Just laid a patio at no. 1 son's house which looks good (thanks to those on here that advised me about retaining walls etc). There is a white plastic pipe that drains the water condensate for their boiler. this pipe runs all the way back down the side of his house and has foam insulation. Well, its looks rather unsightly. It did have a cylindrical thing at the bottom, that did not seem to do much and that has now disappeared. What can I do to tidy it up; what is permitted? And the cylindrical thingy - was that important? Thanks, as ever, for you advice. Steve
Well, it needs to empty into a drain or some gravel or summat where the slight acidity won't cause a problem, and it also mustn't freeze - 'cos it it backs up with frozen water your boiler will stop working. So, taking that into account, you can do anything with it your like... The cylindrical thingy? I dunno - an insect screen?
howdy Steve, I'm guessing it was a soakaway drain, the water coming from the boiler is highly corrosive and if touched will melt your hand away,,,just joking Steve but the people who make regs say its gotta be 600mm from the building foundations, I'd be happy for it to drop on the floor, but many will augue that it will eat into your new patio
is there not an internal mains drain you can connect into ? - if there's no gravity route you could use a condensate pump to move it that'll allow you to totally remove the external outlet
Is the condensate run in 22mm or 40mm pipe? i would look at using a condensate pump as has already been mentioned. Try and see if there's a route for this inside the house.
personally I would avoid complications like pumps, Its just summut else to go wrong, keep things simple, get a big plantpot fill it full of gravel and put some seeds in it, if the seeds grow, it can't be all that toxic, if they don't were all doomed,
Steve, re-reading your OP it sound as tho' it might be coming down the wall a fair distance? Is the boiler upstairs or what? Are there any downpipes nearby? One you could take the pipe sideways to? Failing that, a bit like wot Mr Plum says - place a plant pot with an akshull plant in it in front to hide the pipe. The condensate is mildly acidic - presumably carbonic acid like wot you get in fizzy drinks... So whilst it may clean up old tarnished pennies, it ain't gonna do any serious damage. I don't think... Mind you, still best kept from concrete, bricks and masonry, 'cos that stuff is alkaline As above, I wouldn't go the 'pump' route - that's overkill, surely? Are there any waste pipes inside the house nearish the boiler it could be fed in to? Perhaps the plumber just took an easy route taking it outside and didn't bother with running it - say - under the kitchen units behind plinths, etc. As long as it has a fall, it should be fine - and no insulation required either; it can be a simple 22mm plastic pipe.
there's nothing at all complicated about a condensate pump, if plumbers weren't so quick to pick the easiest route out for them (rather than the householder) there'd be no seasonal problems with freezing pipework and you'd not have silly issues such as that which has prompted the OP to ask the question
That cylindrical thingy was the soakaway which should be full of lime chipping. These are there to counteract the acidity of the condensate waste and prevent a buildup of acidic product in the soil. You could do as Tom suggests let it run over the patio, it probably won't eat it away but it will defiantly stain it after prolonged use of the boiler. Look for an internal route if you can and yes a condensate pump IS a viable option, saying its something else to wrong is a bit like saying lets not fit a clutch to a car as it may go wrong. If its needed fit it.
So there we have it Steve, the plumber who fitted your son's boiler took the easy route, he did't try to break the rules of science and make water run uphill,he did't try to complicate things by fitting additional costs, his van probably had no clutch and everything was working fine, what he did is/was not wrong, its allowed in the MIs and its perfectly ok, lets not try and reinvent the wheel here, you can get another soak away drain or make one ,
Thank you for the replies. Could I run the pipe horizontally (under an upstairs window) and into a rain downpipe, or failing that parallel with the rain down pipe? That would less be unsightly and also easy to do. Using gravity of course to drain the condensate Hope you are enjoying this lovely warm sunshine (well sunny here in Cambridge where I'm working for the moment). Steve
Can't see any reason why not, Steve. Obviously make sure the pipe has a slight slope and remains insulated until it gets into the downpipe.
you'll upset the water folks and a picky BCO if they spot you having done that, needs to be a foul/waste drain
yes Steve you can put it into the rainwater absolutly no problem at all, its written in the MIs that 1. connection to wastes,2 connection to rainwater or 3 connection to soakaway, no need for futher explaination
When my parents neighbor had theirs done the plumber tapped the condensate into the rainwater downpipe. I seen him put his mapp torch flame on the downpipe then he just pushed the 22mm pipe into it.
are you going to explain the very specific circumstances which does allow you to connect the condensate overflow to the rainwater downpipe ?
it's your property so you can do whatever you want ...... but there are right and wrong ways - it needs to go into a foul water drain, NOT a surface water drain, failing that a buried trap, filled with suitable chippings, placed well away from the footings - and don't forget to do a percolation test the only time it's allowed to go into a surface water drain is when you have combined drains, which will be very seldom - people do get prosecuted for contaminating surface drains as advised previously, you could just let it drip to ground, but there's plenty of recorded incidents of the damage it causes, at least one property required under pinning to correct the damage done you could also just allow it to drip onto your patio - it will cause very unsightly permanent staining the picture below is of a concrete garage floor, which has been eaten away by a condensate leak, exposing the aggregate there's plenty of evidence to support the above, here's just one linky - the fact that it's acidity to close to some digestible foodstuffs is rather misleading, it's the chemical content that does the damage but it's your property, so do whatever you think is bestest
As soon as the weather permits I need to do a greenhouse talk about whats the difference between people who walk the walk and people who talk the talk, basicly its like this, some people do a job with their hands and its iether a good job or bad, some people who never do anything but talk need to justify they're talking sence, it can be done by googling and finding other none doers with book writing skills and imagination, 1. houses have been repinned since year dot, well before boilers produced concencating water, 2. combined top water and sewage water is the norm. 3. why am i answering to a troll???? I thought you had her on ignore ? I do but before I log in i can se what she put. so log in sooner, yep that's the answer, got it thanks you;re welcome,