On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 09:29:30 -0500, "Tom Newton"
wrote:
But yesterday, they finally hooked up the radiant heat to the boiler, and
there is bad news. After running it for two hours at 180 degrees the damn
floor is still cold... and the return water is barely luke warm!
Keep this in mind for later on down ....
My question is, based on the original requirements I gave, did my contractor
do everything right?
If those requirements included him doing a Manual J load calc,
and designing the system as per industry standards to that calc, and
putting it in writing, then yes.
4. With the slab cleared down to the 2" depth, he said "to be safe" he'd put
in 50% more "tubing" than would normally be required for the space - this
was to address my heating worries - and he didn't lay the tubing under the
24" cabinet perimeter. Is it correct to use 50% more tubing than is normally
necessary?
Nope. It's correct to put in the correct calculated amount.
5. Ok, this is what I'm horrified of - he didn't insulate the slab.
You got issues, homes.
Originally, he said he WOULD be putting some insulation on the slab, and
then lay the tubing on top. But after it was all done, with the rest of the
floor poured over it and the tile man had laid his floor and had gone --
after that -- I asked him about the insulation below, and he broke me the
news -- "we couldn't put the insulation bed under the tubing because that
would have raised the floor height too high -- you would have hated it."
It's his job to A) do it right, B) discuss signifigant
changes to the specs with you *before* not *after* and C) make sure
that any plan he comes up with meets code, meets requirements, and
works.
Shocked and a bit worried about the lack of insulation on the slab, I asked
him if that would affect the ability to heat up the room satisfactorily or
create a heating cost issue -- he said "no, it won't be an issue, don't
worry about it."
You got this in writing, right ?
Worried about the issue last night, I called him and he said he'd come over
and talk about next steps with me today. He's mentioned a few things, like
insulating the perimeter of the slab (outside the house), installing a stand
alone water heater in the basement just for the extension heat (my 80 year
old boiler, while it heats the main house fine, might no be well suited to
handle this radiant area he says)... so basically, he's talking about plan
B's with me now.
No, he already installed Plan B, now he's talking with you
about how to get you to shut up about it.
Let's look back at that 180 degree thing at the top now - if
you're supplying 180 degree water now, what does he propose a new
water heater is going to do for you ? Does he suggest that the 180 is
too low ( bull**** ) ? If not, if you have plenty of hot water going
in now, and the problem is too much heat loss ( it comes back cool ),
a new water heater will do exactly nothing for you.
My question is this... is NOT insulating the slab below the heating tubes a
fatal flaw ? that dooms any solution short of jack hammering the whole place
and starting over?
Can't see it from here, but it sure sounds like you're ****ed.
I hope you have a good contract that requires him to meet
performance specs. If he left out slab insulation that was in the
contract and you didn't sign off on it, you have his ass
dead-to-rights in court for non-performance. Whatever you do, do not
sign anything further at this point, like change orders, new work
orders, etc - it might be construed as a 'constructive waiver' - check
with your legal beagle as to what that means. It lets the contractor
off the hook.
Thanks for any assistance.
Tom
Paul ( pjm @ pobox . com ) - remove spaces to email me
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