How to plan for phased cellar improvements? Phase 1: oil to gas.

Our Brooklyn townhouse has a an unfinished cellar, with a lowish ceiling, an oil burner in a fire-walled room, a fire-wall around the stairway and an intake vent the runs from the boiler room toward the hatch.

Long term goal is to have a finished basement and gas conversion but cannot bear the expense of the whole project in the short term (specifically the excavation).

I’m interested in doing the oil to gas conversion soon but want to do it in a way that frees up as much space as possible in the short term and makes sense in light of later-phase hoped-for improvements.

I understand that there are wall-mounted gas burners, this seems like a good option if we will later excavate.

If I switch to gas can I remove the fire-walls around the stairway and boiler room? (from a code point of view that is — I know I need to keep my two piers that hold up the center beam). Will I still need the air intake for gas?

What sort of vendor(s) do I need to work with to ac complish this… I get that I need a plumber and a contractor but who do I need to work with to get an overall code-compliant plan?

Specific recommendations for vendors are welcome as well.

allinone

in Renovation 7 years and 3 months ago

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zlapqtorekgljwxy | 7 years and 3 months ago

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i don’t know about that, you’d have to talk to an expediter/code consultant/engineer. the oil tank removal might be painful because of all the paperwork required to confirm that it’s done by-the-book in terms of disposal and cleanup etc.

allinone | 7 years and 3 months ago

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Great info thanks! How about the firewall around the stairs, would that still be required? @eman I’m still in the info gathering phase. Will follow up in a few weeks I expect.

eman134 | 7 years and 3 months ago

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Drop me an email at errol832000@hotmail.com I design and install gas fired heating systems I can recommend a great engineer for the filing with the DOB and appropriate vendors for the oil tank removal with fire dept letter of removal,etc… BTW wall hung boilers are high efficiency units which only work with hydronic (hot water) systems so if you have steam heat you need to install a plain vanilla boiler

allinone | 7 years and 3 months ago

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Yes the oil tank is in the basement. 275 gallons looking forward to reclaiming that space as well.

zlapqtorekgljwxy | 7 years and 3 months ago

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you need a mechanical engineer to draw up a plan for the city to sign off on. you’ll also still need the fresh air intake for the boiler room and the boiler room will still need to be fireproof. is your oil tank in the basement?