Speaking of Radiators... (Updated!)

Update: 1,380 ponds of scrap cast iron.

...they are outside.  In pieces.

It turns out that they are put together using individual sections.  Two pieces of pipe are used to connect one section to the next.  Four threaded rods run the length of a radiator, and by tightening nuts on the ends of rods, the sections are pressed together. Years of hot water causes them to rust in to one, massive, impossible to move assembly.

Turns out that, once you have removed the rods, the sections are relatively easy to bust apart.  If you own a splitting maul.  Which I do.  You don't try to cut the sections apart, rather you use the wedge to pop the sections apart.

Here's what I started with:

You can see the hex heads of two of the four rods right under the break.

Multiply by four, and you get:

Bedroom radiator and the Chosen Destructor

Pile the first...

...and pile the second.

My neighbor is going to load them up and take them to salvage.  I asked him to let me know how much all of it weighs.  I'm guessing close to a half ton.

Da House...

As Jack Benny used to say, "Well..."

I got the two downstairs radiators detached and their feed and return pipes capped.  This, I thought, would at least let me run the furnace and heat my bedroom.

Both God and the house said "Ha!"

I turned on the heat, and went upstairs to check things out.  There was a nice thin stream of water squirting out of the interior of the radiator.  And, whilst the system was pressurized,  rain began falling from the decorative(?) beam between the living and dining areas.

Let there be rain!

My suspicion is that it is the result of a pipe that burst between the ceiling and the floor upstairs.  I hope that it is one of the pipes to the closet heater, because those are relatively short sections, and I *think* I should be able to detach them at a joint near the living room ceiling.  If it is one of the pipes to/from the bedroom, oy!  They are straight, single piece pipes from the basement to the radiator, as far as I can see.

So.  Command decision is that *all* radiators are in some way dead.  Four new radiator panels and four valve sets are on order from Runtal in over in Massachusetts.  I've ordered two twelve foot UH2 panels, one for the bedroom and one for the closet.  Five foot and eleven foot UH4 panels are on order for the living and dining rooms.

Oh, and of course, there is wall repair needed where the old radiators stood as well, which really means that he downstairs needs painting.  Since heat is the priority, I plan on patching and painting the walls where the old radiators were first, then moving on to painting the entire living/dining area.  Deb had a color scheme in mind,  If I recall correctly, it was green for the living room, blue for the dining room, and red for the kitchen.  (My recollection is based on the colors of the kitchen and dining room chairs.)

The wall under the front window. NOT the worst of the two!

Someone put a 'cap' on the baseboard, because it is bowed away from the wall.

Close up of the cap.

The dining room wall, the worst of the two. This is after the first coat of fill.  Once it is completely dry, it gets sanded, a second, thin coat, final sanding, and paint.

This is the part of the floor over the dry rotted joist.  There is about an inch of gap between the bottom of the baseboard and the floor.  That is brick you see in the gap.  There was a majorly kludged patch covering it.  I think I have more shoring to do...

 In other news, I finished up weatherproofing the kitchen door.  This, of course, required some patching and painting, too, but the job is done.  Yes, the door and frame need painting, but I need to focus my attention on the walls before the radiators get here.

The improved product.

New threshold plate and coat of paint.

New weather stripping!

Next pay day, I plan on getting someone out to put in a new pane of glass in the hole covered by the cardboard.

In the mean time, the bedroom is comfy, thanks to an early Christmas present from Deb - an electric, infra-red heater!

The new heater.  It is a faux fire place, with the infra-red heater in the box underneath.  That's Suzu warming her tail.

Suzu enjoying the new 'place' by the 'fire'.

I created the place by using my old bedspread under two fleece throws I picked up for $3.00 each at WalMart.  The dogs seem to like it, and I've even noticed Baxter making use of it.

For my next trick, more outlets in the bedroom!

Oh,  an update on the last electrical post... the short in the wiring over the back bedroom migrated.  I came home to find my wireless out, because I had plugged it into the old circuit, which failed when the short migrated.  So all of those lights and outlets are dead again.

I love this place!!