I had already gone to bed when Jim woke me up to say that he thought there was something wrong with the heat in the house. I got up and we checked the thermostat (set to Heat and on), then went to the basement. No activity from the boiler, but not really any indication of something being wrong. It did look like the water gauge was low, but I didn\u2019t know what to do with that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wrote down the info for the heating company from the side of the boiler and we called it a night. That was Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, the temp dropped even further and every time we checked the thermostat it had dropped a bit more.\u00a0 We got a fire started in the fireplace and set up space-heaters, though it wasn’t doing much.\u00a0 I called the heating company and got their answering service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got a call back and they were booked up solid that day, but could get me an appointment on Monday afternoon. Which meant that we wouldn\u2019t be charged an emergency service fee – but it would be another cold night. That was Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday I worked from home and kept the dogs upstairs with me in the office with a space heater going. When the tech arrived I showed him the problem and he started doing some checking. With everything bypassed he finally found the problem – the water pipe was full of sediment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He couldn\u2019t get that to drain properly and got out his wrench to try and free it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAnd then there was a crunch\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026as the pipe broke and water began spilling out on the floor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I grabbed a bucket and he explained that the pipe would have likely broken soon anyway.\u00a0 He set to work on replacing the pipe and I got a mop to get the water to the drain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was done he got the tank refilled and fired up the boiler again. We were in good shape again, but would need an additional part – a device to close the exhaust pipe when the boiler wasn\u2019t running. They would need to source one and would call me when it was in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill that day was $160 and I was happy to pay it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, I got a call from the furnace company again and they had the part in stock and could stop by Friday to install it.\u00a0 With the cost of the part and labor being $595.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sigh. Of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I made the appointment and sat in my warm – and increasingly expensive -house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday rolled around and a new tech came out from the company. He got the part installed and double-checked his colleague\u2019s work – then presented the bill. I was less excited to write that check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The basement contractors arrived not long after he left and they called me downstairs again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was water running down the newly drywalled wall in the basement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We tracked it back upstairs to the dining room and to the radiator. I took the cover off and found a rusted section – and a drip. I closed the valve for the radiator and just sat there on the floor for a minute – just really overwhelmed with the number of problems that never seemed to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contractors said they might be able to source a radiator and said I would check in with the furnace company first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I called, made an appointment, and then that evening we built a tray to catch the water since the valve was leaking even when closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the original tech came for the appointment I told him I was happy to see him again – though it did seem a little soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He inspected the radiator and said it would need to be replaced. He took some measurements and said they would have to see if they could find one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few days later, the furnace company called. They couldn\u2019t find a new radiator for us and had stopped looking. I asked if I found one, could they install it? No, they said, I should call a plumber. I finally asked if they had the measurements so I would have something more accurate when I tried to find it myself. They did, but the numbers didn\u2019t seem to conform to 3 dimensional space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, that was the end of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contractors found one at a local supply company for $2385. And another for $1900 – in New York. They also \u201cknow a guy\u201d who might be able to help. So, we\u2019re at the \u201cknow a guy\u201d stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The house is warm, except for that one room, and we remain\u2026homeowners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had already gone to bed when Jim woke me up to say that he thought there was something wrong with the heat in the house. I got up and we checked the thermostat (set to Heat and on), then went to the basement. No activity from the boiler, but not really any indication of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2833,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions\/2833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}