Utility Room Demo and Prep

Above is a picture of the utility room and old boiler before. I have had some misgivings about the boiler because of the hot spot it was forming on the bottom right, where it had recently discolored. Also to make room for other options such as a new bathroom, we decided on a wall mounted boiler. The new boiler is meant to be used for on-demand hot water without a hot water tank and also for heat for the radiators and at some future point to add in radiant heat for upstairs.

I had hoped to install the new boiler with the old one still in place and then disconnect and reconnect plumbing at the very end, but that wasn't to be. The new boiler needed to go right where the old one was because of placement issues with the new exhaust. It turned out for the better in the long run, because working around the old boiler would have been hard and would have turned into extra work. The above picture shows the day I took out the old boiler. I asked Susan first if she was ready and willing. It ended up being over two weeks without hot water. Water was heated on the stove, Susan bathed at the Y, and I bathed in the freezing cold water. It was the coldest showers I have ever had. It was so cold it would hurt.

Also, for the purposes of increasing head room for installing the new boiler on the wall, I tore down the old plaster ceiling, lath, and support beams and reworked the ceiling to slope with the roofline. Tearing old stuff up is always the easy part. It takes no skill and not much forethought.

Next was to rewire the lights, put in a light switch which was never there before and reroute the security wiring to relocate the security panel. Then I put in recessed lights to copy the work I had done on the mudroom. Triple the amount of light as before and much better looking. Also, you can never go wrong with a little insulation, as long as you keep space in there for the lights.

Then the work began on the floor. Well, too bad for that floor, it just couldn't stay. Actually after probably a bunch of leaky pipes over the years, the original floor had rotted in half of the room. So, pulled the floor up, which happened to be the subfloor all wrapped in one. When they built the house they did not use anything that could be considered a subfloor. They simply laid the final wood flooring down on the floor joists and nailed it in place. That actually made my job a little easier. By this time the plumbing and gas lines had been removed from the room. With all that done, the easy part was finished.