A 4 Month Project Nears Completion

New England SteamWorks · November 2020

We're just completing a fun project that we thought we'd share for your enjoyment, and also as a demonstration that we are still alive. Just too busy for anything else but work...

Our customer purchased a new single family home last spring that had two steam systems. Presumably the home was converted to a 2-family at some point. Then it was converted back, but the separate heating systems were left intact.

The original project was to remove the two boilers so that a new basement floor could be poured, then reinstall them.

But as the homeowner progressed with his basement renovation he began to desire more than simply a new floor. He also began to envision additional uses for the space. But there was a big problem. When they converted the original steam system into two, they made a real mess of the piping. It was everywhere, and often times very low. This made the rooms pretty much unusable.

So he asked us about getting the steam piping all up into the ceiling. After spending a great deal of time calculating and measuring, that wasn't going to work. But what could work we decided, would be to combine the two systems again. That would clean things up very nicely, especially if we buried the returns. But now there was another problem. Neither of the two existing (and relatively new) boilers were large enough. He'd have to spring for a new boiler.

We first met the customer is July, and will be finishing up his project today. So this project has been a long and winding one. And the poor customer will have spent more on his basement than most folks would spend on a home renovation. But at least everything is coming out very nicely.