Boiler install question

seized123

Hi there Heating Help, below is a pic of my 22 year old Weil-McLain P-WGO-3 oil burner for hydronic baseboard.
Saw evidence of water leak this morning, which I’ll get to, here or in another thread. But first I’d like to ask a general question I’ve been meaning to ask anyway about a replacement (which now I might need):

1. Can one person (or if I’m lucky, two), get this thing off the blocks and outside and a similar Weil-Mclain up? How in heck do you guys do it? Assuming the new one got dropped in my driveway, it’s a straight level run through the garage to the basement. But could I even move this thing with a hand truck? Your techniques? (SupplyHouse says it would weigh about 600 lbs without burner!) But most especially, how in heck do you maneuver it up on the blocks? I know it’s done every day ….
2. The current one is 15 inches off the ground on blocks. Does it have to be? It would be a lot easier to maneuver the new one into like one small run of blocks.

Now we come to the part where you ask why in heck I’d even consider doing this myself, which is a very good question. (I might not, of course, depending what I hear from you guys.)

However, in the past year I’ve done things I never thought I’d do, mostly due to help from this site: revamped my whole fuel oil supply system and converted to one-pipe, installed an indirect water heater, put in new flue pipes, tuned up the boiler, other misc. plumbing, etc. (And since then, also inspired a lot by this site, although I know it’s no substitute for experience I’ve taken Plumbing 1 & 2 at our county trade school (BOCES) and two days of Beckett’s burner course, and might take HVAC 1 & 2, although all that means I just know more about how much I don’t know. I do still ponder trying to be a plumber’s helper full or part time, but the time’s not quite ready for that yet.) Anyway, although I will get a pro to do it if I have to, tackling it myself would be a good next step and I’d like to take advantage of the opportunity.

Installing a residential boiler does seems to be on a whole other level, but the biggest challenge seems to me right now to be the physical moving the boiler part, since I figure for the plumbing part if I swap in a similar unit I’d just mimic the existing piping, (although I would try to do one of those calculations first to figure out if 115,000 btus like I have now might not be oversized). All comments welcome.

(Hi , @EdTheHeaterMan glad to see you’re still here, you and @Mad Dog_2 and lots of others helped me lot with several projects a year or so ago and I intend to update those threads to show what I ended up doing.)

Here’s the WM, (door is open to look for leak, still looking).

ethicalpaul

They probably put it that high because they didn't have an extra 12" of flue pipe on the truck

EdTheHeaterMan

@seized123 Said:

Can one person (or if I’m lucky, two), get this thing off the blocks and outside and a similar Weil-Mclain up? How in heck do you guys do it? Assuming the new one got dropped in my driveway, it’s a straight level run through the garage to the basement. But could I even move this thing with a hand truck? Your techniques? (SupplyHouse says it would weigh about 600 lbs without burner!) But most especially, how in heck do you maneuver it up on the blocks? I know it’s done every day ….

I would always answer "how do you do it". with "Like the Egyptians"

You do not lift the entire 600 lbs. off the ground. You let gravity help you. It is all around you and can help you steady that large weight in many ways. Leverage is another tool. To start out with. you can tilt the boiler so that the boiler resting on two legs on the left. someone then removes the blocks on the right. now you let the boiler down on the right legs and tilt it a little more and someone takes out two rows of block on the right. You keep doing this one side at a time until all the blocks are gone. You will find that gravity has placed your boiler on the basement floor at the end of this exercise. Amazing stuff that gravity thing.

Or you can call a scrap removal company and let them do all the heavy lifting.

mattmia2

If it really is a flat floor all the way I would put it on a pair of mover's dollies. If you have to get it over some thresholds an appliance dolly might be better.

Mover's have a big sort of pry bar with a wedge on a stick that is handy for lifting and sliding corners of things.

trivetman

i thjnk hes wanting to know how to get the new one up on a block as much as how to get the old one down. I want to know too!

Steamhead

A stair-climber could do that.

But first- where is the leak?

ethicalpaul

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1817279#Comment_1817279

I did mine like Ed described. A combination of chunks of wood, levers, tilting (carefully, they are top-heavy!), and "walking".

My boiler was only 400ish pounds, but I'm weak as hell. But I'm good with leverage.

I kept mine bolted to the pallet until it was right next to where it was going (see my profile pic)

seized123

Already I can feel the ol’ confidence level going up.

@EdTheHeaterMan that’s incredible. Even had I thought of that, which I didn’t, having a pro suggest it gives me confidence it’s a viable method. That’s probably how it got it up there, too, but in reverse! You think? He worked it up onto one set of blocks then rocked it side to side having someone slip more blocks in. Very cool.

@mattmia2 those are all very helpful suggestions. Harbor Freight has an appliance dolly rated to 800 lbs. for $135.00, or maybe I find a used one. And scrap dealer, yes I didn’t think of that, I would need to get rid of the thing anyway once it’s down and I don’t know if the town will pick up something that heavy and I don’t have a truck. (And maybe I even get something for the old boiler?)

@trivetman that’s a good point, but actually I was thinking that if it’s in fact true that I’m allowed by code to have the new one up on only one 4” block  (which I don’t know yet, but I don’t think it’s a thing) which seems a bit more doable-ish by tilting and maneuvering, I was a bit more intimidated by getting the old one down 15” without a big crash and a broken foot. But now I know how to do it, and suspect that the reverse of what @EdTheHeaterMan said is how they get these things up there?

BTW I started a separate fun thread on the leak itself, since that seems to me to be a very different topic, so please feel free to check it out free of charge.

mattmia2

You could always put a couple old tires on the floor and tip it over on to those too.

seized123

@Steamhead thanks for asking, I just started a new thread for the leak since I figure it’s really a very different subject.

@ethicalpaul, @EdTheHeaterMan gave me confidence because now I know pros do it that way, and you give me confidence because now I know homeowners can do it too (unless you’re actually a pro). How high did you mount the boiler?

bburd

Regarding those concrete blocks, do you ever get water in the basement? If so, how high does it get? You want the boiler above the maximum flood level if possible.

SuperTech

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1817268#Comment_1817268

Not sure if you are joking or not, but there's a good reason to put it on cinder blocks. Number one, several basements flood all the time. Number two, the higher off the floor the burner is the better it is protected from sucking in dust and debris into the air band and air shutter. I like to put them up on twice as many cinder blocks than shown in the picture for this reason.

ethicalpaul

@seized123 my boiler and the majority I’ve seen in NJ are on a single layer of 4” blocks

I have a sump pump and I get some water, but just little streams that flow to the sump

EdTheHeaterMan

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1817323#Comment_1817323

The best reason is that us old fart technicians don't need to bend over as much!

I could care less about flooding…. That event would give us all more work! 🤣🤣🤣