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REMOVING BASEBOARD QUESTION

zekejr218
zekejr218 Member Posts: 3
in THE MAIN WALL

I want to remove a baseboard heater in my kitchen. Reason: I need the room for cabinets. I have access to the basement where the pipes come from. Can I simply (after draining/lowering the boiler pressure to avoid leaks) cut the 1/2 in. pipes just above where they are soldered to a larger tee and then cap them? Is there a maximum length above the tee to put the cap in order to avoid excess turbulence or potential to create air pockets?

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,262

    I presume this is hot water? There are three major ways of piping hot water, and whether you can just cut and cap the pipes depens on which you have. If your radiation is piped in serial, the answer is… no. If it's piped in any one of the parallel arrangements, or home run, the answer is no problem. If it's monoflow, the answer is… maybe.

    Do you have any idea which you have?

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • zekejr218
    zekejr218 Member Posts: 3

    I am leaning towards a Monoflow system because it starts as a 1" line after the circulator (after exiting the boiler), continues around the perimeter of the house, up to each floor, then back down to the basement and returns to the boiler. Along the way, there is a reducing tee (1" to 1/2") to and from the 1/2" line that goes into each baseboard.

  • yellowdog
    yellowdog Member Posts: 204

    Connect the 2 pipes that you cut in the basement. Don't cap them.

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,848

    Do both tees that go upstairs come back to the tees in the same line? If so, it sounds Monoflo so connect the two lines that go upstairs together . Doesent matter where you do this. Monoflow is one pipe that leaves the boiler and the same pipe returns to the boiler. Each baseboard tees off the same line twice.

  • zekejr218
    zekejr218 Member Posts: 3

    Sorry but truth be told, I was confusing jobs. I had TWO baseboards in my kitchen. One 1/2" pipe came up from the main 1" line via a reducing tee, was controlled by a gate valve, went up into first baseboard (in kitchen), then back down into basement, then back up into second baseboard (in kitchen), then back down into basement and had another gate valve prior to exiting back into main 1" line via another reducing tee. Baseboards were on each side of sliding deck door. They had to be constantly bled (via aforementioned gate valves) in order to stay warm. I was actually happy to remove them. Anyway, CURRENTLY the pipes are cut down in the basement just past each gate valve. No leaks because gate valves are both closed. This was done over 10 years ago. I want to cut/cap these just above the aforementioned tees in order to finish the ceiling. It seems nothing should change except less unused pipe that was left in the ceiling bays…

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