I am looking for a way to seal the old boiler piping in my house. There are no longer radiators in use so all that is left are the pipes. I would like to seal them so air does not leak through.
Can you please provide me with suggestions on how I can do this myself?
If they are threaded, just put a pipe cap or pipe plug on them. If you don't want to do that, get a can of the urethane spray insulation and spray a bit into the end. It will expand and seal them well. Any home center or hardware store will have in under various brand names.
If using the spray insulation, put some wadded up paper a few inches down the pipe.
Or just use old chewing gum. This isn't rocket science.
When they removed the old radiators, did they just cut through the old pipes with a cutting wheel, or did they disassemble the piping properly by unscrewing the radiator elbows.
If there are threads on the ends of the pipes, I'd just thread nylon or PVC caps onto your pipe ends. I probably wouldn't use brass or iron caps just to prevent the cap from seizing onto or rusting onto the thread. Plastic will never do that.
If you have no male or female threads on the pipe ends, you can buy plastic caps and plugs that can be used to seal the bare pipe ends closed. These plastic caps and plugs are made for sealing threaded nipples or threaded holes in industrial equipment to prevent dirt from getting into the equipment before it's installed.
[image:Just Google Plastic Caps and Plugs and you'll find all kinds of companies selling them in a bewildering assortment of shapes and sizes.
Keep in mind that you can use glycerine to make it easier to slide the rubber caps over the pipe ends. The glycerine used to do that will evaporate completely without leaving a residue so that at the end of a coupla weeks at most, the rubber cap will be gripping BARE DRY metal pipe, not gripping a film of liquid glycerine.
I was going to suggest expanding foam, "Great Stuff" is one brand. The foam sticks to skin, clothing, etc, and is nearly impossible to get off. After it's dried, it's pretty safe to work with. My experience with great stuff is:
1) You can only use the can once. After the first use, the nozzle and tube dries up. 2) While it's soft, treat it like poison. Don't get it on your skin or clothes. 3) The stuff keeps expanding. Fill the area about 1/2 or 2/3 of what is needed. 4) Carry a plastic shopping bag or two in your pocket. When you're done, stuff the can and tube into the shopping bag, and put it in the trash. 5) Dried stuff can be cut with a razor, or steak knife. 6) Great stuff outdoors needs to be dried, and then painted. 7) Buy a new can each time you need it, the cans go bad in a year or so.Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
I am looking for a way to seal the old boiler piping in my house. There are no longer radiators in use so all that is left are the pipes. I would like to seal them so air does not leak through. Can you please provide me with suggestions on how I can do this myself?
Oh no no no no no no.... We can't possibly use any simple, cost effective, time honored, accepted, common sense techniques.
It must be the most complicated, convoluted, expensive, nonexistent, nonsen sical, asinine, universally rejected method not yet known to man.
Even someone totally clueless about home improvement would just jam an old sock in the hole and put a flower pot in front of the protruding pipe to hi de it. The fact that this homeowner has come here looking for "answers" ind icates that such obvious solutions are not acceptable.
Eagerly awaiting the 100 excuses why a pipe cap or a little spray foam isn' t an acceptable solution...
Thanks for the tips. I will be getting to this in a month or two, so I will report back with my methods. All I know is that this needs to be done. At this time, I cannot report as to what type of piping ends are present as I need to investigate further.
honored, accepted, common sense techniques.
nonsensical, asinine, universally rejected method not yet known to man.
in the hole and put a flower pot in front of the protruding pipe to hide it. The fact that this homeowner has come here looking for "answers" indicates that such obvious solutions are not acceptable.
acceptable solution... Better yet - simply remove the pipe and screw a board to the underside of the floor, then fill the hole with a wood plug, wood filler, bondo, or whatever and paint or cover to match the existing floor.
Don't you mean the expanding plug system with the center screw that expands the rubber plug? And which must be replaced every year, as the plug hardens?
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Oh no no no no no no.... We can't possibly use any simple, cost effective, time honored, accepted, common sense techniques.
It must be the most complicated, convoluted, expensive, nonexistent, nonsensical, asinine, universally rejected method not yet known to man.
Even someone totally clueless about home improvement would just jam an old sock in the hole and put a flower pot in front of the protruding pipe to hide it. The fact that this homeowner has come here looking for "answers" indicates that such obvious solutions are not acceptable.
Eagerly awaiting the 100 excuses why a pipe cap or a little spray foam isn't an acceptable solution...
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Oh no no no no no no.... We can't possibly use any simple, cost effective, time honored, accepted, common sense techniques.
It must be the most complicated, convoluted, expensive, nonexistent, nonsensical, asinine, universally rejected method not yet known to man.
Even someone totally clueless about home improvement would just jam an old sock in the hole and put a flower pot in front of the protruding pipe to hide it. The fact that this homeowner has come here looking for "answers" indicates that such obvious solutions are not acceptable.
Eagerly awaiting the 100 excuses why a pipe cap or a little spray foam isn't an acceptable solution...
my best friend is 81, when he was 5 his parents upgraded from steam heat to forced air
all of the pipes were removed where possible, his dad ran a lathe so he made tapered wood plugs and drove them in the holes left from the pipes ...
nice looking effective fix
Your original post said,
"I am looking for a way to seal the old boiler piping in my house. There are no longer radiators in use so all that is left are the pipes. I would like to seal them so air does not leak through. Can you please provide me with suggestions on how I can do this myself?"
I assume you mean that the radiators are gone, and you are no longer using that heating system, but many of the pipes are still there. And, maybe that means you now have a hot air heating system instead of the steam or hot water radiator heating system.
If so, it should be fairly easy for you seal the holes in the walls, floors, and ceiling. As others have said, probably the easiest and best approach would be to remove the pipes and then seal the holes.
But, here's an added thought. If what is left are lots of unused pipes, maybe the old heater unit, and maybe even radiators, you can probably get someone to remove all of them from your property for free by letting them do the work and keep all of the metal as scrap metal. Of course, you would have to be careful who you use to do that, and careful about how they do it so they take everything out but don't mess up your property. Assuming these are mostly cast iron pipes etc. (and not copper), the value of the scrap metal is a lot less, but I am sure you could find people who would remove them all for free.
If you could take a couple of photos and post them here using
Good luck.
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