Insulating pipes in wall

[duffsparky]

Hi All,

Is it a good idea to insulated the copper pipes that go to my shower where they are chased into the wall. The chases will be made good, possibly with drywall adhesive as they are deep, and then tiles over? If it is, what's the best way to do it - thin pipe foam or hemp lagging, I wondered about using the thin (2mm ish thick) packing/wraping foam sheet material used in place of bubble wrap.

If not, can I just tape them, with say packing tape, to keep any salts off the copper?

 

[AWheating]

tape then up in insulation tape (double wrap) and then dry wall adhesive them over there full length.

 

[duffsparky]

tape then up in insulation tape (double wrap) and then dry wall adhesive them over there full length.

Do you mean 19, 25 or 50mm electrical insulation tape or do you mean a plumbing insulation tape that insulates the pipes thermally, if so, have you got any names for it.

Cheers.

 

[SimonJohns]

I think he ment the electrical plastic insulation tape. To prevent corrosion. You could also sleeve the pipe in overflow pipe to prevent corrosion.

Just make sure your fittings are water tight and valve works before covering over


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AWheating]

i ment electrical type insulation tape.

 

[duffsparky]

I've been told by another plumber that you can get some flexible conduit, like the electrical stuff that work well and also give the pipes room to move when heating up and cooling down.

So I'm gonna look into that before I go too far.


Cheers.

 

[Gray0689]

15mm x 9mm foam lagging

 

[AWheating]

movement would ideally be avoided.

 

[Gray0689]

movement would ideally be avoided.

Why
I prefer a bit of movement

 

[PlumbBobBob]

a small amount of movement is good to allow for fitting, but not too large an amount which could lead to failure due to rubbing or flexing of joints etc.

 

[duffsparky]

Re: movement.

I'm confused about this. As a sparks, allowing for movement in conduit due to thermal expansion and contraction, especially plastic, is a good thing if not essential. If you have pipes that are surface fixed around corners for example, and the fixings are too close to the corners thus leaving very little room for movement, then I can see that the joints would have to take the stress and may subsequently fail. Surely this would be the same for pipes embedded in solid walls and floors, if there is no room for expansion and contraction all the stresses would be transfered into any bends and elbows and other joints? My shower pipe drops will have (Record bender) bends at the top, which are not embedded, with elbows behind the mixer and (Record bender) offsets in between which are embedded.

AWHeating - I'm not arguing but could you explain a bit further why "ideally movement should be avoided", it seems at odds to me; but then I'm not a plumber, just a sparks.

Thanks.

 

[AWheating]

To avoid noise and add security to the shower valve. how is the valve being secured? if with a couple of little screws into tile, or a bar mixer with no fixings then movement on the pipes could cause problems in years to come. Even if you clip top and bottom it will be better than nothing and would avoid any vibrations. Thats my take on it anyways.

cables are different in that electrons move around but in pipework water moves around with pressure and flow, clipping is not only for support but also to avoid vibrations/noise. You may need to allow for expansion on long pipe runs like you would on conduit but not on short drops of pipework to showers.

 

[Gray0689]

Pipework chased in to Walls needs lagging even if just hairfelt lagging
That's my opinion

 

[GrahamM]

Im with Gray0689. It is good practice to insulate all pipework. Secure in place to minimise movement, but not too tightly that will restrict expansion/contraction.

 

[herbert]

is denso tape not the best to use.. thats what i use.. but its minging to put on lol