# removing old boiler?



## megs4413 (Jun 17, 2008)

we replaced the heating and cooling system in our house two years ago, but did not remove the old boiler. We don't know how to go about removing it. Does anyone know what to do? I've called many, many HVAC professionals, but they all say they don't handle removal. What do I do? :huh:


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## geo fan (Jun 12, 2008)

*there is a reason*

remember most old boilers contain asbestos and knowing that most havc guys avoid this like the plauge huge liability if it does and they wont know till they open it up if this toubles you it should i recomend hireing an abaitment company to strip the esbestoes or do a esbestoes inspection then a sledge hammer and glasses the cast iron breakes surprisingly easy


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

The inconvenient truth is that asbestos is one of the most abundant minerals in the earth's crust, and anyone living on this planet is exposed to it every time they go outdoors.

Did you know that the airborne asbestos fiber count in the parks in the San Fransisco area is 50 times higher than the OSHA would allow in a workplace without requiring the employer to provide special breathing protection to their employers? It's true. Virtually all of the bedrock in California has a high asbestos content, and they crush this rock to make the gravel for the roads through the parks. When cars drive over those roads, the dust they kick up has an extremely very high asbestos fiber count. Ditto with almost all of Virginia and the whole area around the Great Lakes. The good people of the city of Duluth is in a high asbestos area, and every rain erodes the exposed rock and soils in the area washing asbestos fibers into the lake where Duluth gets it's drinking water. A person in Duluth swallows over 3000 asbestos fibers in every glass of drinking water they consume.

But, asbestos is a three sided coin. It can cause lung disease in people, but the vast majority of people don't seem to suffer any problems from occasional exposure to even high concentrations of it. The people in San Fransisco and Duluth live long healthy lives too. And, there was a time when automotive brake shoes had asbestos in them, but no one ever noticed a propensity for mechanics that worked in brake shops to die from lung related diseases.

Lead solder is much the same thing. For 50 years hundreds of thousands of stay at home moms raised their kids at home, some of them living in older homes with threaded iron plumbing and some living in newer homes with lead soldered copper plumbing. Yet, no one ever noticed that stay at home moms and new born babies in newer homes were any sicker than people that lived in older homes. Yet they've banned lead solder for supply piping, just in case.

Truth is, we just plain don't know why some people get sick and die from asbestos at 36 years old, and other people can live to 95 years old in San Fransisco and still be in remarkably good health.

Megs:

A cast iron boiler will have long steel bolts going through it that hold the boiler sections together. If you take the cover off the boiler and remove the insulation (with a dust mask over your mouth) you should find those long draw bolts. Removing the nuts from those bolts or cutting through the bolts with a saw or torch will allow you to pull the sections apart. You may have to use something like a masonary chisel to spread the sections apart because they'll be pressed together pretty tightly. Anyhow, the trick to taking a boiler apart is to remove the two, three or four long draw bolts through it, and then you can remove the sections of the boiler one by one.

Every HVAC contractor that installs boilers will tell you how to take one apart because they normally do that before installing the new boiler.


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## hvactech (Mar 11, 2007)

go to craigslist and post it on the free stuff section, something like "free boiler for scrap metal" someone will take it.


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## ABH Co. (May 24, 2009)

*easy(er,ish) way to get boiler out of basement*

My most recent boiler removal was a 900 lb, 3 section unit, which was a steam boiler converted years ago to a hot water system. It did have asbestos insulation on the jacket(sheet metal covering with a corrugated cardboard looking type of asbestos sheet) I first stripped off the oil burner, jacket, and all inlet/outlet piping with a 48" pipe wrench. Next, I cut the section retaining bolts with a recip. saw/metal blade. Then, I used a Rotary hammer with a chisel bit and chiseled the sections loose where the press plug fittings hold them together--that was the easy part. Each separate section still weighed in at about 300 lbs., not the easiest to handle, especially by yourself. I "walked" each section to the cellar stairway(bilco stairwell) with a road ber and 2x4s for leverage. I then cut a 2x12 tu span the stairs as a ramp and used a tow chain to pull each section up and out. I've been giving the sections away on craigslist with ads for free scrap iron "you pick it up" GOOD LUCK


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