Plumbing

Chasing Radiator Pipes

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.39 PM

Hi, we're in the process of renovating a house we've just bought, downstairs is solid concrete floors, so the radiators are all fed from above, but the pipe work is visible and looks awful. I hate pipes on show and I'm not a fan of boxing them in either, so I'd like to chase them into the wall, we plan on plasterboarding over so I don't need to chase them all that deep, just enough to give the plasterboard enough clearance. The problem is I keep changing my mind on the best way to go about chasing the pipes, I could just do with a second opinion from a voice of experience. So here's where I'm unsure, do I want to chase pipes down the corners and run them horizontally to the rads, the benefit here is that someone is less likely to fire a nail through the pipe, the downside is long horizontal chases. But I'll probably only go 10 or 12mm deep for 15mm copper pipe, it doesn't matter if it sits a bit proud, the plasterboard will cover it and there will be a bit of room for expansion behind the board as well. Or do I chase the pipes wherever they need to go to keep horizontal chases to a minimum, so feed and return would be chased vertically either side of the radiator. Much greater risk of someone firing a nail through the pipe, but the only horizontal chases would be where radiators are under a window, but the chases would be short like 150mm either side or something. Or do I use microbore, which I might not even need to chase in, it might be possible to just clip it to the wall and hide it behind plasterboard. The benefit here is that I can pretty much run it wherever I want out of the way and the walls structure is unaffected, the downside is I've read that microbore tends to clog quite a lot. Can anyone offer any advice on how they would tackle this?