Category: Basement Mechanical

Replacing the boiler, hot water heater, supply plumbing, and installing a whole-house water filter

Steam Pipe Removal

January 27, 2014 / / 2 Comments

I’m sorry folks. This post could have been full of exciting, spark-showering photos of angle grinding, but we didn’t take in-progress shots. In fact, I only took phone camera pictures, so on top of not being as interesting they’re also grainy and blurry. I’ll try to do better.

Steam pipes

Steam pipes

Anyway, here’s the old boiler and steam pipes in the foreground with the new boiler and new panel in the background. I finished taking down the steam pipes this weekend. I mostly used the angle grinder with a cutting disk, though in a few places I used the reciprocating saw with a metal blade and some cutting oil.

Water fountain

Water fountain

I was surprised to find that one section of the return pipes was still full of water, even though it hadn’t been running since last winter. I thought it would have evaporated by now, but I guess not. It eventually drained and I finished cutting it out.

Section removed

Section removed

Because some of the supports were literally falling out of the ceiling, I strung it up in places with wire and bungie cords while I was removing it. All of the pipe went into my scrap pile, which at this point takes up a decent chunk of the basement. Once the snow melts I’ll haul it over to the recycling yard.

Scrap pile

Scrap pile

Once everything was taken down it really opened up the basement. I also removed a leftover section of the old gas pipe while I was at it, just so I could call it 100% done. With the pipes removed and the chimney down, there’s nothing in the way of finishing the new subfloor, except for all of the stuff on the first floor I have to move out of the way. I’ve got most of the back section done, and I’m hoping the rest of it will go more quickly.

Pipes removed

Pipes removed

The old boiler will wind up going to scrap too. It’s not as heavy as I expected. It’s pretty amazing how much different this section of the basement is from when we bought the place. I suppose that’s true of the first floor, too, since it’s all gutted, but somehow this feels more substantive.

Frozen Over

January 22, 2014 / / 2 Comments

We got heat in the nick of time, since it got really cold in early January in much of the country. In Chicago, the low of -16° on January 6th beat records. The second floor stayed nice and cozy, thanks to our new boiler and radiators as well as the attic insulation. The rest of the house didn’t fair as well, and we had frozen pipes in the basement, a frozen washing machine, and frozen condensate line and intake on our hot water heater. Fortunately our hot water heater is fancy enough to detect the problem and shut down, as well as display the problem on the screen, making that part easy enough to fix.

Heater in the basement

Heater in the basement

The frozen pipes, on the other hand, required a bit more work. I never put pipe insulation on because we haven’t had our rough plumbing inspection yet, since I’m waiting until we complete rough plumbing on the first floor. That decision proved short sighted. We had relocated our electric heaters to the first floor and basement in an attempt to keep things above freezing, but it’s so drafty there wasn’t much hope. We wound up thawing things out with a heat gun to get the water flowing, and fortunately didn’t have any pipes burst. I don’t know if that’s because the water filter is able to absorb the increase in pressure or just dumb luck. In any case I added not only pipe insulation but pipe heating cable, which wraps around the pipes and uses about 60 watts, compared to the ineffective electric radiators that use about 1,500 watts each. It has a built in thermostat to kick on only when the temperature is below 38°.

Pipe heating cable

Pipe heating cable

However, before we were able to get the insulation installed everywhere, and because they were sold out of the longer lengths of heating cable, not everything was wrapped, so we wound up having a second pipe freeze despite our efforts. The washing machine was another casualty. Since we neglected to turn off the water and drain the hoses, the water inlet valve froze and split apart. When we got back from our vacation I took the thing apart, found the problem, and we bought a new one and and got it installed. We’ve been catching up on laundry the last couple of days and disconnecting the hoses at night when the forecast calls for sub-zero temperatures. We also put a thermometer in the basement to keep track of the how cold it is down there. The good news is it’s staying above freezing in the basement when it’s 5° outside. I’ll try and determine what the danger point is, though there’s obviously a time factor in addition to outside temperature.

Thermometer

Thermometer

Meanwhile we haven’t made much progress on other projects. Between the freezing, a nice vacation to Cancun, and being sick after we got back, January hasn’t been nearly as productive as I had hoped. Instead of working on subfloor I’ve been taking out the old steam pipes, since I need to get them out before I can finish the subfloor anyway. I may do a post about it, but I haven’t taken any pictures yet.

Heat!

January 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Oh, finally, finally we have real heat! Up to this point we’ve been relying on a collection of electric heaters meant to supplement rather than stand in and even running four of them and consuming 6,000 watts of electricity in the process, it’s been cold. The insulation helped quite a bit, but ultimately we just needed the radiators working.

Mechanical Panel

Mechanical Panel

Lester finished up the other jobs he’d been working on and started working more seriously on our project. Over the course of a couple weeks he got the mechanical panel built out and the boiler hooked up. We figured out where we were temporarily putting the radiators on the second floor (until we remodel the floor and install in-floor radiant) and Mike helped me mount plywood panels to the wall so we could mount them. We also got the old steam radiators out onto the back porch.

Plywood panels

Plywood panels

I had originally wanted to run the PEX tubing that supplies the radiators through the attic, so Lester was going to put a manifold on the second floor. I decided the manifold could go behind the dishwasher since it’s on the wet wall and that spot will be in the master bath once we remodel. Unfortunately, when I pulled out the dishwasher and cut open the wall I found that spot occupied by five different supply and drain pipes.

