Radiator installation cost?

fretmeister

We've got a small downstairs loo that was added to the house as part of a garage type extension.

For some reason that room has never had a radiator but has had an electric heated towel rail. That has now failed and I'm thinking about just getting a plumber in to fit a radiator.

The rest of the extension has traditional water radiators so I know there is hot water feed for them in the attic of the extension. The pipes for the rads come down from above.

Do we have any plumbers that could give a ball park for this sort of thing? The pipework, mounting the rad (which I would supply) etc? The wall that would contain the pipes is just stud and already has the feeds for the toilet and the little basin already.

I have no idea what this would cost but as thermostatic controlled electric rads / towel rails are quite expensive for something that won't rust I thought I'd have a look at this too.

ta

 

Roland

The advantage of electrically heated towel rails is that you can use them when the heating system is turned off. Both our bathroom towel rails are dual fuelled. They’re also stainless steel because I don’t want to replace them in twenty years time.

BillDL

Some questions for the benefit of others in the know about pricing.

Can access be gained to the loft space above the extension ceiling to tap into the radiator feed pipes, or would it entail having to cut an access in your ceiling?

Do you know whether the pipes that supply the extension are copper or Polybutylene (PE-X) plastic pipes.

I'm assuming the pipes that lead to the extension radiators come down through the gap behind the stud walls in the same way as the water pipes for the toilet and basin are fed, and that you would like the radiator pipes to use the same routing method to hide them rather than box them in with trunking?

I would say that it would be important to have the circulation to the other radiators assessed to ensure that tapping into them for the new feed to the toilet radiator didn't create any "dead" areas of flow.

boogieman

Depends how easy it is to get at the rad flow and return feeds. Is there easy access to them? You mention an attic in the extension… is that something that you can get into and stand up in, or is it just a crawl space, or even less?  Are there already other rads in the extension? If it’s straightforward to get at the pipework and a radiator loop is already there it should be easy enough to add another rad. At a guess you’d be talking about a day’s work, including draining down the system, fitting the pipes, fixing the rad, refilling and bleeding the system. Cost of a day’s work obviously depends on where you live and if it’s a plumber or a heating engineer doing the work. (If you have a choice, use a c/h engineer do the work ). 

spark240

Stick with electric, much more flexible for seasons, ..if you do go wet...let the plumber supply the rad, dont give the any excuses if there a problem plus they get the mark up on the rad...it makes them happy.  

Rkphilpot

I just had a small three column traditional one fitted for £140.
Included putting addative back in the system after draining. Took about 2 hours.

Haych

It's the kind of thing I'd do myself, assuming the pipes for the feed/return aren't too much of a faff to tee into.

Then again, I also have a small downstairs W/C with an electric towel rail.  That's more because I know the pipes to feed a rad in that location would be a faff to tee and redirect.

In your spot I'd probably just replace like for like, so a new leccy towel rail, a lot less faff than plumbing and much quicker to do myself.

fretmeister

Attic has plenty of room to work in
Extension rad pipes are plastic.

boogieman

fretmeister said:

Attic has plenty of room to work in
Extension rad pipes are plastic.

In which case, half a day’s work. Plastic is simple and quick to cut and join (although personally I don’t like it, but you see plenty of plumbers using it nowadays and lots of new builds have it for c/h systems). I suspect you’re bigger problem will be finding a tradesman who’ll want to do half a days work, especially at this time of year : they’ll be busy making more money out of fixing boiler faults.