[Danny_Ocean]

107 year old house in SJC?!? 3 mil in woodwork? Steam-vented radiators?

squared...

Originally Posted by snowman

Old steam systems always includes a steam vent on every radiator. I know I own a 107 year old house that used them. When the system was updated to a modern, closed system, boiler about 8 years ago the vents no longer vented steam. One year later the 100 year old wood, was apparently not seasoned yet as it began splitting, big time. Solid oak doors with 1/2" gaps in the wood, Oak panels split everywhere. Must have been the low quality old growth oak without any knots or defects that did it.

If you replace radiators that vented steam, like all of them did at one time, you MUST introduce a humidifier or you will lose your wood work. The replacement value of the wood work that I lost is about 3 Million dollars. The relative humidity, in the winter, with dry heat is about 10% to 15%. Bloody nose, endless static electricity, and lost woodwork, and furniture result. Those old guys apparently knew what they were doing when they built those grand old houses. They included necessary humidity in the winter.

The following is an example of some of the woodwork. Unfortunately the resolution is insufficient to see the gaps in the door panels.