boiler replacement/complete system replacement

finnwerke757

Ok, a good friend of mine bought a house at foreclosure. It has all fintube baseboard heaters. Two story farm house. Mother nature "winterized" the house for him. So I went in and cut out and replaced the burst fintube and gutted all the black iron piping. He is getting a new oil fired boiler. My idea is to replumb entire house in O2 barrier pex for the circulation lines. And also run top floor and bottom floor as 2 seperate zones now. I have 40' of fintube on top floor and 36' of fintube on downstairs floor. My question is should I do a primary/secondary with circulators for the 2 zones or just simply run both zones straight off of boiler? The boiler is in the basement centrally located in house. Any information is appreciated.

icesailor

Replacement:

Why would you want to remove copper tube, a quality product, and replace it with PEX, a poor quality of unknown life span? I've seen copper tube in houses that is over 60 years old. I'm replacing PE water services that I installed in 1970.

I would definitely split the house into two zones, but I would use  any copper risers to the second floor that were not split. And any split riser, I would repair.

Are you planning on running 3/4" ID PEX upstairs or are you going to restrict the flow? How high do you want to run up the cost of the system repair?

I do run PEX but I am not happy with some of the things I see in PEX piping with age. I have an uneasy feeling that it is headed for a disaster in some systems.

I always say, Keep it simple but don't be stupid.

finnwerke757

boiler replacement

You misunderstood, I only took out the black iron pipe that was busted, the copper and fintube is still intact. I was planning on running 3/4 O2 Pex to make all other connections.