Best Of
Re: The Things I See Out There
In my best David Attenborough:
"Here we see thermal expansion tanks in their natural habitat. While tanks are usually solitary creatures, here we see the rare exception of a strong family pack, signifying that the individuals determined their survival would be better as a pack, rather than on their own"
Re: The Things I See Out There
All that work and no valve w/drain to isolate the tanks. I don't think they do much service work.
Also, no support for the tanks. Those are two of my pet peeves: isolation and support.
Insulation would have been a good idea.
Re: Augusta Stone Church
Former pro here - I faced a similar problem back in 2016. It was a 160 year old, stone church with an old steam boiler, cracked sections, piped as wrong as possible, and the piping that ran throughout was just as bad. Everything was original except the boiler which was 20 years old. They were exhausted because of the continuous expensive repairs, high gas bills, pipe corrosion, and yet over the past 20 years nobody even mentioned the near boiler piping being a mess.
They’d been saving for years for a one and done solution. They had 6-7 contractors providing them a solution and the cost of that solution. Each one of us were lined up outside the church elder’s office as they called us in one at a time to ,more-less, interview us and ask why we were proposing our specific plan. I was the last one called and we connected immediately, the old school guys especially. I just told the truth. Steam is great but most every single component, fitting, and length of pipe was a century and a half old and the unexpected expenses are killing you. We installed two Lochinvar Knights, an indirect water heater, a home run manifold distribution system using 1/2 pex-al-pex tubing, flushed every radiator, and actually added enough EDR to match the building’s heat loss. The utility costs plummeted, no more unexpected expensive repairs, a comfortable building, and they only had to budget for annual maintenance. My plan satisfied all their needs and then they hired me to install AC for the church, its offices, and a new HVAC system for the Pastor’s home on the same property. 10 years later, 6 years retired, and I still keep in touch with them. It was probably my favorite job in my career and they’re still happy they hired me. There are times when I needed to just gut a job and start over, or I’d walk away. It rarely happened, but I never wanted to be married to a nightmare. Like everything, I learned that the hard way. Whatever your solution, I wish you the best of luck
Re: Streetside Incoming 1" copper pipe crushed by contractors
a plumber with a freeze cuff can easily handle that. You need to expose the tube to find the undamaged section to splice. Flare couplings are the correct fitting.
It must be fixed, flow velocity through that deformation will wear the tube wall through
hot_rod
Re: What do you look for in entry level job candidates?
I only got 4/8, but I'm just a dumb wholesale rep.
Re: Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there
Mad Dog, good on you for posting this before I got around to it. 😊 Here's to wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all moms from me as well. Erin has the day off "Wall Duty" today so everyone better mind their P's and Q's (as my mother used to say). -Andrew
Re: best penetrating oil for a rusted plug?
I have never had penetrating oils un-seize something that was seized. it can make it easier to unscrew it over the rusted threads after you break it loose but i've never had it loosen something. beating on it, beating on it with an air chisel, beating on it with an impact wrench, heat, proper tools to apply a lot of torque to it will get it loose.
mattmia2
Re: New Boiler Copper Piping/bad piping/incorrect install?
It's all wrong. I'd have the contractor read this thread where the experts point out everything they did wrong and give them the chance to correct it. It could be a good learning experience for them. They definitely didn't follow the instructions and use best practices.
Re: New Boiler Copper Piping/bad piping/incorrect install?
Colliding steam header. Reductions galore. Installation stinks.
