Beelbeebub Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 First off, I am a big fan of UFH but this is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong. My parents built their own home about 25years ago. For various reasons itvs bloody massive, over 3 floors with UFH on every floor, under reclaimed floorboards. They went for the red rubber santoprene system, which was a mistake. Flash forward to now and the system is plagued by leaks. I am converting the downstairs office to a bedroom for my dad who sadly has dementia and have been ripping up the UFH. Here are some pics. One of the 4 splits we found in one room. It appears the pipes have been abrading against the floorboards (company recommended the pipes were pressed in contact with the floorboards for better heat transfer). When my dad fiddled with the hearing system last winter he pressurised it to 1.5bar (we have been running sub 1 bar for many years) and caused these thin patches to rupture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beelbeebub Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 ... But worse than that is the inside of the pipes.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beelbeebub Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 That debris appears to be the inner part of the pipe that has just dissolved away! The bit that worries me is about 2/3 of the downstairs is cast into screed under tiles. If the issue was simply abrasion of the pipes from the outside, i'd be reasonably confident the slab pipes would be OK. But if the pipes are corroding from the inside, it's only a matter of time before they go. My choices are to abandon UFH entirely and fit rads throughout or to rip out room at a time and replace, which I can do in the upper floors but the cast in sections are done for. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Jones Posted September 15, 2023 Share Posted September 15, 2023 rads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 15, 2023 Share Posted September 15, 2023 Fan assisted rads maybe, especially if they can be got a decent price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markocosic Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Is that the inside of the pipe or is it the inside of the boiler/gunk from constant topping up and non oxygen tight pipework not buried inside a screed etc? Pipe looks like it cracks/crazed as you peel it open but I don't see bits of the pipe breaking away there but rather collected muck braking away from the pipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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