All of the pipes

All of the pipes

Instead Lester put the manifold on the first floor and ran the PEX through the first floor. That may complicate things later, such as the plumbing that needs to go right where the manifold is and the ceiling where the tubing is running, but I guess we’ll figure that out when we get there. Top priority was getting heat.

Radiator being warm

Radiator being warm

With the radiators mounted and everything connected, Lester fired up the system and soon it started to get warm. We’ll still use one or two electric heaters if it gets too cold outside since the radiators are sized for our future insulation rather than the current lack thereof, but the difference in warmth and comfort is profound.

We had one hiccup though. After we got back from a long weekend with my family we discovered that the pipes had frozen. I had put an electric heater on the first floor but the circuit tripped so it wasn’t running. Fortunately there was no damage and we got everything thawed back out. This weekend I’m planning to get some pipe heating cable since its much cheaper to run than a 1,500 watt oil-filled electric heater.

First Floor Progress

November 14, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We’re making headway on a number of different projects. The window company replaced the broken pane in our  new front door. The pattern of the privacy glass is a bit denser than the original, but it’s close enough. We got the clips and tape we needed to finish up the bay windows. The new clips are different than the other ones we had, so I had to do a bit of swapping to put them to best use, but the bay windows are now fully installed and flashed and Sarah put Great Stuff into the gaps around the windows. We need to go back around with the backer rod, but things are looking just about done on the window and door front.

Lester hung our new boiler on the wall in the basement and he’s run the venting for it, but there’s still a lot to be done. I ordered the radiators and Lester is getting all of the assorted pumps, valves, and pex we need to hook them up. It’s gotten cold fast, and we’ve been relying on electric baseboards to keep the house warm. It’s going to be a pricey electric bill this month, but hopefully we’ll have heat in the next few weeks.

Speaking of radiators, we disconnected the old radiators on the first floor and moved them to the back. We still need to get them out of the first floor, but one step at a time. Once we’ve got the upstairs radiators out as well, we’ll call a local company to sell them to. Hopefully someone else can use them.

We’ve also cleaned up the wood pile on the first floor. Most of it was from the old windows, including frames and trim. All of it was painted, most of it was rotted, and between the dimensions and all of nails, we haven’t been saving it. Some wood that is in small pieces and doesn’t have paint we’re saving for firewood, other stuff is more usable as fireblocking or future framing. In any case we’ve got some sorted stuff that needs to be moved to the basement, but it’s otherwise taken care of.

I’ve been talking to contractors about leveling the joists and putting in the new subfloor. I’m playing phone tag with one, another told us it was good enough and didn’t need to be leveled, and the third gave us a quote that was more than we expected. I’m contemplating doing the back section myself and seeing how it goes. If nothing else it would reduce the cost and give us a place to put all of the stuff.

Our neighbors in the crappy house to the North moved out and the house was bought by a broker who is planning to convert it into a single family, though probably a lot faster than we’re doing it. We’re excited that there will be a nicer house next door, but it will also be a little disheartening if there’s is started and finished and ours is still putzing along.

Finally, our next big project is removing the chimney. I went up on the roof for the first time and took stock of things. It honestly doesn’t look like it will be terrible. While I was up there I took down an old antenna that was literally in the chimney and not attached to anything. More scrap metal! We’re planning to tackle the section of chimney above the roof this Sunday. The goal is to get enough taken out that we can repair the roof. At that point we can take it down from the inside, floor by floor.

Momentum

October 25, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We put in the last two bay windows last week, meaning all of the first floor windows are in, aside from the sliding door that we have to hold off on. I need a few more strap anchors and some more flashing tape to call the last window done, and we still have to go around with the Great Stuff and backer rod to complete the air sealing. In addition, Lester, our radiant heating guy, finished the rough-in work ahead of our new boiler installation. It’s been a lot of work but it’s also a very tangible feeling of progress that we’re eager to keep up.

Derek helping

Derek checks for square

Our next major goal is to get the new subfloor installed. We need that done in order to start a whole host of first floor projects like framing interior walls, building the new stairs,  insulating the exterior walls, and getting the radiant floor heating installed. With the weather getting colder day by day, it’s those last two in particular that have our interest piqued.

With so much riding on the subfloor, and the time required to level the wonky floor joists, we’ve decided to hire it out. I’m working on getting quotes this week and hopefully we’ll get some good numbers and people. We’ll need to set to work clearing out the first floor. It’s accumulated an impressive pile of scrap wood from the removing the old windows, plus the giant steel pallet the door shipped on, the sliding glass door we can’t install yet, and all of our tools.

The other thing standing in the way of new subfloor is the radiators, steam pipes, and chimney from the old boiler. The old boiler is disconnected, and so far we’ve been making do with electric heaters. We’ve been reluctant to remove it because it’s still a viable way to heat the house if the new boiler takes longer to show up than the freezing weather.

In short, we’ll get started clearing things out and see how things play out. Hopefully we’ll get our new boiler in quickly and the chimney and pipes will come down before they’re in the way of the subfloor contractor. Worst case, we’ll have to hook the old boiler back up and the contractor will have to wait or work around some things. Either way, things are moving and we’re getting excited.