Brantley Repipe

This job was really interesting. The homeowners were relatively new to the house and could provide little history on the house. They had a problem with the radiators in the bedroom over the garage. The radiators just would not heat. Neither of them. We figured the pipe had to be holding water somewhere and suspected a sag in the steam pipe feeding both radiators which was in the ceiling space over the garage. We opened a hole in the ceiling where the steam pipe enters the ceiling and we were shocked to see the pipe was starting out almost on the ceiling itself. Then we opened a hole at the area where the pipes would tee off to go to the seperate radiators. Again we were shocked. The pipes were high up in the ceiling joist space. This should have provided ample pitch to the pipe. Heck the pipe should have had crazy good pitch! But the spirit level said the pipe was pitching the wrong way! How could this be? We started out at the ceiling of the garage and the other end is up by the floor above! We walked around a bit. Eventually we ended up in the room over the garage. Then it hit us. There was a weird feel to the room. We weren't standing on the floor of a bedroom. We were standing on the roof of a single story garage. And its SLANTED! Somewhere during the life of the house a second floor bedroom was added over the garage. Those radiators NEVER worked. The pipe was pitched the wrong way since the day it was installed. Even starting at ceiling level, and ending at the floor level above, the pipe still pitched the wrong way because the original roof joists were slanted for the roof to shed rain. We repiped the steam and return pipes below the ceiling and gave them proper pitch. The room over the garage is now the best heating room in the house.

Steam pipe used to go above ceiling here. We redirected the steam pipe.

We ran supply and return below ceiling to get pitch.

We added a drip pipe to drain the new piping.

Steam trap on drip pipe.

Area where radiators branch off.

End of new piping, going to radiators.

The rest of the pictures are the same piping after we insulated it.