Heating Conundrums (part one of many)

You may remember that earlier this month, we had some family and friends, who are much more handy than we are, come out and help us figure out why we can't get heat into a few of the rooms in our house. (Just as a reminder, last March, we had some heating people out to try to solve the problem, but the best they could do was take a guess at what the cause might be and offer to try some things--not a exactly a resolution that would confidence. And with many local contractors wanting to be paid over $100 just to come out and take a look, we jumped at the chance for a free second opinion.)

The day turned out to be full of drama, best told through pictures. Here goes...

We turned the heat on to get an idea of what was flowing where. Our friend, B, stripped back some of our insulation and noticed that within the span of one pipe that led out into the system, the temperature went from scalding hot to lukewarm. Maybe a clog?

 Because the system was bleeding throughly, B found a cap where a previous loop in the heating had (probably) been removed, and unscrewed it as a relatively easy point to drain the water.

Except it wasn't that easy. Old pipes are sticky and require a little extra persuasion. In the form of a blow torch.

 But eventually he freed up that area and we watched as water drained out.

And then more water drained out. And more and more. And we stopped trusting the little metal handle hooked on the pipe to hold up the heavy bucket of water.

With the water more or less drained, B went back to the probable clog and started sawing a section of pipe off. Some water came dripped out as soon as he broke into the pipe.

 And then (again), more and more water came out. A sludgy, black looking water.

With one end of the pipe sawed off, it was time to unscrew the other end. It was so stuck on that this time we had to resort to the blow torch and cheater bar. (And I am using "we" very loosely, as I was just the one getting in everyone's way taking pictures.)

We took off the pipe, expecting to see some sort of clog. But of course not--that would have been too easy. So we never really figured out why the big temperature change within a couple of feet of pipe. Add that to the list of unsolved mysteries in our 60-year-old house.

Let's backtrack briefly so I can explain that one of the main things B wanted to accomplish was to blow air through the system, with the goal of forcing out any gunk that might be stopping the hot water from flowing. He had brought a air compressor and went to Home Depot to buy some valves and tubing to be able to stick the hose into our system (more on the valves later).

So he did just that, pressurizing the compressor and then shooting a burst of air into our heating system. And thats when things got exciting.

Due to the late hour and the fact that we'd already drained so much out of the system, it occurred to nobody that we should probably reinstall a pipe on the sawed-off section of the system. So when that big blast of air sent gunk down, it also sent gunk out. Out as in all over our basement. Out as in all over our stuff, since nobody had thought to throw a tarp down.

This was the view I encountered upon arriving back into the basement. Scary stuff.

Of course inside, it was even worse. Black sludge all over D's (open and full) toolbox, over our utility shelves, rug, bike parts, etc. The only consolation was that I had already moved out our drying rack, full of clean and air-drying clothes, into another room.

So an all-hands-on-deck half hour of intense cleaning later, we had the place looking more or less the way it did before the air burst. B installed a new section of pipe and then sent another blast of air from our other upstairs bedroom

By then it was so late that we decided to call it a night. The problem was not entirely solved yet--but more on that in a future post.