Keep the heating system you have & help it out with proper insulation.

Some folks go into a renovation and think everything just needs to be torn out because it's old. In many cases this is true, however, sometimes the existing system is a wonderful way to heat and other factors are making the home inefficient, cold and costly.  The number 9 renovation project was a large, spread out, 3 bedroom apartment that had a gas boiler heating hot water radiators.  It was an expensive apartment for past tenants to heat and because of this, they had a hard time keeping up with other expenses including rent.  Again, in some cases, like the torn out steam system to the left, it may be inefficient, but in this case, the main problem was lack of insulation - number 9 was in need of some.

Experts will tell you, to save on heating costs, the number one place to insulate is the attic, so we did that first.  Then we pulled off some of the paneling on the walls to see what we had under there and found stone walls.  The paneling was glued directly to the stone with wiring just run on the other side in the mortar cracks! I expected to at least find some studs.  I did not expect ...none.  So, to add some R value and have a place to add insulation and wiring to code, we built new stud walls in front of the stone.  Since the rooms were very large, the lost space wouldn't even be noticed.  We added 1/2 inch insulation board on the back side of the studs prior to standing them up leaving a small air gap between the foam board and the stone.  Our electrician ran new wires including cable to each room and then we finished the wall with batt insulation prior to drywall.    

Because of the new walls, the radiators had to be taken out  and eventually moved out about 5 inches from their original home against the old wall.  While they were out, they were cleaned and painted with spray paint designed for heat.  The windows in the front of the house were removed and re-glazed prior to painting and re-installing them.  Even though this building is in a historic district, there are storm windows on the outside so this was a fine way to go to help with drafts.  Storm windows get a bad wrap but can do wonders, but that's for another post.

The finished product shows the clean and finished new look.  The new tenants have been there a few years now and have been satisfied with their low heating bills as well as the overall quality of their home.