Hello again,

I have another wall chasing problem; this time plumbing rather than
electrical.

I have taken the skirting board off to decorate and noticed that in
places I can just see the top of copper pipe shining above the
concrete floor. The radiator pipes go into the concrete floor and run
along three of the four walls in the room. This means that they must
be running back and forth the length and width of the house. I am
concerned that these unlagged pipes must be losing a lot of heat into
the concrete floor.

Since we are decorating, I wondered about re-doing the plumbing at the
same time. The only way I can see would be to drop pipes from
upstairs. I was thinking of boxing these in a corner of the room but
SWMBO would like them chased into the walls so there is no boxing. The
problem is I would like to lag the pipes, and even with the "economy"
lagging, the diameter is 45mm, which I think is too much to remove
from a wall. What do you think? Should I insist on the box work?

I would also have to put drains on the low points of any pipe drop but
I would like to use chrome pipe where it will be visible; does anyone
know of any chrome plated drain cocks?

Thanks,
Stephen.