My Current Huge Project With Radiant In Floor Heating

Yeah, contractors out here are all big money. They would have came from eastern MA ... and brought eastern MA prices with them. Wanted $6 grand to do JUST my second floor!

I should just buy one of those kits & be done with it. Even if I only lay down 1/4" of the stuff, that's still 1000% better than what I have now.

Yes, just sealing out the wind will make a huge difference.

Greg

A quick update, I FINALLY got tired of hearing the circulator pump running on the big main hot water zone that heats the 'old' front section of the house. This is the 2-story 1849/1890-ish part of the house.. with a single huge hotwater baseboard system.. This huge loop is 1 1/2" copper with diverter tees, feeding 12 sections of baseboard,, averaging 5' each. The bedroom and bath have two sections of basevoard, and 60 sq ft of hot water heated tile floor.

I split off my master bedroom and bath, putting it on its own circulator and thermostat. and left the main zone on it's old pump and thermostat..
So now I'm not heating the big old house with poor wall insulation and marginal [1970's] thermopane windows, just to keep my bedroom comfortable..

I'll try to report back with coal use and comfort results in a month or so.

Greg L.

I used Tiger Foam inside the crawlspace here. This building never had pipes in it and I was worried about the crawlspace freezing. There's a distributor down in Spring Lake, NJ so I saved a little by picking it up in person. I later realized that carpenter ants love to get into the stuff, but my application was kind of half-assed in a close-to-grade situation. Any baits and a soaking with Home Defense juice did the trick eventually.
Since then I've done my own hillbilly insulated stucco work. 1" Super-Tuff-R with a skim coat of sand mix has worked out well on the outside foundation. Just finished the back porch area last week.

LsFarm wrote:A quick update, I FINALLY got tired of hearing the circulator pump running on the big main hot water zone that heats the 'old' front section of the house. This is the 2-story 1849/1890-ish part of the house.. with a single huge hotwater baseboard system..

I split off my master bedroom, putting it on its own circulator and thermostat. and left the main zone on it's old pump and thermostat..
So now I'm not heating the big old house with poor wall insulation and marginal [1970's] thermopane windows, just to keep my bedroom comfortable..

I'll try to report back with coal use and comfort results in a month or so.

Greg L.

Very happy to read this Greg -- you will be rewarded with savings and comfort. This plays right up to my sermons on conservation vs conversion - in this instance you are conserving with past corrections to the infrastructure piping and now zoning.

I finally got around to finishing off my mudroom cabinets and coat rack.. I was going to use wood dowels and make a row of pegs to hang coats, jackets, scarves on, but I wanted something different..

So I dug out my collection of old door knobs. I used Glass, Brass, and Porcelean knobs for the pegs. I drilled and tapped the hardwood backboard, screwed in sections of threaded rod [all-thread], and slid or threaded the knobs on the protruding threaded rod..

The knobs work really well holding even the bulkiest jacket, and look nice, definitely different from the 3/4" wooden dowels I was originally planning on using.

One more line on my list that is now scratched off.

Greg L

Well since Sting removed 'the Grinch' from his avitar.. I guess I should at least try to show some Christmas spirit. So here are two photos of the new house's main floor and entryway..

I found that the fancy Ironwork stair and balcony railing is a great place to hang Christmas stockings and decorations.. and the family room only shrinks 'a little' with the big tree set up.

Greg L

Coulda sworn I already did this soooo,you did get it wrapped up for Christmas--it looks outstanding--and here I thought I was the only one that had an antique knob collection--staircase looks like it was made for that --Have a Merry Christmas Greg

Yeah, looks absolutely mint! Everything!

Looks great Greg!

All looks good but, why 2 recepticles below the coat rack ?

I was wondering about that too.

Wood'nCoal wrote:I was wondering about that too.

Maybe when the electric meter guys come over, they need a place to put their coats.

Electric coat warmer...
Phone chargers...
Those boot warmers that blow hot air...

I have a confession, I was planning on installing cabinets all along that wall, but decided later that a coat rack was needed.. the two outlets were intended to be for chargers, inside the cabinet lighting, etc.. and well the boxes didn't get moved before the drywall went up,, and one thing led to another.. and so,, there we are,, I have two odd outlets..

But they do no harm, and If they really annoy me, I'll just remove the duplex and put on a blank cover.. but so far, they don't annoy me too much.. more of an oversight, than an error..

The whole mudroom/ breezeway /half bath were almost afterthoughts or 'whatever' when the design was coming together.. They sort of evolved. The focus was the kitchen and the family room/foyer/and the damned slate floor..

Right now I'm tasked with cleaning out my old library, I moved stuff from the previous house's library to this one in 1997.. I'm finding some real 'time-capsules' in there.. I think I'm going to have to rent a 300 horsepower paper shredder. !!!

The library is going to become a main floor study with a hide-a-bed sofa.. for visitors that can't handle the stairs. One of which is coming in for Christmas.. so this is a priority..

So back to the library.. or the pack-rat's lair..

Greg L