E-Travis Mechanical LLC

Plumbing & Heating Contractor. Specializing in Steam and Hot Water Heating Systems. RPA Member.

New, Renovation Construction Plumbing and Heating. Plumbing and Heating Service Repairs. Consulting and Design on Steam and Hot Water Systems.

Peapack NJ Home With Two Pipe Steam System, Barnes & Jones Thermostatic and F&T Traps.

Challenge

This single family home is roughly around 8000 square feet with a ton of character beautiful fireplaces and wood trimming. We where brought in to take a look at the overall condition of the existing steam system, which mostly has recessed Hart & Hutchinson Copper Convectors, American Radiator Corto and Wall Hung Radiators. We where told that the original part of the house dates back to the mid-1850s with two additions done one in the 1910s and the second done in the 1930s. Half of the home has a crawlspace underneath it to access the plumbing and heating piping. Where also told that there was significant steam and water piping leaks in the crawl space and that those areas of the house had no heat and running water. The existing boiler was piped all wrong with welded header along with zone valves and a condensate boiler feed pump which screaming every time it went on. Existing boiler, condensate pump and water heater are all in a boiler pit.

Approach

We performed a Equivalent Direct Radiation load calculation of the entire house and found that the existing 15 year old boiler was almost twice the size that was needed to heat the home and was never maintained properly. Inspected all the exposed existing piping on the steam system which totals to about 2000'-2500' feet of piping and with about 300' feet of the piping leaking due to trap failures and steam hammering condensate corrosion. We figured it would also be wise to replace the 3 F&T Traps and rebuild all the Thermostatic Radiator and Crossover Trap Cages.

Solution

We originally where going to keep the existing boiler and piping in place but after lengthily conversations with the homeowner it was decided to get the entire system back up and running to an efficient and proper performance. Our first challenge was to replace all the leaking steam piping in the crawlspace which totaled to around 300', added a ton of support hangers and correct pitch on the piping throughout the crawlspace, basement and garage areas. Then to replaced the Float & Thermostatic Traps, rebuild the Crossover Traps in the crawlspace and garage areas and replace all the Convector and Radiator Thermostatic Trap Cages. We ripped out the boiler and all near boiler piping. Power washed and cleaned the boiler pit. Poured new concrete pad for the installation of the new two boilers, existing water heater and potable water filter, softening station. The approach on the new boiler installations was to split the system in to two separate systems since the original piping was done that way. So we installed a Weil Mclain 480 with a Carlin 301 Oil fired power burner, 5" drop header for Original and Garage areas of the home. Installed a Weil McLain SGO-5 with a Carlin 201 Oil fired power burner, 3" drop header for the Brick House section of the home. We upgraded the steam main venting and installed a total of 12 Barnes & Jones Big Mouth Steam Vents. We got the boilers up and running to get see the overall performance of the upgrades that we have done and all the convectors and radiators heated up evenly and quietly with no steam hammering occurring.