Tedious assembly

For the past couple of nights we've been working on the mechanics side of the heat system. This really hasn't been much fun, though I suspect that we'll be getting to the fun part soon enough. But until then, it's a lot of planning.

The other thing that frustrates is not having the correct elbow fitting, reducer, threaded brass adapter, or whatever else comes up as we build this system. The radiant package and the furnace package both supply the bulk of what we need, but we have to come up with everything else based on how we choose to route and connect all of this. Not having one adapter (or the right size wrench) can stop our progress for the night. That's one hard thing about our after-hours renovation schedule.

Do plumbers ever walk on to a job like this and sit there for several hours, scratching their head about where to begin mounting hardware, or do they just fly by the seat of their pants? I'm guessing that they understand the flexibilities and limitations of the hardware and know what to concern themselves with and what not to.

I can't even think of any way to make what we're doing at this stage sound interesting. Things will get more interesting when we break out the torch and our network of copper and brass starts to take form. Until then, here's a picture of what we got done over the past two nights. And yes, it took a great amount of measuring and planning just to come up with the placement of the plywood and 2x4 mounting panels and shelves.

- John

The circulation pump for the furnace will mount to the bottom shelf. The heat exchanger is sittng there on the second shelf. A horizontal assembly of gauges and valves will mount to the plate at the top, and then tubing will run to the wall and round the corner on the right. That's where our mixing valve, radiant pumps, and copper manifolds will be mounted.