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Drilling into a heated floor?


dave21478

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A client needs their toilet changed, which would be simple enough but the bathroom has under-floor heating (pipes rather than electic mat) and obviously the new bog mounting holes dont line up with the old ones. Its only about an inch either side.......Is it just lucky dip or is there anything I can do to minimise the risk of problems?

The alternative I have just thought of right now is to make up some offset bolts.....weld some lengths of flat steel onto the screw heads that go into the original holes and weld studs sticking upwards that will go through the new bog mounting holes and screw it down with washers and chrome capped nuts......that seems workable?

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If its electric UFH you can trace the path of the heating cable with a voltage detector, you want one that isnt too sensitive or to desensitise it somewhat with a bit of tin foil or whatever.

For water UFH, pot luck, but the pipes are likely to be deeper giving you a chance to use shallow fixings perhaps on a spreader plate.

If the new fixing centres are smaller  then I would make up a metal strap than bolted to the existing fixings with two bolts with shallow heads coming up through holes drilled at the correct centres, the bolts made captive by welding and then the dome nuts that you speak of, you can chip away the screed for clearance for the bolt heads.

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[quote user="Théière"]Expensive pot luck!
Thermal imaging camera, or at the least an infra red laser thermometer.
[/quote]

Good idea but the answer has just come to me, its very visual and leaves you in no doubt as to where the heating elements or pipes are.

Put the heating on, wash the floor and Watch it dry [;-)]

When I do winter cleans on my flats I can clearly see every inch of the heating elements as the floor dries.

Good luck!

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HA! I can just see the line on the bill now...."watching the floor dry - 1 hour labour"

Cant say I have ever noticed the lines on the floors when they are damp before, but then I have never looked for it....

The floor is tiled.....gluing it down is a good idea though, I will have a look at that, if not I will make up offset bolts.....Im never lucky enough to win at pot-luck.

Thanks.

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They are very apparent on the laminate floors over electric UFH encased in ragréage, wet heating in the slab with a screed over it is for sure going to spread out the heat more but I reckon you will see it, if the room is well lit and the carrelage a light colour you will have to close the shutters and maybe use a torch.

Give it a try while you are doing sometjing else, in this weather it will dry really quickly, all you need is a light mist from a pulvérisateur.

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I had to exactly that job several years back when our loo needed changing. It's a down feed and not a back feed so there is no adjusting the position! I used screws that go into the tiled floor by about an inch, maybe a touch more. No leaks occurred.

If you wanted the braces to go with the belt you could glue it down as well?

I suppose that you could just screw it down? If it had a leak then go back and remove it then if your client did take you to court he would have nothing to go on [:-))]

OK, I'll get me coat [8-)]

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I'd be surprised if whoever screwed down the original WC had special equipment to miss the pipes. It's more likely he knew the depth of the screed and used screws that were shorter. And for water UFH it's usually a pretty thick screed (ours, from memory was a good 10cm).

If it were me I'd use screws for the new WC that were long enough to go into the floor as deep but no deeper than the old ones did.

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If you follow my tip the position of the pipes will not be unknown, they will be positively and precisely located with no doubt.

Seeing is believing [;-)]

I should add that I have lots of experience of unintentionally drilling through customers water pipes from when I installed burglar alarms [:$]

My best, or worst according to your standpoint was to drill through 2 pipes in one go, they were adjoining and I went through both of them with my homebuilt extended 1/2 HSS bit, it always gets your attention when the 240vac drill in your hand suddenly becomes drenched in a waterspout [:-))]

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Use the same law of how tight to screw a bolt? Up to shear and back a 1/4?

i.e. screw it in until you see water then use a shorter screw and blame the bloke before you?

I'll go along with use the same length screw as the bloke wot fit it in the first place. Glue it down too if tha what turns you on, but I am not sure if I would trust just glue? Perhaps I just awd fashoined?

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[quote user="Jonzjob"] I am not sure if I would trust just glue? Perhaps I just awd fashoined?

[/quote]

Yep, nailed it! sorry screwed it, no glued it!

My van, panels glued on. F1 cars glued, aircraft glued,  A continuous glued joint is stronger than point fixed and less stress on the component

Modified polymer stick like sh1t to a blanket, even good silicon will do it.

On another forum a guy told me off for saying silicon was a bonder, it's a gap filler they stated. Put up video of fish tanks held together with a single 6mm bead of silicon.

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[quote user="Jonzjob"] I am not sure if I would trust just glue? Perhaps I just awd fashoined?

[/quote]

[URL=http://s701.photobucket.com/user/picturebouquet/media/toilet%20bond_zpsi1ftx2pk.jpg.html][IMG]http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww13/picturebouquet/toilet%20bond_zpsi1ftx2pk.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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[quote user="Chancer"]

If you follow my tip the position of the pipes will not be unknown, they will be positively and precisely located with no doubt.

Seeing is believing [;-)][/quote]

Does the heating have to be on fr that to work C [8-)]

Just a thought, off topic, but it's just as well they didn't have 'No Nails' at the original Easter init [:-))]

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