Old Heating Piping Experiences

Good morning,

who has a house with old (50 years and older) heating pipework? Have you ever had problems? If so, how did you first become aware of the issue and how did you fix it?

Background of the question: Our house is from the 60s, the pipework is made of copper; at first glance (exposed in 1-2 places in the screed) it still looks good. The floors on the ground floor are very high quality, so following the advice of the plumbing specialist, we have almost completely left the pipework as it is.
In the basement, we have to redo the floors anyway. The screed is currently exposed. Leave the pipework or replace it? I imagine it would be very elaborate. On the other hand: if not now, when? And how would you even find a leak in the basement floor? (With a leak on the ground floor, I can imagine the ceiling/wall below getting wet, wallpaper peeling off, etc.)

If it’s relevant: The old gas burner will be modernized to a gas condensing boiler. We want to keep the old ribbed radiators; freshly painted white, they look really great again.

I am grateful for all answers, whether they are personal experiences or advice.

Who has a house with old (50 years or more) heating pipes? Ever had problems?

No, the pipes look (almost) like new. Partly steel pipes, partly copper. Built in 1967. Oil burner. But there is an insane amount of gunk in the radiators (but they will be removed, as new radiators are significantly more efficient and save a lot of heating costs).

We want to keep the old ribbed radiators; freshly painted white they also look really great again.

Throw out those old things. Then you can lower the flow temperature and save heating costs.

Thank you for your response. That means you are keeping the old piping in place and have no concerns about it?

That means you are keeping the old piping in your house and have no concerns about it?

Exactly. But of course, it can be different in other houses.

House and the heating pipes at that time are older than 50 years, black steel pipes and cast iron pipes were partly in the ground (soil) and then corroded away very slowly. Noticed by pressure loss, but before that the desk was shaking because the floor swelled :mad:

With my current experience, I would remove everything and redo it, water in / under the floor is just no fun.

Here is an old house with now newer pipes and radiators (around 2005). In this respect, I can contribute little regarding durability, but only pass on the experience: If you tackle something on a larger scale once, without also simultaneously addressing logical connected work, you will soon be annoyed. It has happened to me several times that out of false thriftiness I did not also do B or C alongside A. The omissions will then only cost more money. At least one could consider, depending on renovation phases, gradually tackling everything section by section if old and new piping work reasonably well together.