Rerouting water heat pipes for a new house

Unknown

My husband and I just saw this house that we kinda liked, but the one problem with the master bedroom is the location of the water heat pipes. I don't want to place our bed right next to the heat and am wondering if there's a way we can reroute the pipes. In the past I asked the same question and usually the real agent's response would be "no, the pipes can't be rerouted; they have to stay where they are." But today our agent said we can do it, only we would need to rip out the floor. Has anyone done it? Is it a huge job that costs a lot of money? Is it doable, or would it mess up the heating system.



Thanks very much. I have no clue about how water heat works in a house because I've never lived in a house before. So any suggestion/comment is appreciated!

Snowmelt

Anything is possible

You really have to have common sence, I don't know where the baseboard is actually comming in the room, is it comming from below or is it coming from another room into that room,?

We need more detail, all you have to know is it does have to come in the room and then it has to exit the room.

How much baseboard is in the room & how much wall space do you have to put baseboard in. There are so many variables.

JStar

Pipes

Anything is possible with enough time and resources.



First step would be to have a heat loss calculation performed for the room. That will tell you exactly how many heating emitters are needed. Then you can decide where to put the needed baseboard/radiators.

icesailor

Acceptable:

I've looked at a lot of houses to buy. And ended up buying a few. One thing we (my wife and I) came up with is this. On a scheme of things, and you discount the "issue" of the heat pipes or whatever it is, if this wasn't there, would you buy this house? Or are there other "Issues" you might have (bad neighborhood, bad view, no closets, not enough bathrooms, too small bathrooms etc.) would you buy the house? Or are there other houses you like better? If you like the first house, consider buying it. Unless you build your own home to YOUR specifications, you'll never find the perfect house. It is ALWAYS someone else's house. If you had to rent this house to live in, would you not rent it because of these pipes?

Don't get hung up on one single issue and miss the whole overall picture. The pipe issue can be resolved easily. It just depends on what you are willing to go to resolve it. If anything.

In my experience.

Unknown

rerouting water heat pipes for a new house

Thanks for all your responses. JStar and Snowmelt, could you explain what "baseboard" means, and when you talk about money and resources, how much money and how big of a job are we looking at to do those things you mentioned?



And I hear you Icesailor. This is what we're trying to do, not to find the "perfect" house. But since this is going to be our home for the long term, I wanted to know if this something that there's absolutely nothing we can do about, and I also wanted to know how hard we should try to "get" it (given the market today).

icesailor

Possibilities:

Anything is possible. Some things are harder than others. Also, some things can be more expensive that others.

We aren't supposed to discuss cost and money on this site. And labor rates and how someone looks at a particular job all differ.

All I can say from experience is that if you really like the house, and others are interested in it, if you want it, don't dawdle. Its a crap shoot, but you can't sit quietly bye.

Decision time.

SWEI

Baseboard

is the common name for baseboard-mounted low mass fin-tub convectors, e.g. http://www.slantfin.com/products/baseboard-residential.html

If instead you have heavy cast iron radiators, you actually have a lot more options for efficiency and comfort.



As far as the real estate market -- er, casino -- only a fool would claim to be able to predict prices the near to mid-term future.  Long term data indicates that the average price of a single family home tends to settle around 3 to 3.5 times the median income for any given area.  Caveat emptor.