Hooray for heat
Posted by K Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:20:00 GMT
Sooo, the latest fun has been heating, as mentioned before. We have a heat pump and could probably get through the winter on it but who can’t wait to hook up the stinky but pretty radiators and push hot water through them, making them more stinky (albeit useful and energy efficient)? Us! So we are in the get-a-new-boiler business.
We had a good visit from the guys at Spartan Plumbing, but then had an even better visit from John Fulcher, heating guy extraordinaire. The Spartan people pointed out the rusting/too small/in the wrong place water heater exhaust pipe and had some good ideas, but John had some different ideas and also pointed out that the pipe is rusting because of condensation, which means it is probably blocked, and we should get the chimney investigated and cleaned/relined no matter what we did boilerwise. And do it soon.
Enter Jimney’s Chimneys from Silver Spring, who were out today and totally know their stuff. Jimmy and assistant came out and yanked some pipes apart. He was surprised that the boiler wasn’t blocked where it went into our chimney (since the boiler isn’t doing anything he pulled out the exhaust pipe to see), but when he poked at the water heater exhaust it was full and sure enough, it is really venting into nothing because the pipe is blocked at that point, evidenced by the large amount of debris that came out of it when he poked it open with his finger.
So I know nothing about chimneys and boilers and this is all pricey but cool to learn (I’ve been reading up on it as well as listening to what these guys say). Jimmy is coming back on Saturday and is going to clean out the old liner (decayed terra cotta that has crumbed and fallen down into the bottom—there might be a drill of some sort involved which would be fun) and then run a new metal pipe liner down the chimney and into the basement. A new pipe will run from that into the room where the boiler and heater is, and will exhaust everything once things get hooked up. It’s kind of funny how simple the setup is, even though it will be a mess to do.
This means that as of Saturday, the water heater might probably actually be venting to the outside and not into the basement, which is exciting and not life-threatening (not that it really was). John wants to come Tuesday to start the boiler install, and that means we have to get Jorge (the contractor we used for the intital work on the place) have someone come out and reconnect all the radiators. And before that I should at least slap some paint on the wall behind the radiator in the office since we have paint for there. Soon we will have a not-deadly boiler installed to heat the house.
Also on the schedule this weekend is a trip to the dump, some minor cleaning, and then either a transom replacement or more work on the medicine cabinet. And finally getting a fridge and oven since we can’t stand the ones we have that don’t really work any more. And that painting I mentioned. Then maybe if I haven’t toppled over and the chimney guys are done in time I will drink a lot at Game Night and try to understand the insanely complex game we will surely play.
