Eliminating the Boiler

One of the decisions we made early on was that we would eliminate our boiler and the radiators and change over to a furnace. The decision to do this was due to the cost of purchasing a new boiler system and the possible work that would have to be done to ensure the old pipes could withhold the pressure from a new boiler system. We were afraid that if we put in a new boiler, the pressure from the system would put stress on the old pipes and somewhere down the line we would have a very large leak. In terms of cost efficiency, a new boiler would be upwards of $20,000 and to recoup the costs would mean we would have to be in this house a very, very long time. So instead we decided that our best option was to put in a furnace and duct work as we would have all the necessary walls open to do this.

After making a few phone calls we decided to go with Douglas Plumbing and Heating. We met with the owner Neil Douglas, and liked him right away. He was honest, helpful and knew his stuff. Thus the move to forced air began.

Before Neil and his crew could come in and begin work, Markus and I had to remove the majority of the pipe that was running through the walls to the radiators, and remove the pipe in the basement that was connected to the boiler. We removed pipe from the house by cutting through it with a reciprocating saw. We fortunately found a deal at Canadian Tire for a Mastercraft reciprocating saw for $39.99. In addition to this great price, we were also fortunate enough to have teenagers working the return desk when we returned our "broken" saws multiple times, as the may have bent once or twice as we cut through the pipes.

The biggest job came when we had to remove the actual radiators from the house. We debated for quite some time as to what would work best, as the radiators on average (minus water) weighed in at over 200 pounds. I advertised them on Used Regina and Kijiji, but nobody wanted to take them off of our hands, so we were left with the task of removing them ourselves. Markus did some research on the net and found that really the best solution was to smash them to pieces. On our second "work weekend" with friends, Markus my dad and our friend Blair smashed the radiators into pieces with a sledge hammer and hauled them to the bin. The smashing of the radiators actually went faster than we thought, but dad had a few minor cuts and abrasions afterwards from the pieces of radiator that flew up at him as he smashed away.