Is it still leaking or has it oxidized enough to stop the leak? If so, paint over it and forget about it. Waiting for oxidation is what the manufacturer suggested. I don't like it, because there is no ETA. Meanwhile, our new wooden floor is about to start rotting under it. If it's a pipe threaded plug that's leaking, redo it. The manufacturer is giving us the plugs, but the plumber wants several thousands of dollars for that job. Supposedly, the old ones need to be "drilled" out... Perhaps, we can get someone else to do it for (much) less, but it is still incredibly frustrating.

Hello to you all. I have been meaning to drop in and give you an update on the performance of our new Triangle Tube Solo 300 boiler. Having read all the posts, I can reaffirm that the cast iron rads will never be really hot as they were with our old 1919 steel boiler but the heating is very satisfactory. We have an 8 unit apartment building four storeys high and I am at the top of the building. I keep the thermostat which is installed in the hall of my unit at 21 Celsius which is the law here in Toronto for heat temperature of Apartment buildings. At night, thermostat goes down to 19 Celsius till I get up at six am. On the first, second and third floors, rads are hotter than on the top floor, This puzzles me but I figure that once the stat hits 21 Celsius, the pump or whatever kind of slows down so my long living room cast iron rads only get heated all the way across when it is really cold. We have the reset outdoors and the little boiler is a marvel. It sits on its little steel table in the old boiler pit and is so quiet. It vents a light warm vapour, no smell, out the side of the building. We are awaiting the first natural gas bill. I will keep you informed of savings over last year.

The answer to your question about "miracle chemicals" is "oh hell no!" How long ago were these installed? You need a good answer from your plumber/manufacturer and one that doesn't involve a dime out of your pocket. Look, you have a defective product/installation. If it's a year or less, they absolutely need to stand behind the entire cost of repair. More importantly, they need to assure you that the actual problem has been addressed - you don't want to be replacing all of these in 3 years.

I'm reading it, kats! I'm embarking on a two-pronged window project at my 108-year-old house. One part is restoring and repairing the remaining original windows. Most of them are in perfectly good condition, but entombed in paint and caulk and missing their cords. Nothing we can't fix. A couple are rotten beyond repair, but our local wood window guy can replicate them. The other (and very expensive) part is is replacing the horrible vinyl replacement windows with proper wood windows (by the same guy - his workshop's whole business is building old style wood windows for historic/old buildings). Oh, and then the side project is commissioning a stained glass guy to make us new transom panes and landing window, as all the stained glass was stripped from this house long ago. That'll be once I've saved for a decade or won the lottery. I hope to have window and interior trim restoration done before we start a family, but I bought myself a very nice respirator. I'll say this about old windows - there are few things more satisfying than opening a giant and heavy yet perfectly balanced hung window sash with a single finger. It is the most epic manifestation of man's mastery of the concept leverage and the invention of the pulley. You can't do that with vinyl replacements. maifleur01 , it's important to know that the buyers of old houses (specifically those who buy old houses BECAUSE they are old houses) have different standards and "checklists" from typical buyers. Things that are attractive (or non-issues) in a typical contemporary house become massive detractors in an old house. Modern replacement windows are a big one, also updated layouts (especially newfangled open ones), new (replacement) finishes, carpet, "updated" forced air heating systems (forced air is LESS EFFICIENT than hot water radiators, did you know?), addition of anachronistic details like can lights and other silliness, etc. I see updated modern kitchens and bathrooms in old houses as a neutral, because while it's nice to have a decent kitchen and bathroom in the meantime, I'm going to tear them out anyway and redo them to match the house better (out of all the Victorians and Craftsmans we looked at, I did not see a single kitchen, newly done or falling apart, that I liked or felt was appropriate for the house. If you're a seller, you might as well spare yourself the cash and headache. There are a bunch of dumb shoddy things the previous owner of my house did to put it on the market, like paint the rooms dumb trendy colors, that we are systematically undoing. Luckily she didn't do anything beyond superficial "improvements". At the end of the day, less is better. Us old house buyers tend to be fixer upper types, so I'd rather fix an old house in an unadulterated state than fix an old house that's been remuddled and mucked up, because after I rip out all the dumb changes put in to make the house "more appealing" on the market, then I still have to fix an old house anyway.