Help! (dismantling a loop)

D.S.

So glad to find this place! Here is the lowdown of my current situation.

Short Question: Is it easy to dismantle a hot water system. I am assuming, from what I have read, that you simply cut the power to the boiler, drain the lines, and rip out the piping. Are there any special concerns that I should be aware of?

Short Question in needlessly long form:

I just bought a house, and decided to do some remodeling....mainly combining some ground floor rooms in a two-story piecemail Victorian/Colonial house.

The former owner was a "do-it yourselfer" and added a hot water system with baseboard radiators. Each room has about a five foot baseboard radiator, and when I took off the cover to remodel, the fins are all smashed and mishapen. The pipes also run uninsulated 8 and a half feet, a full 1.5 feet from the top of the ceiling. Apparently there was a drop ceiling before.

When faced with the cost of redoing all of the radiators, and the cost of adding seperate duct work for the A/C, coupled with the fact that the boiler is from the early 70s, I have decided to convert the entire house to forced-air. The entire downstairs is gutted anyways, and there is duct work to the upstairs from when the house was heated by coal.

I plan on ripping out the hot water system. What I plan on doing is cutting the power, opening up the drain and running the system dry. I then plan on taking youthful aggression to the pipes with pipe cutters and dismantling the whole system. Because all of the pipes are already exposed (remember, the house is basically gutted), I dont anticipate any major problems. Any tips?

DS

Brian (Tankless) Wood

April fools day

was last week, DS :O)

You're definitely gonna catch some flack, very soon. I can already hear it whistling in, duck.

Brian in Swampland, where it's summer already, and gas is back down to $1.26 a gal.

D.S.

Uh oh!

Don't yell at me, I am just a newbie home remodeler! All I want to do is add AC to my house in a cheap way. Realizing that I am stupid (which I guess makes me less stupid than the average stupid person), I only plan on ripping out the old system. I plan on hiring a professional to do the installation. But a builder is doing to reframe the entire house anyways, so either I:

1) Have someone come in to rip out the old system, then
2) Have the builder frame the house, then
3) Have the HVAC guy come back to put in new system.

OR

Do 1) above myself, and save the extra cash. Since most of the "art" of HVAC is building a great system for the cost and particular house of the customer, I didnt think I would offend by doing work that I'm sure is well below the ability of you all!

Floyd

D. S. .....

I'll try to explain this nicely... we ant you to come back here.... :-)

What you are proposing is heiresy to most of the guys that frequent this site.... what you are proposing is to destroy a hot water system that may only need the baseboard repalced.... a very simple task.

The hot water heat is very near, the best heat that you can have....you are making a big mistake to consider changing to hot air... have a pro look at you situation first....one that knows hot water.... and then look into putting a hi press. ducted A/C system in, separate from the heat.

If you are short on money.... buy some cheaper furniture, or a cheaper carpet, save money on anything but the HVAC system....you can upgrade the other stuff easily.... the HVAC system will haunt you forever if you don't blow the wad and do it right the first time.

I'm sure there will be others, chiming in here with their 2 cents.. hang on, enjoy the comments, take your time, obsverve what you can learn here, then start looking for a guy that knows his stuff. You will be glad you did!!!!

Women hate hot air, dust and dirt....cold drafts.... temp. fluctuations.... God knows they have enough of that on their own!!!!!!!

And you know!!!!


If MAMA ain't happy.... ain't NOBODY happy!!!!!!!!!!

Steamhead

I'd

consider replacing that fin-tube baseboard with cast-iron baseboard, which is a lot more durable and holds its heat much better. Or consider traditional radiators- often you can get good used ones relatively inexpensively.

Whichever way you go, run an accurate heat-loss calculation to make sure you install the right size units.

A combined forced-air heat/cool system will be wrong for at least half the year. You need the most heat input on the lower floors but the biggest cooling load is on the upper floors. I grew up with "scorched-air" heat with all its shortcomings, and will never put up with such a system again.

If you must have A/C, put the fan/coil unit ("air handler") in the attic and run your ducts down from there. They can go thru the closets where you won't have to box them in. And since the shorter ducts will feed the top floors, the system will be much better balanced.

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