Amazing stuff in my crawl space

ChrisJ

I wanted to share this and I don't think I started a thread about it in the past.  If I did I apologize, my memory isn't what it once was.



When we bought this house in April of 2011 it had many problems as I'm sure many if you remember.  From a rotted boiler to a undersized clogged chimney and many other things.



After being through all of this, fun,  this house still amazes me.  In one of my crawl spaces where I barely fit and never have been in until today there are two steam pipes.  One of them had a hole in it which we had the seller pay someone to replace.  After it was replaced I didn't find out it had another problem until many months later when I installed the new boiler.

The pipe, was pitched wrong and held water so someone drilled an 1/8" hole into it to let the water drain out.  Take the hole away and hey, the radiator doesn't work?  What I couldn't figure out is why did my upstairs bathroom radiator work fine, when its pipe runs right along side of the other one?  Well I found out today soneone had notched the joists so the pipe could be pitched more.  So, we notch joists for one but not the other which is only a foot away, and then some other genius drills a hole on it to let the water out.

Now I thought I would just notch the joists a little more and fix the problem on the other pipe but no, someone put a 3" PVC sewer line above it which was resting on it until I stuffed some insulation between them.  So now I think my only option to truely make it work properly is to spin the 90 degree elbow off on the end, install a tee and run a drain seperately.



And there is my story.   The pipe actually seems to function ok 99% of the time except as i mentioned in my other thread when I got some hammering in it, maybe due to lack of insulation and a cold crawl space as another member had mentioned.



Sorry for complaining, but maybe this will help others troubleshoot problems which don't make sense.

JStar

Pipes

Love it!



If it don't drain...drill a hole in it.



I've seen this a lot, actually. Although, around here, people put a valve in the hole and instruct the homeowner not to call for service, but to drain the valve if th steam doesn't work. See? We're so courteous.

crash2009

Drilled a hole in it

  Is that what killed the other boiler?

ChrisJ

Killed the other boiler

Crash, remember the other boiler technically died twice as it had the block changed when it was only 3 years old.



I've got a feeling that 1/8" hole combined with all of the other leaks is exactly what killed the other boiler, twice.



From what i recall and the little time I saw it operate, the autofill added water almost every time the boiler ran for heat.