running heating pipe through foundation

Martin Sellars

I've just had a small addition put on the back of my house. A three foot opening was cut in my foundation wall to connect my basement to the crawl space under the new addition. The first floor hot water baseboard heating loop was extended to service the addition. When the HVAC sub ran the piping, he cut the loop at the new opening, ran pipe into the addition, doubled back along the foundation wall, popped up into the living space for the fintube, back down and across the addition and repeated the layout on the other wall, exiting back through the three foot opening an reconnecting to the loop.

x| |x
x------- ----------x
xxxxxxx | | xxxxxxxxxxx
--------- -----------

x is foundation, - and | are piping

I'm interested in running the pipe through the foundation wall to get the pipes out of the access space and reduce the number of elbows I'll be bumping my head on in the basement.

x| |x
x| |x
xx|xxxx xxxxxxx|xxx
--- ----

My question is, is this advisable and what precuations should be taken? How much bigger than the pipe should the hole be? Should I line the hole with foam insulation?

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Martin

Steamhead

I'd install a set of sleeves

made of steel pipe thru the foundation wall and run your heating pipes thru them. The sleeves should be a couple sizes bigger than the outside diameter of the pipes. If you make the sleeves big enough, you can insulate the pipes where they run thru the sleeves. The pipes should pitch up toward the baseboards so air can be bled properly.

Also, be sure they didn't add more baseboard than the pipe can handle. With the usual 3/4-inch baseboard you shouldn't have more than 60 feet or so. This amount includes only the fin-tube portion, not the pipe connecting the various lengths of fin-tube. Too much fin-tube will cause inadequate heating performance at the end of the loop.

If they added too much, you can split the loop by running a 1-inch pipe to the middle of the existing loop and installing a tee there. Or, split the loop according to the rooms it serves (bedrooms on one part and living/dining room/kitchen on the other, for example) and install the necessary gear to zone the system, which can save fuel.

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