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On Jan 16, 10:53 pm, Mikepier wrote:
BTW your unpainted basement walls look like mine, even that window.
I've been wanting to paint the walls since I moved in 13 years ago to
brighten things up.
What paint did you use, and do you recommend it?

Its not paint, it Throroseal. I buy the 5 gallon buckets of powder at
HD. You mix with water and use a masonry brush. Leaves a nice stucco
type of finish and seals the walls pretty good. I'm framing out the
walls and sheetrocking.

I just checked the specs on my Trane furnace and it actually calls for
a 4" vent, but they installed some kind of limit switch at the output
and used a 6" vent.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerock...eat=directlink

I really did not want to start breaking up the cement to move the
ducts. Maybe there is a reason why the previous owners could not put
the HW heater duct above the furnace duct. If the 6" duct is
oversized, perhaps that will allow me to tie in the HW heater.

Well if you live where it gets very cold, I would give serious thought
to a 95+ high efficency furnace that direct vents thru the wall. Your
furnace isnt pictured, but new furnaces cost less to operate and are
much smaller too. How old is your furnace?

Energy costs only go up

you would save energy, gain at least some space, be rid of the big
furnace exhaust pipe thats trying to heat the outside.....

At least its worth considering

I like the upgrade to the 50 gallon water heater, although it was only
a little cheaper than the 75 gallon 75K BTU tank I installed last
summer

I had a problem when renovating a bathroom that had a bump-out around the
water heater's class "B" vent. I changed the water heater to a A.O. Smith
Vertex high efficiency tank style, just two 2" pipes through the basement
wall, no need to bother with the chimney. It was a little pricey, but it is
so fast that you cannot use the water fast than it can heat it up and it
just sips the gas, my bill has gone down about $25.00 a month.