floor heat leak

[mikeexpress]

I have been working on pinpointing down a leak that i have in my floor heat and we have found that the leek is in the header that feeds the system.This piping is under ground directly behind thd equip room.I have a box on each side of the equip room that control bay 3-4 and 5-6. I was thinking of running pex line and fittings above ground to those boxes so i would have floor heat to those bays as a fix for now. was wondering if any of you might have some thoughts on this or maybe some other ideas?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I've done several retro-fits that have required cutting and rerouting floor heat. I've run return tubing up the auto bay wall and through the attic to get back to the boiler. I sleeved the "up the wall" part with schedule 80 PVC to protect it from a strike. In another case it was going to be on the outside of the eq. room back wall so I ran SS pipe for the exposed part. I would recommend the SS pipe for you as well. Is there some way you can shield your temp fix and just make it a permanent fix?

 

[Reds]

"I've done several retro-fits that have required cutting and rerouting floor heat" - have you ever cut into the floor and re routed your pex lines in the floor? I would like to make the grates in my floors bigger but the pex is right beside them and I am concerned about cutting and splicing/fixing them in the process. After cutting the concrete out do you chisel the concrete away from the pex stub and then splice it? That seems to be the only way to get a clamp on a splice.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

In all but one instance I have had photos of the tubing before it was covered in concrete. That gave me a game plan before making a cut. If you have photos you should be able to see where and how many places may need splicing. If you don't have photos I wouldn't do it. You will be working blind and depending on how the tubing is routed you could cut it in many places.

Yes, the concrete needs to be chiseled off the tubing, but it pops off real easy. My distributor uses a fitting similar to a poly-flo fitting, so clamps are not needed. Also, this type of fitting does not restrict the flow like a hose barb inside the tubing will.

 

[Reds]

I do have photos of tubing before pouring. I just have to find out what a poly-flo fitting is. I know nothing about pex, but will do some research. Thanks for your help.