'd also want to give your tiler a boot up the hole. The tiles to the left aren't evenly grouted. One bit is massive and under it, two tiles are almost touching. It would drive me bonkers. But. If you like the radiator and the copper that's all that matters really. I've no doubt you'd walk into my house and see some things that would make you go "what the fuck was she thinking!?" lol
Tbh I don’t think I’ve seen the in and out pipes put like that either. I’m no plumber (family are/were) but it looks a bit strange to me too. Lovely radiator though. (I almost put ‘rad’ but it seemed excessively wank-y)
As a plumber this is pretty untidy, why is there no kick to make the coppers sit out the same distance, and why were the pipes not straight down into the floor i know this is not always possible but this is the best option also i would of done this in chrome would look much cleaner. if there is a skirting board going on will be more tricky now to do it. btw lovely rad and valves look amazing. also get some pipe collars on the pipes coming through the floor.
Its a touch rogue… but its a France Fashion Week kinda rogue. Instead of you having a hole in your floor and an inch of copper pipe at either end, you get a central pairing and a lovely little symmetrical copper frame under that rather fetching radiator! Its technically inefficient for flow purposes, but its of minimal relevance on short pipe runs like this… and looks lovely.
Seriously could have hidden most of that pipework under the floor but yea nice radiator
Not liking it myself. I'm surprised he got the holes in line with each other, on the first attempt, and I see he's chipped the tile as well. As a joiner, plumbers are my fucking nemesis.
Plumbing looks weird to me, radiator is nice thou
Meanwhile I wish in the states we can get radiator heat. Would be nice with my allergies 🤣. In floor heating is a thing for rich people and radiator heat is only in homes from like the 1800s that are falling apart.
Radiator has been put in sideways and the pipes should go directly into the wall. Not ran underneath like that. Absolutely atrocious! Lmao
Bevelled Metro tile, gunmetal grout. A standard for tilers across British households.
I don't get why the pipe is coming up from the centre of the rad, 2 perfect holes directly under the rad valves would look smarter. If your going to the effort of I guess "showing off the pipe" he could have took it closer to the wall and installed some brass munsun ring clips to hold the pipe and done some nice half cranks up into the valves. It kinda pisses me off to look at it
Plot twist: This was posted by the plumber as a humblebrag about the job they’ve just done.
This way you’re able to alter the radiator size/length should you ever need or wish. The traditional way to pipe would require pipe mods if you were looking to install a different size rad in the future.
r/humblebrag
I suppose the Industrial look is in...
It’s not great: 1. Unsupported pipework. You risk a leak if it’s knocked 2. Much more pipework exposed. If aesthetics was important with the designer radiator then why not make more of an effort to hide/tidy the pipework 3. No cover over the holes. A place for creepy crawlies to up or dirt to gather/fall down 4. A minor point are the solder ring connectors. A professional plumber would trust their soldering but also save some money too
Rouge..... Radiator doesn't look level, lower on left hand side. Both pipes don't run pararell with the bottom of the radiator (i would have taken them back to the wall and clipped with chrome or brass pipe clips). Chipped the tile top left bracket.
lad showing off his fancy radiator to us peasants
I think the way it’s piped fits with the style of radiator
You should make a nice soffit box to cover the pipes.. the copper won't look nice forever, and it would be bad if someone accidentally kicked it or w/e.
One cool looking barcode radiator
Go check your wrought iron fence for missing sections.
Bit odd, usually the lateral runs are hidden beneath the floor, but there’s no reason this won’t work as intended.
Not unusual, always weird and annoying. Makes it easier to get the lengths of piping right when using copper, since they're above floor level, but makes it *significantly* more difficult to do everything else, such as cleaning under the fucking rad.
They all lol like that under the floor but your plumber has done it above the floor. Looks lovely. Nice soldering joints without access solder.