"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
...

If you insulate, don't bother with paint. The only insulation that will
take the heat is a fiberglass roll with a paper outer coating that you
could paint.

Makes sense. That's probably what I'll do.

Steam boilers need a little care on a weekly basis. If you rent the house
out, be sure the tenants do that ..... The heat is great, but needs more
care than a water boiler.

This was a new one for me since I never had steam heat before. I got the
"low-down on blow-down" from two different heating people I had there to
check out and work on the heater. It sure seems weird to be telling tenants
to drain some boiling water out of the heater into a bucket every couple of
weeks, but I guess that's the deal with steam heat. One of the heater
people had a good suggestion. He said that he has a similar rental property
with a basement like mine that also has an outdoor entrance. He said that
he put in the lease that the basement is not a part of the rental space and
that he (the landlord) will be coming in and out of the basement from the
outside to maintain the heater, etc. He put a lock on the door at the top
of the inside basement steps so the tenants can keep their space locked off
from the basement, and he said he allows the tenants access to the basement
to store a few things there like bikes if they want and to be able to access
the circuit breakers etc. if needed. But he has open access to come in and
out of the basement at any time.

I just bought a book called "We Got Steam Heat!" from http://heatinghelp.com
that I should be receiving in a few days.