new house - old plumbing!

[jeahgreg]

Evening all,
New to the forum - new to plumbing and also new to home ownership and am hoping for a bit of initial help to get me started. We've almost completed on our first house.. a large, victorian terrace in need of a lot of modernisation. Currently, there is an old, floor standing marathon 40 boiler on the semi basement, and the below (hot water tank, small cold water tank) on the 3rd (there's ground, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors) which is an original floor built semi into the roof space. I don't yet know what's in the loft above the tanks you see here - but I'm assuming that, there will be a larger cold water tank above? If so, what's the tank next to the hot water cylinder for?

We're wanting to put in a kitchen on the first floor, a bathroom on the second (already one there but with an electric shower and normal bath) and finally a bathroom on the 3rd floor.

The boiler will need replacing so I thought, before we do any work, that it would be a good opportunity to look at the plumbing system as a whole - whether it's worth converting to either a combi or a sealed system? Though I imagine this would require a lot of work and I'm more than happy with a conventional system and a decent shower pump.

Could any of you shed any light as to what we've got here - in what kind of state it's in and what tack you would take in terms of replacing what? Budget is definitely not unlimited but equally if we're going to the expense of replacing the boiler I want to get it right rather than trying to bodge something!

Many thanks in advance!
Greg

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

Hi Greg,Welcome to the forums,difficult to tell the state of play in your photos,i would suggest you look at our i need a plumber section on here ,post your location up and one of our profesinal members can advise further

 

[Best]

I would intitially think that tank at side of hot cylinder is a secondary cold tank supplying separate bathrooms or other.
You really need a heating engineer to take a good look at everything. Obviously that hot cylinder is fairly old, - I would think we'll over 20 years and you will be better replacing everything usually if you can afford.
You need to first decide if a stored hot water system is best for your needs and consider an unvented cylinder system if mains supply adequate. Or you could have a new pump doing showers or more

 

[jeahgreg]

Thanks for the reply! Would there be considerable benefit to replacing the hot water tank? I worry about the water pressure in such a tall house though we won't very often have multiple showers running with a combi. We're not desperate for space so don't mind keeping the tank where it is - though it doesn't look that big!
I also worry how big a job it would be to replace with a pressurised system as I'm guessing this would mean replacing all the (old!) pipework to make sure it's leak free?

The house is currently a dentists so maybe that's what the water tank is supp;ying - they've got water in almost every room!
Cheers

 

[Rckape]

With a new unvented system would give you mains pressure stored hot water.

It's near impossible to comment on the scale of the job without seeing it in person.

The water tank could be a break cistern if it's supplying areas which could contaminate the water main.

As gas man suggested, post your location up and hopeful someone from here would be able to come and have a look and give you some advice.

 

[jeahgreg]

We're in Darlington, North East... we've not got the keys yet so it's possibly slightly early days - but there's so much to do (it's a bit of a state) I'm hoping to get as much ready to go as possible so we can really crack on and I have a feeling at the minute we'd be almost bathroomless... not something I want to be for long but nor do I want to rush in, install a bathroom that then needs taking out if we need to update our hot water/heating system.

Cheers