Deciding between contractors

danFromNJ

Hello- I live in a small house with a single pipe steam system. Over the last few years, my boiler has been losing water and an increasing rate. I found this summer that the top of my boiler had rusted through (I found a hole big enough to stick my finger in) and I need to get it replaced. I currently have bids from two contractors, one is Airgroup and the other is a contractor I found on this site.

Both bids came in at exactly the same price (very weird). I am trying to figure out which one to go with. Both contractors seemed to know what they were talking about. Both saw that my near boiler piping is a mess and planned on redoing all the near boiler piping. Part of my bid is to add a hot water loop for a finished basement addition that currently has no heat.

Bid from local steam guy: Burnham boiler with the hot water loop running directly off of the boiler return
Bid from airgroup: Weil McLain boiler with a hot water loop running off the built in heat exchanger

My gut instinct is go with the guy that I found on here since I know his reputation is good. However, I like the idea of using a boiler that has a built in heat exchanger for the hot water loop so that my boiler water is kept out of the loop. When I asked the local steam guy about using a heat exchanger for the loop, he explained that he does not set up his loop that way.

Any advice on which contractor to go with would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure if my explanations here are totally clear but I would be happy to clarify if anyone has a question.

Thanks in advance, Dan

Fred

If it were me and you have a PRO from this site, that would be the one I pick. That's not to say the other guy doesn't knpow steam systems but if you believe you have a sure bet, why chance it with an unknown. I think a lot of Pro's use the return water to capture the residual water temp in that water to heat the water loop. Besides that, if you decide to install the HW coil, at a later time to supply Hot water for the house, it will still be available for that (assumming you get a boiler that has that option available).

ChrisJ

If you're in NJ I'd recommend giving @Dave0176 a call.
I've seen his work and it's top notch when it comes to steam.

KC_Jones

ChrisJ said:

If you're in NJ I'd recommend giving @Dave0176 a call.
I've seen his work and it's top notch when it comes to steam.

I will third that!

danFromNJ

Based on the three recommendations, I'll try to reach out to@dave0176. Is there a way to contact him other than through the site?

ChrisJ

My hope was @Dave0176 would see this message and respond. I'm going to assume he just hasn't been on the forum yet.

danFromNJ

I got in touch with him. He's coming by tomorrow to see the boiler

Dave0176

ChrisJ said:

My hope was @Dave0176 would see this message and respond. I'm going to assume he just hasn't been on the forum yet.

No I haven't been on in a few, I've been swamped, but I got the email from the forum of a private message. Anyway thanks all for the recommendations.

makinsteam

I have to agree with all previous commenters. Dave0176 recently did top notch work for me for about the same price as the knuckleheads...and he did a lot more work than the knuckleheads wanted to do.

At any rate, almost *all* steam boilers are installed improperly (near boiler piping), so photos of work posted to the forum will make the choice clear.

makinsteam

I'd also like to add that I couldn't get the knuckleheads to send me any pictures of previous installs at all.

This applies to 3 companies i entertained. I wasn't surprised by this because none of them had any solutions to some problems with my mains piping from the original install circa 1920ish low bidder...I guess.

KC_Jones

makinsteam said:

I'd also like to add that I couldn't get the knuckleheads to send me any pictures of previous installs at all.

They don't take pictures of that which they know is crap. Although there are some that do and post on social media and if any of us see it......

Dave0176

Oh some guys do post their pics. A friend I went to high school with owns a HVAC company did a steam boiler replacement, a 10 yo Peerless 63-03 all piped in copper. He replaced it with an identical boiler, oh but he did add a 3" riser about 12" outta the boiler before reducing to match the 2" copper with no header just a tee going to the equalizer. And he posted on his Facebook page of how clean his job was. Lol

Steamhead

Hatterasguy said:

You can't fix stupid.

Stolen from @Steamhead

Dave0176

Here is the job I was speaking of lol......