I will be drywalling my basement walls. Problem is I have steam heat and there are is a steam pipe which runs down one of the walls. It has two pressure valves – one at the top of the pipe and one from the horizontal tie in. Both valves will be buried behind the drywall as they are only about 6’6″ off the ground. One of the valves has been leaking water on and off this winter. Can this be done? Is there any way to move these valves or remove them altogether?
Last things first. You cannot eliminate them if you still want the system to operate properly. They can be repiped to a more accessible location as long as the piping slopes upward, (no dips anywhere). Their locations were determined by the system layout, to the connection points cannot be moved.