Advice on hybrid diy-ing a radiant retrofit, any advice welcome.

PhoebeJo

My husband and I bought our first house and are in the process of rehabbing. It's a serious fixer upper, originally built in 1890, but gas furnace/ forced heat installed in the 80s and the whole system needs replacing. We're in Chicago and up to this point we've mostly lived in old apartments with cast iron radiators, we know the benefits first hand, so we're committed to retrofitting with radiant heat.

I had a guy from a reputable HVAC company come out to do give some rough estimates. I learned a lot from the conversation. He was supportive of us using salvaged cast iron radiators and we decided this would be the most cost effective way to do radiant. I'd love to work with him. But then, he quoted $$$ minimum for providing/installing a high efficiency boiler and hooking it up to our salvaged radiators. (boiler has to be high efficiency as we're demo-ing chimney).

House has 9 rooms and we've collected 10 hot water radiators (can easily find more around here). brand new windows, great insulation, about 1800 sq feet.

I got a good impression of this guy and his company, and I'd like to work with him but that just seems so high and frankly we can't afford it. He didn't seem to think there was any way to make it cheaper. Maybe we're just not his typical clientele.

We both work in the trades (chicago, husband is union carpenter) and most everything else in the house is diy or a buddy job, lots of salvaged materials, so it's really hard for me to accept that this number can't get lower by us doing more of this diy or possibly buying the materials and finding a plumber to connect everything. My husband welds and he wants to just do it all himself, and i know he'd have no problem sautering all the copper but im like …. what am i missing here?

Any idea how to turn this into more of a diy-hybrid job while still making it worthwhile for a contractor to install the boiler, etc? As I said, we're both in trade unions, It's not that we don't value the work, but we have to find a way to put a roof over our kids heads and still feed them!

Thanks for reading.

Jamie Hall

We don't usually comment on — or post — prices for work here on the Wall, so… but let me ask, if your husband (or you — why not?) can do the work, you should be able to get the cost down a good bit by providing most or all of the labour. There is still the little matter of buying the boiler and the associated bits, like pumps and valves and all that, that go with it, and you probably need a licensed plumber or HVAC person to supervise the work, but… it really isn't rocket science.

DCContrarian

Tell me more about "great insulation." We get people here all the time who think they have great insulation and it turns out some foam jockey sprayed a thin layer of foam and told them they'd be all set. In houses of your vintage there often isn't physically space to put in insulation to modern standards.

The number one thing you can do to make your house more comfortable is to insulate and air seal it well. In Chicago that means R49 in the ceilings, R20 in the walls, R30 in floors above unheated areas and R15 continuous on basement walls.

An ounce of insulation is worth a pound of hydronics when it comes to comfort.

I agree with Jamie's assessment that the actual installation work is something a handy person can do. But there's also the question of designing the system. The heat emitters — radiators, or whatever else you choose — have to be sized to the heating load of the building.

Hot_water_fan

What makes you think the price is high? I don’t understand your expectations I guess. Have you previously installed a brand new condensing boiler + rehabbed radiators?

hot_rod

Certainly in Chicago area you will want AC, was that discussed?

Is there a plan to keep the ducted system?

HeatingHelp.com

Welcome @PhoebeJo - I feel the need to echo Jamie for the benefit of you and others that we don't discuss job pricing/estimates on the wall. I've edited/removed those parts of your initial post. Your project sounds interesting. Please keep us updated and I'm sure our community can assist as best we can along the way.

GGross

I don't know many contractors who would do a DIY hybrid personally. Either they pull permits and are 100% responsible legally speaking for the job, or the Homeowner pulls the permit (where allowed) and the licensed contractor is no longer legally allowed to work under that permit. If you can DIY the job then certainly it would be cheaper, you are paying for labor and knowledge as well as parts.