Recently I had the great privilege of working for a client that wanted to preserve an existing vapor system.  This was in spite of the fact that they are planning on raising the roof and adding a small addition to their kitchen – a perfect time to modernize the heating system. They hadn’t moved into the house yet, and it was the winter, so they wanted to get some heat going so they could spend time there working and planning.

I ..read more

We just finished replacing a steam boiler in a three condo building.  The old boiler, which was only 9 years old, was a 12 section boiler with only a 2 inch header. There was also a return pipe that was just a little bit higher than the boiler water line.  The 12 section cracked and was leaking water and steam, but even before the crack they had been contacted by the gas company because of their excessive gas use.

When replacing ..read more

So far this year, we’ve had to re-pipe 4 steam boilers, with at least 2 more that we know need it, but haven’t been done. This may be because the owner’s can’t afford it, or may be because they aren’t really convinced that they need it. These are mostly newer boilers that were installed incorrectly, usually by the lowest bidder or  by the gas company installers, which are the same thing.

Here’s what happens.

First we get a call the the pipes ..read more