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Considering a great old house, but it has a 100 year old asbestos covered boiler - what to do?

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Considering a great old house, but it has a 100 year old asbestos covered boiler - what to do? vferdman 10-15-2006
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Posted by on October 15, 2006, 1:00 am


Hi. I am in the market for a house in Western Massachusetts. I have a
really nice house in mind, but one of the things that scares me is the
boiler. The house is about 100 years old and the boiler looks
original. It is big and ball-shaped and covered in asbestos. Seller
says there has been no problems with the boiler and they used
relatively little oil (it is oil fired) to heat the house last year
(about 900 gallons of oil for the season for a 2200 sq feet house in
New England). I am not sure what to do. Should i get rid of the
boiler right away or just keep using it? I need to figure out what
kind of an offer to put on the house and this boiler issue is really
confusing me. The question is: is it ok to assume this boiler will
last for a while or will I have to replace it pretty much before moving
in? The rest of the house is in great shape and is well-maintained.
Actually, the boiler is also well-maintained and is fully functional.
Help!


--
Vladimir


Tankless Water Heaters 468x60
Posted by Malcolm Hoar on October 15, 2006, 1:15 am


vferdman@gmail.com wrote:
>Hi. I am in the market for a house in Western Massachusetts. I have a
>really nice house in mind, but one of the things that scares me is the
>boiler. The house is about 100 years old and the boiler looks
>original. It is big and ball-shaped and covered in asbestos. Seller
>says there has been no problems with the boiler and they used
>relatively little oil (it is oil fired) to heat the house last year
>(about 900 gallons of oil for the season for a 2200 sq feet house in
>New England). I am not sure what to do. Should i get rid of the
>boiler right away or just keep using it? I need to figure out what
>kind of an offer to put on the house and this boiler issue is really
>confusing me. The question is: is it ok to assume this boiler will
>last for a while or will I have to replace it pretty much before moving
>in? The rest of the house is in great shape and is well-maintained.
>Actually, the boiler is also well-maintained and is fully functional.

Chances are you won't have to replace the boiler immediately.
The chances are you will have to replace it eventually. It
would be prudent to plan on replacing it sooner rather than
later.

Just get one or two estimates for a replacement (including
proper disposal of the old unit). Then you'll know for
(reasonably) sure what your actual financial exposure is.
It should then be relatively simple to craft your offer
accordingly. You'll probably have to hit the phone pretty
hard on Monday morning in order to get those estimates
done quickly however.

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| malch@malch.com Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by RBM on October 15, 2006, 7:36 am


The old boiler will probably last another 100 years, but its efficiency is
probably so poor, that it would pay to have it replaced. Many plumbers won't
touch the asbestos covering, so you may have to have a special company
remove it first, which is not the big deal it used to be. While you don't
need to do this immediately, changing it will ultimately be the most cost
effective thing to do


> Hi. I am in the market for a house in Western Massachusetts. I have a
> really nice house in mind, but one of the things that scares me is the
> boiler. The house is about 100 years old and the boiler looks
> original. It is big and ball-shaped and covered in asbestos. Seller
> says there has been no problems with the boiler and they used
> relatively little oil (it is oil fired) to heat the house last year
> (about 900 gallons of oil for the season for a 2200 sq feet house in
> New England). I am not sure what to do. Should i get rid of the
> boiler right away or just keep using it? I need to figure out what
> kind of an offer to put on the house and this boiler issue is really
> confusing me. The question is: is it ok to assume this boiler will
> last for a while or will I have to replace it pretty much before moving
> in? The rest of the house is in great shape and is well-maintained.
> Actually, the boiler is also well-maintained and is fully functional.
> Help!
>
>
> --
> Vladimir
>



Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on October 15, 2006, 7:40 am



> It is big and ball-shaped and covered in asbestos. Seller
> says there has been no problems with the boiler and they used
> relatively little oil (it is oil fired) to heat the house last year
> (about 900 gallons of oil for the season for a 2200 sq feet house in
> New England).
>. The question is: is it ok to assume this boiler will
> last for a while or will I have to replace it pretty much before moving
> in?

Could last another 20 years, could last another 2 months. Figure that it
will have to be replaced at some point and take that into consideration in
your offer. Local oil dealer will probably be able to give you a ball park
price easily as they have probably done many of them and know what is
involved.

The 900 gallons for that size house seems reasonable.



Posted by tmurf.1 on October 15, 2006, 8:22 am



Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
> > It is big and ball-shaped and covered in asbestos. Seller
> > says there has been no problems with the boiler and they used
> > relatively little oil (it is oil fired) to heat the house last year
> > (about 900 gallons of oil for the season for a 2200 sq feet house in
> > New England).
> >. The question is: is it ok to assume this boiler will
> > last for a while or will I have to replace it pretty much before moving
> > in?
>
> Could last another 20 years, could last another 2 months. Figure that it
> will have to be replaced at some point and take that into consideration in
> your offer. Local oil dealer will probably be able to give you a ball park
> price easily as they have probably done many of them and know what is
> involved.
>
> The 900 gallons for that size house seems reasonable.

One thing is for sure, the boiler you replace it with will not last
100 years.


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