Old building apartment - retrofit gas heating, house without central heating

Hello! I am currently facing a property purchase and since I generally avoid developers and am not looking for a single-family house in the countryside but rather an apartment in the city, I am feverishly searching for suitable living space.

At the moment, I have found something:
- Classic old building layout, very well maintained, basically everything perfect.

Only: gas individual stoves and an electric heater in the bathroom.

Of course, the immediate thought is high additional costs, living ergonomics, etc.
The next thought was naturally that a proper gas floor heating must finally be installed there, since neither a district heating connection is planned nor does the house have a central heating system.

Two alternatives present themselves:
- Cheap and simple, do not hide the heating pipes in the wall
- Or build up the wall, lay pipes and plaster up again.

Does anyone have experience with such renovation measures? Does one get into trouble with the [Deckmalschutzamt] or structural engineering?

I am grateful for any help.

Hello,

well, neither a gas floor heating nor a district heating connection makes a big difference here. The energy source remains the same.
Okay, the electric heating in the bathroom would be replaced, but there are also investment costs that first have to be amortized.

Actually, you would benefit more from thermal insulation, but limited to one floor it is probably an illusion.

The pipes also run in a baseboard, so you don’t weaken the masonry (possibly beam structure).

Best regards

Hello and thank you very much for the first response.

- Unfortunately, insulation is not possible, the stylistic elements in the facade and thus the monument protection office prevent it - as for interior insulation, I think I learned in building physics that it inevitably causes condensation inside the apartment.

The fact is that the heating system there is from way back then and since a solar thermal system on the roof is probably not allowed for monument protection reasons, a gas unit heater will have to do.
- These skirting boards are the ones I meant with the covers - I have them in my current rental apartment, it is extremely annoying and looks terrible.

Greetings !!! I think if you recess the pipes (lines) into the interior walls (chase them), you certainly won’t cause any problems with historic preservation. In my opinion, the historic preservation of the building covers, for example, the exterior facade, windows, etc. The interior is free for design if it is allowed. Regarding the laying methods of the heating pipes, there are not many options anyway. Baseboards as @parcus described. Visible piping: I find it annoying because you have to design the room so that the pipes remain exposed or you cannot place certain things against the wall because of the pipes. Chasing ... this involves a lot of work and a construction site. Consequently, the walls would have to be slit, say to a depth of 3 cm. But the most important questions for me would be 1. whether it is allowed to install a floor heating and 2. which version of the heating boiler or condensing unit is allowed or permitted, exterior wall or chimney connected if there is one. Regards.

What exactly do these baseboards look like? I only know those that you, for example, nail to the wall over the parquet or these oversized visible pipes.

As I said, I would be in favor of chipping/grooving – I could also do that myself, or occasionally hire an installer on an hourly basis. The actual system I would, of course, have installed by a professional.
A gas floor heater is allowed, fireplaces are present. I do not know what performance is permitted for this boiler – there is also optionally a storage tank to be purchased for the apartment, which would provide an additional 70 sqm of living space according to DIN – so it would make sense to take a system that can serve both floors – but whether there are such floor heaters that can heat 150+70 sqm of old building, or 7 rooms + 2 bathrooms + kitchen :/

Hello

How thick are the walls?
Solid or timber-framed?
What about the insulation of the pipes with the single-pipe system?
How high are the rooms in the old building, i.e. what about underfloor heating?

Regards