Bill Kibbel

Is radon really a concern there in the Phillipines?

Looks like something that will protect the structure for a very long time. I gotta ask though, why not terne? I'm sure you thought about it. It would have been fun to do standing seams with hips.

The most serious concern is the misidentification of the neutral conductor.

It's Preservation Brief 42. I uploaded a pdf - click on the Library menu tab.

If it's cast stone, there are many products available for consolidating, repair and protection that certainly can't be used with limestone. One of the Preservation Briefs deals exclusively with cast stone. There's some info about spalling/erosion/deterioration and repair methods that might be useful here.

Are we sure it's not cast stone? It's hard to tell from the pictures. I think I'm just not seeing what I expected for limestone.

That's cool Rob. Great to see a group keep at it. I was in a band in the late 70s. 2 different bands in the 80s. Then the day job (career), wife and kids meant no more time for that stuff. 2 of the old band mates are still playing gigs.

It's not unusual for a steam boiler to fail very, very early. You usually don't see a leak with a boiler —running hot or standing cold. You would have to manually flood the boiler to find a leak. Many leaks are first detected when steam turns to vapor emitting from the chimney flue. I try to run the heck out of steam boilers, while going outside a few times to see the top of the chimney. I've found many failures and one of them was only 8 years old. Almost all of the newer boilers failing is mostly due to the near-boiler piping being incorrectly installed. The piping has to be specifically configured to compensate for being so much smaller than the old steamers. See: https://historicbldgs.com/steam_heat.html Yes, the boiler needs to be checked out for possible failure. It could be helpful if you can show us a pic of the piping.

Water flow switch. No water flow= no fire burners.

Yes, there's a beveled plastic coupling washer. Fixing leaks at that joint are usually a matter of tightening the coupling nut or sometimes realigning. Most often, the leak is from above - at the stopper arm assembly or around the strainer body. flange. I'd go ahead replace the chrome-plated tailpiece too.

The good ole days!

I'm looking at little photos on my phone and there's a lot of important stuff not shown. I'll just say that my first reaction to each photo was on audible "ouch".

Multi-pin usually turns out to be for a directional antenna with controller for the rotor.

I think there are a couple manufacturers of systems with air handlers paired with "slim" outdoor units. If you grab the model #s, you can check compatibility. I've found no difference in operation. But, it's more likely for the systems with the slim outdoor units to have inverter tech and some have the hyper heat for really cold climates.