New clanging throughout system-help!

ed wallace

were any hangers for the steam main removed causing a pipe to sag?

Emily

System is clanging-HELP!

My husband and I have lived in a 80 yr old 2 story home with steam heat for 2 years now. When we first moved in, we flooded the system by idiotically feeding water to it unnecessarily (when the water line was not low), causing horrid clanging pretty much throughout the house. When a professional came and emptied the excess water from the system our problems were solved and the system worked quietly all winter long. We had to feed some water into the system perhaps 3 times throughout the winter because the system is on a lot (no insulation on much of first floor of this old house) and loses water.

THEN. . . about a month ago clanging began again when the system fires up. It seemed to begin around one upstairs radiator (although I am not sure because it just happens to be our bedroom, so I might have jsut noticed it first) in particular but now is pretty much everywhere. Also, the vent on the final radiator (in our upstairs bathroom) before the return tot he boiler has been sputtering and spitting water.

One other potentially relevant fact: around the same time the clanging began (although I cannot be positive), we had work begun to put in a new bathroom on the first floor, which involved opening up the basement ceiling to put in plumbing to the new bath. I believe the longest steam system pipe on the first floor is now exposed to outside cold air as the construction continues (the bathroom is being built on an existing slab that was the floor of a sun porch). I read on the Steam Problems page that uninsulated pipe could cause excessive condensation--might that be the problem? This is the only thing I can think of.

Finally, the clanging seems to me to be worst when the system has not been on for a long time, which is often these days as the temperatures have been quite mild in the daytime but then dip down to near freezing at night (ah, Boston in April).

Finally, the system has not been cleaned out since we have lived here--could that be part of the problem? From the appearance on the water spitting out the final radiator, there is obviously a fair amount of crud in the system.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Emily