Small Home Gazette, Fall 2023
Boiler Breakdown
What One Bungalow Club Member Faced When Her Century-Old Furnace Failed Inspection
When CenterPoint Energy sent out a notice this spring offering a furnace inspection at a reduced charge, I decided to make an appointment. Even though my heat worked fine all last winter, it had been three years since the 100-year-old “octopus” furnace that supplied hot water to my bungalow’s radiators had been checked.
The technician who arrived on April 6 was not familiar with vintage gravity water boilers, so he called in a specially trained tech. After a few minutes he asked me to come down to the basement. I asked if there was a problem. “Yes,” he responded. A big problem? “Yes.”
One look at the boiler, with its cracks filled with stop-gap cementing, was all he needed. He pointed out how the patches were failing, and the pilot light door was in danger of falling off. He cut off the gas supply to the boiler and “red tagged” it. The tag read, “Boiler leaking flue products around/from jacket.”
I explained that I was having eight guests over for Easter in three days. The tech pointed out that I could still entertain, since my gas water heater and kitchen stove still worked. “You just won’t have any heat,” he said.
There was more bad news. Not only would I need to replace the furnace, but its pipes were wrapped with asbestos, which would require professional abatement.
I spent that first day and the next interviewing heating contractors and asbestos companies. Estimates were confirmed and signed, and dates were scheduled.
Cold Comfort
In the meantime, my radiators were ice cold. The temperature in the main rooms hovered around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and my bedroom was even colder. Try heating a living and dining room with a small space heater. I closed doors to the other rooms to enclose what little heat I could generate. For two and a half weeks I dressed in three layers and wore shawls and lap blankets. I left the house every day to get out of the cold. At night a hot water bottle went to bed with me.
Turning on the oven to bake helped. In fact, I went ahead with my Easter plans, advising my guests in advance to wear sweaters. Fortunately, the combination of the group’s body heat and warmth from the oven meant that we were comfortable enough for the day.
Out With the Old
A little more than a week later, the heating contractor, Shawn from SC Service, LLC, came and did a thorough examination of my equipment. First, I learned that my water heater was not vented properly to the boiler system but directly into the chimney, which is not allowed under current code. Shawn confirmed that my chimney was properly lined but discovered that it did not have a cap to keep the rain out, which is required.
Upstairs, he measured all six of my bungalow’s radiators, counting the number of fins and their height to find the total cubic feet to determine the correct size for a new boiler.
Later, in preparation for asbestos removal, Shawn and another worker, Jeff, came to drain both the old boiler (60 to 70 gallons of water) and the expansion tank (another 12 to 15 gallons), which was suspended between joists on my basement’s ceiling.
Asbestos Abatement
top: An asbestos containment room was built around the boiler using plastic sheeting.
middle: A barrel waiting to be loaded with asbestos insulation.
bottom: The old boiler, cut into pieces and ready to be hauled away.
A few days later, Mario Sr. and Mario Jr. from Affordable Abatement Company, LLC, arrived to set up the asbestos containment perimeter. Half of the basement was sectioned off with floor-to-ceiling plastic sheets. This area was then further divided into smaller chambers that acted as pass-throughs to reach the boiler. The men also set up a negative air exhaust unit just outside a basement window to siphon contaminated air from the area.
The next day the Marios suited up and got to work. Asbestos waste was deposited in large fiber barrels and sealed. The old boiler was cleaned off; then cut into four pieces, which were loaded onto a truck.
In With the New
The following Monday, Shawn and Jeff from SC Service returned for a long furnace installation day. Many cartons of new furnace equipment were delivered. Electrician Victor from J&M Electrical & Maintenance also arrived and began pulling wires at the circuit board.
The new furnace required bringing fresh air into the basement from the outdoors. So, Shawn drilled a hole through my bungalow’s concrete block foundation to accommodate the intake tube.
Once the new furnace was in place and running, Shawn took time to explain how it worked. The original system relied on gravity, meaning that heated water rose to the main floor radiators because it is lighter, and cooled, dense water sank to the basement boiler to be reheated. The new system has a circulation pump that keeps the water moving, bringing heat to my bungalow’s rooms with greater speed and efficiency.
By that evening, my house radiated heat again!
The Price of Warmth
The entire project, from red-tagging to a warm bungalow, took 18 days—about two and a half weeks.
The new furnace and expansion tank.
The total cost was $13,700. That includes $10,800 for the new furnace and associated work and $2,900 for the asbestos abatement.
I was happy with the work performed by the contractors, and the new furnace is working perfectly. The true test of its effectiveness will be this coming winter, but so far, my heating bills are noticeably lower than they were a year ago.
Are you about to embark on a home repair or improvement project that might be of interest to other Bungalow Club members? Contact us when the project is going to start. We can help you write an article. Take lots of photographs (mobile phone photos are fine) along the way. Drop us a line at mail@bungalowclub.net.
