CH joints

Bill · 2014-08-07T18:06:04+00:00

I know very little about many things and plumbing is near the top of the list. Long story, but simple question. My son has this largish late 50's/early 60's house in need of some work. He has ripped off the fake wooden panelling in the entrance hall in preparation for network cabling and then plastering. It seems to be a good time to replace the radiators, some of which are still blocked even after a power flush, so, when the man came to sort out his oil fired boiler, they chatted and he now has a drained system and 3 radiators sitting outside the garage. There will obviously be some slight re-arrangement of pipework to accommodate replacement radiators and valves. The existing pipes are copper and the visible joints are soldered. Apparently, son said he wanted all pipes to be soldered, but the plumber seemed surprised and said he would use compression joints with olives. I am not sure about olive joints. We have had small leaks in our house after plumbers have changed radiators, and a couple of winters ago a spectacular ice sculpture formed where a joint failed behind one of son's garden taps. I keep telling him to do a proper job rather than a bodge, and I have this gut feeling that solder is more likely to last the next 50 years than olives, so should we be looking at changing plumbers? The house also came with an operationally superb bathroom suite in a horrendous dirty pink colour, so he will need more plumbing if he fails to follow my advice and bathe with his eyes closed.