Plumber in Nurmijärvi

A municipality of detached houses

Nurmijärvi is the most populous municipality in Finland that doesn't call itself a town, and detached houses are its most common type of home. The three largest centres are Klaukkala, the church village (kirkonkylä) and Rajamäki, and there are smaller centres and villages such as Röykkä, Nukari, Palojoki and Perttula.

The houses span many decades, from older houses in the villages to newer residential areas around the centres. The age of the house says a lot about the pipework: older houses may still have galvanised steel pipes or several generations of copper, while newer ones usually have composite pipe and a distribution manifold with a separate shut-off for each line.

A detached house has no housing company (taloyhtiö), so no renovation notice (muutostyöilmoitus) is needed – but you are responsible for all the pipes from the plot's connection point to the taps. Keep receipts and notes of plumbing work; they are useful when you sell the house or if your insurer asks about earlier leaks.

When to renew the water pipes

If the original pipes have started to leak, or there has been more than one pinhole leak in copper pipe, it is worth looking at the whole system rather than patching. Water pipe replacement in a detached house can often be done with surface-mounted pipes, so walls and floors don't need to be opened.

Time the pipe renewal with other renovation work. If the bathroom or kitchen is being renovated anyway, the new pipes are run first and the surfaces finished afterwards, so nothing has to be opened twice. Soldering copper pipe counts as hot work, and the hot work card (Tulityökortti) is one of our plumber's certifications; new installations also use composite pipe.

Radiators and changing the heat source

Many detached houses have water-based heating with radiators, whatever the heat source. When an oil boiler is replaced with a ground source heat pump, the radiators are worth checking, as a heat pump works most efficiently at a low flow temperature and radiators sized for oil may then be too small. Go through the sizing with the heat pump supplier.

Radiator installation covers replacing individual radiators and thermostatic valves; if the whole system is old and leaking, consider radiator pipework renewal. Afterwards the system is balanced so that every room heats evenly. If a radiator just gurgles or is cold at the top, there is probably air in the system – see how to bleed a radiator.

Utility rooms, appliances and prices

Detached houses usually have a utility room (kodinhoitohuone) with a floor drain, which is the ideal place for a washing machine. Washing machine installation costs €78.44 and dishwasher installation €125.50. A machine in a room without a floor drain should stand on a leak tray – see our article on dishwasher leak trays.

Toilet installation costs €235.31 and tap (faucet) replacement €125.50. Prices include 25.5% VAT (ALV), and extra fittings and hoses are charged separately – see our price list. The labour part of replacing a tap or toilet can qualify for the household tax credit (kotitalousvähennys), but installing an appliance as a separate job doesn't.