Best Of
Re: Where can I find Pennsylvania code reqs for residential basement oil tanks?
Most state use NFPA 31.
I have never heard of any requirement for a space from a stone/mortar wall. 2-3" should be fine.
I wouldn't worry about it. Its your installers problem anyhow. If you get into it it will be your problem. You are overthinking it.
Re: "Yelp"/ angi list for contractors.
There was a prevailing wage job I did for the City of San Francisco years ago. It was some radiant heating for a daycare center and the general contractor was always late in paying progress payments. We finished the job and it was signed off by the inspector, but the GC wouldn't pay. I think he came up short. I lost patience and drove to the job, pulled the relays out of the zone valve control and told the director they lost their heat because the GC hadn't paid me my final payment.
I got a call the next morning that they were sending the cops over to arrest me unless I reinstated the heating system and, of course, I did. They must have lit a fire under the GC because I got a check the next week.
Now that I only do service and repair work, I most always get paid by the owner….when the job is done and they are grateful. For the few times I do work for a GC, it's like pulling teeth and I vow never to do it again.
Re: Mystery tool
I've looked at some pics of bed bolt installation on professional woodworking sites. If the nut mortise has a flat surface where the nut sits, the nut is typically installed with the rounded corners facing towards the end of the bolt, as shown in the Whitechapel pic above. If the nut mortise has a curved surface where the nut sits (if the mortise is drilled out with a round Forstner bit), the nut is installed with the rounded corners facing into the curve of the of the round mortise hole. So it can go either way depending on how you cut the mortise.
jesmed1
Re: Mystery tool
I saw one set of bunk beds with exactly the same bolts that @Larry Weingarten posted. Only one I ever saw and it wasn't an old bed.
Re: Literature on Geothermal
looking to stay 40+ deep into the season by alternating loops.
skyking1
Re: Mystery tool
Even now they can't do a lot more than watch a big fire if they don't have a municipal supply to pump from.
mattmia2
Re: Old fridge
LOL, I was wrong - it's not a post war fridge like I always thought it was. Curiosity got the better of me so I pulled it out and looked behind it - the model is B6-39-A, so it's over 85 years of continuous operation.
I'm selling my commercial building this summer where it's at - do these have any value or should I just leave it with the buyer? It needs to be stripped and painted and it needs a new gasket, but otherwise it's ice cold and dead quiet.
MaxMercy
Re: Stealing Steam Boiler Water for Hydronic Baseboard?
Well, technically you are correct on a leaking pump seal — or for that matter any leak on the pumped loop — emptying the boiler. That's one of the reasons, among many, for having a LWCO. The Hartford Loop, however, still protects the boiler against a leaking wet return, and since that is by far the most common sources of leaks in a steam system, why not have it?
You could, in principle, have a hot water radiator fed that way on the first floor. There are several ways to do it — the simplest being to have it up there and make sure it has no leaks, so that once it is purged a standard circulator can circulate it. However, a standard circulator likely will not be able to fill it if is allowed to empty for any reason. A higher head pump would work — provided there is enough head to avoid cavitation at the inlet. Another approach would be to use a heat exchanger and run a normal closed hydronic loop… more complicated.
Re: Mystery tool
Thanks everyone! Talk about crowd-sourced knowledge. Even better than AI!
So I'm going with "It's a bronze bed bolt wrench that can also be used safely on gas lines due to the inherent safety of non-sparking bronze, and can also be used on anything that happens to have a square-head bolt of 7/16", 1/2", or 5/8" size."
jesmed1