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.

Hunter, If you tub is a real old tub, it was probably a sand casting, and old sand castings are very dificult to weld. We do restoration work, and we had an old six piece metal fireplace harth, and the horizontal top (the mantel) was cracked, and a small 1 1/2" x 6" piece was broken off. None of the local shops around hear would touch the project. I ended up at our local CC talking to the dir. of the weling program, who turned the repair into a live project for one of the welding classes. We had three welds, 2 aprox 4-6" and the other Aprox 2". The metal mantel was aprox 9" D x 60" W. We were concerned that the heat from the welding would crack the top, so they chose to use TIG, and placed the mantel on a LARGE steel bench. The 1st weld went great, then as it was cooling, we started to get additional cracks in the top due to the cooling. We then placed lots of sand over the mantel, and had several students using Oxy Acc. keep the sand warm, along with the exposed portion of the mantel. The rest of the repair went extreamly well, and it took about 20-30 minutes to slowly cool down the repair work. One of the kids had one of those digital point thermoters, so we used that to monitor the cool down process. Since then, we've done some of our own repairs, using about the same process and have had good results. I hope this helps

Thanks for all of the responses. Before I address them, I think I'd like to give some background on why this kitchen means so much to me. I love to cook, so the primary purpose of my kitchen is to be functional. Honestly, the most functional kitchen I've ever had was my small galley kitchen in an apartment in Hoboken, NJ. The secondary purpose is to be beautiful, in my eyes. I have never had anything that approaches a beautiful kitchen. The kitchen I have now was an '80's kitchen in a house built in the '90's so was outdated when I bought it when it was 4 years old. The cabinets are golden oak with arched rasied panels. The wallpaper looked like it belonged in a bathroom, the backsplash was pinkish, glossy tile and the laminate countertop was that fakey "marble" which also verged on pink. See below: I did change out the wallpaper to something bright and cheerful that I hated to take down for the "refresh" we did for eventual sale of the house. But, I did know that it had to go. For the refresh we also installed Giallo Napoleon counters, a lovely stainless finish pullout faucet, a new Ticor sink and DH ripped out the tile and redid the backsplash in tumbled marble with onyx accents. The cabinets are staying unless a real estate agent says otherwise because there are houses selling in our area that still have those cabinets and everything else that was original. So, really, not a bad kitchen, but nothing to make your heart go pitty-pat. What y'all need to know about is "The Kitchen from the Ninth Circle of Hell" hereinafter referred to as the NCH kitchen. This was the kitchen in the my first house which I bought with my EX in NJ. Take the absolute worst kitchen you have ever seen in "before" pictures on GardenWeb and raise that to the Nth power and you might approach the NCH kitchen. Let me 'splain. The house was a Dutch Colonial Revival built in the 1920's and owned by an artist. It had good bones and the original chestnut floors and trim restored, but everything else was bizarre. The foyer and the bathroom had kitchen foil crumbled, smoothed out and then applied to the walls with Elmer's glue. The light fixture in the parlor was an inverted barstool and in the dining room it was an old wooden table with lights laid on top. The EX did replace the latter because you could smell smoldering wood when the lights were on high and he thought it _might_ be a fire hazard. There's more. But, the NCH kitchen - OMG! The floor was a vinyl made to look like red brick with grime so ground into it that I could never get it clean. The countertops were fire engine red laminate. The trim was painted another bright red. The wallpaper was a white background with huge red and black poppies. But, the thing that totally broke my spirit was that the wallpaper was applied to all the cabinets, as well. I don't think NCH kitchen is even adequate. Was there a tenth circle of hell? Now, of course, after clearing safety hazards like wooden tables used as light fixtures, one would think that the next upgrade would be the kitchen, right? No, not with my EX. The plans were drawn, the money was sitting in the bank from a refi for the reno and he never would agree to go ahead with it. Years later, we relocated to TX and once we moved out of the house, he had the kitchen reno along with a bath reno, painting, etc. done so that we could lease out the house. So, I had a beautiful kitchen in NJ which I never even got to see, much less enjoy. Fast forward to 2010 and dearest DH & I (notice the EX is an EX - wonder why?) are planning to build our forever home. I want it to be classic; I want it to be perfect; I want it to be everything that I never had. And ... DH just doesn't like dark countertops like soapstone so a truly CWK is not in the cards. Does it sound like I am repeating a pattern of subjugating my wants and needs to that of a man? Not, really & here's why: Just after Christmas, we put DD on a plane to begin 6 months of missionary work halfway around the world. On the way home, we stopped at a slabyard along the freeway just to distract ourselves. As we walked from slab to slab, DH kept falling in love with each choice wilder than the last. When we got home, I stewed a bit (never a good thing), and burst out with "You're not going to let me have the beautiful kitchen that I want!" and began to boohoo. In the midst of the sobs, I told him about the NCH kitchen. At the end he had tears in his eyes & said, "If I could have fixed it for you then, I would have. And, if I had ever known, I would have redone this kitchen right after we got married so you could have had what you wanted for all these years." That's all I needed; he understood. We're a team and teammates make compromises for each other. Large amounts of black/gray bother him, so no soapstone. The ideal of the CWK isn't worth having him uncomfortable all the time. We both adore granite, so granite it is and we'll have our own version of a "Not So Classic White Kitchen", but it will be ours and not someone's ideal that would never quite fit. Thanks for all of the understanding & support - Jo Ann P.S. I showed DH the pictures of of dotcomgone's wonderful white kitchen & he said, "Wow! I really like that marble." Luckily, I have a lot of hair, because otherwise it might all be gone by the end of this build from constantly pulling it out. LOL!!!!

I had a similar situation. The only countertop I have is built over my undermount, Koehler farm sink, "Hawthorne." It's discontinued & they had no touch up kits. Mine was damaged because it sat on my garage floor for 2 years with water softener overflow, crap sitting in it, all kinds of stuff my STBX said didn't matter because it was enamel over cast iron. Well, cast iron rusts & up under the apron, I noticed it was well after it was installed. At the same time I noticed a kind of "slice" into the enamel in the bowl. It took a particular light to see it, but I could. They were actually wonderful. The only thing they could offer was to replace the sink because even with the horrible wear and tear it took due to OUR negligence, it shouldn't have been damaged. I can't afford to have my sink torn out, countertop ruined, just to put a new one in. I know I'm the only one who could see the slice, and the rust is underneath with a tiny bit on the not so evident corner. I told them to send it, though. So I have a brand new one sitting in my barn. At 150 lbs? Not changing anytime soon. How many people have TWO of their $1500 sinks! [LOL] I realize this doesn't help you at all, but I thought you might want to know they do try. Within their boundries, I guess. Good luck with your sink & contractors. It's heartbreaking to find something you just love is broken. Christine