Dan Karachio
11-18-2010, 5:06 PM
I have an old house with a low ceiling in the basement. I can live with that, but a big area is even less useful due to low hanging galvanized pipes running from the furnace. I imagine the old coal furnace of days long ago required gravity to have the water recirculate from the furnace to the radiators. Of course now the house has a more modern furnace with a recirculating pump. Replacing all these pipes would cost a fortune, but it seems doable economically from a small section from the furnace where the pipes run the lowest (like 5 feet off the floor!). This would open things up and give my poor head a break from knocking it on these things at least once a week.
Neighbors had all their pipes replaced with very large diameter aluminum lined pex (at $6k ten years ago!). I am wondering if I could replace this section with pex like this, but in doing so, the "grading" or angle of the pipes back to the furnace would be lost. My question, with a circulating pump, is this even a problem? Perhaps up a foot then back down over a beam. Plumbers give me different opinions.
Neighbors had all their pipes replaced with very large diameter aluminum lined pex (at $6k ten years ago!). I am wondering if I could replace this section with pex like this, but in doing so, the "grading" or angle of the pipes back to the furnace would be lost. My question, with a circulating pump, is this even a problem? Perhaps up a foot then back down over a beam. Plumbers give me different opinions.