Braddock Journey

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

New things we need to do just keep popping up. We knew the electrical, roof, and plumbing needed to be overhauled. We thought we could salvage the heating system, the floors, and most of the windows. 

The projects are even more complicated because getting contractors to do a job is a hassle all on its own. They all want the other contractors to do their jobs first, which is impossible. We cannot have the electrical and gas and plumbing hooked up to test the boiler and radiators when the electrician wants the heating system completed before starting to install the electric.

Heating is becoming a learning experience that seems to be changing all of our other plans. We discovered that the boiler never worked well for the previous owner and most of the radiators have visible cracks in them. Our initial options were replacing the boiler and trying to salvage some of the radiators, or running radiant heat. We’ve been interested in radiant heat for a while, but it’s not very practical with the set up we have now. Plans were to leave exposed brick on the exterior walls and refinish the hardwood floors. Installing radiant heat from below the floor requires more work, insulation, and potential to lose the heat. And having un-insulated walls and 10-foot ceilings reduces the efficiency of any heating system.

Today, though, Kevin came back saying that the floors are too thin and too badly damaged from the old, leaking roof to be refinished. And he wants to frame in and insulate the exterior walls. I’m all for insulation, but it’s a complete change of course. We had settled on forced air for heat with a/c vents installed so we have the option later of installing an air conditioner. Covering over the old wood floors brings up the option of radiant heat again since we would need to add a subfloor beneath whatever flooring we decide upon. Insulating makes radiant heat more practical too. But it was the forced air installation that brought all of this up in the first place.

The fun part is going to be putting a black and white checked floor in the kitchen if we do need to redo everything. It will be much more durable to potential kitchen crashes and traffic than the wood would have been. We had one in Juneau, but I think when we set it up ourselves we may try angling the tiles or altering the pattern a bit. I’m excited to test out different options.