Gas company boiler installer subs

michael_15

As some background, I moved into a new house last year and noticed it had a new boiler (picture below) that said "Installed by NSTAR 02-10-2003" on the cover. It was also piped poorly. You'll notice the somewhat dinky 1.25" equalizer, the Hartford loop a few inches above the center of the gauge glass, and the header (boy I wish it were bigger than 2") only about 16-17 inches above the center of the gauge glass. If you're wondering why the header takeoff is at 45 deg. rather than 90 deg., it's probably because one of the steam mains (both from the same takeoff) is counterflow and cleverly pours condensate back into the header. 45 degrees or not, the radiators off that main do a bit of panting.

At first, I decided to forget about it and fix it later when I have the money to afford it, until on an unrelated project I thought I'd call the city to ask about the permit and the inspection to see if they also re-lined the chimney. It's then that I found out no permits were ever issued, so the city had no records.

Out of curiousity, I called NSTAR and asked about the subcontractor and commented that the boiler wasn't piped very well. The NSTAR rep angrily told me that these these are inspected by the city and so it's certainly done right, to which I commented that no permit was pulled and there wasn't an inspection.

I asked who they subbed out to do the work. After some shuffling, they came back and said a company called "Burnham Plumbing" did the installation. Now, I've never heard of a "Burnham Plumbing" around here (Boston), nor can I find one in the phone book. I'm assuming they're not part of Burnham Hydronics, else at the very least my header would be a whole lot higher as per the manufacturer's instructions. NSTAR wouldn't give me their phone number, either, despite me asking for any sort of contact info (stupidly thinking maybe they had a long-term warranty that I could use before I spend the money hiring someone else to fix it). Instead, they asked for my phone number, said they would call Burnham Plumbing, and have them call me back . . .

Which, of course, hasn't happened. The fact, though, that I can't find them in the phone book has me puzzled.

-Michael