Hi, thanks for responding! The radiator does have its air bleeder valve, and the air was let out. My first thought would be the vent on the radiator is clogged, shut, or needs to be replaced. Hi peteinsonj, by "vent on the radiator", do you mean the bleeder valve? Or something else? Finally have the plumber explain why a pump needs to be added where one did not previously exist. I assume prior to the renovation this radiator heated properly. This was my thought exactly! Prior to the reno, this radiator was a maybe a little slower than the other 3 on the second floor. However, it did heat up. My spouse says that during their heat test this morning, it remained completely cold. Hi mike_home, yes, the PEX lines are still exposed. My understanding from what my spouse said happened is that the PEX lines were also cold, and they traced back to a point all the way back to the basement where the boiler feeds it. (Which makes me think that the issue is close to there, but, I could be wrong). In terms of an explanation, the plumber is saying that this used to be a gravity-fed system, and then somewhere along the line, the owners put in multiple zones and circulators, so no wonder it needs a pump now. (Me: huh?). What I don't see is how it was working one way in May (given how cold and long our winter was), with all its same circulators and zones "stuff" and now is not working at all after their replacement work. :-) Of course -- they SHOULD have used PEX with the same inside diameter as the previous pipe. From looking at the PEX lines, I am pretty sure that they are *not* the same inside diameter as the previous pipes, but are smaller. The previous pipes were the old cast iron ones, that are 2 inches in diameter on the outside (there are still some in the house feeding the other radiators, so I can measure those). While I don't know what the diameter is inside the previous cast iron pipes, I would bet it was larger than the PEX lines. So, peteinsonj, you probably hit the nail on the head with the diameter of the line. Thanks again for your input! I'm not sure how to approach it now, but they're coming back for another heating test in the morning, so we'll see.

I too live in CA and had old Galv piping. I re-modeled the place last year and went with pex. I prefer copper, but the water is hard and low ph, so pex it is. Eliminating all the old piping has been great. The "ring around the toilet bowl" has disappeared. The aerators are clean. Be aware that running a lot of fittings on pex creates a lot of "bushings" which lead to pressure reduction. The inside diameter of a 1/2" pex fitting is about 5/16". Just be careful in your lay-out. Re-pipe. You will be happy with it.

Well, after multiple phone calls, and a call to the inspector asking for advice, one of the plumber's "boys" has come in, literally hat in hand, with a job order to do the work at no charge. He says they "didn't know" it was code, and wasn't in their copy of the code book, and that, furthermore, the city guy wasn't a "real" plumbing inspector. Say what?! He's been there 25 years, has the uniform, the truck, and the badge. I am just floored. This is a large company with multiple crews, and I have dealt with them for nearly thirty years, albeit, never on a complete replumb.

When we were looking for a house, here in the wild wild west of SoCal, there was one listing that just seemed too good to be true. It was a listing for two great little houses on the same property in a nice neighborhood. Live in one, rent one kind of deal. But the asking price was really, really low. Even below the frequent "I'll list it low to create a bidding war" that you see a lot of around here. My realtor did some digging and discovered the reason for the lowball asking price... The second house was completely unpermitted. I can't remember if the area was even zoned for multi family or not but someone built an entire second house on their property without getting any approval from anyone. And no one noticed! It seemed kind of crazy to me. We decided to pass on looking at that one.