Syracuse and the surrounding Onondaga County area
Boiler Replacement for Radiator and Baseboard Heat in Syracuse
Replace the boiler that feeds your radiators or baseboard, sized against the house and the rooms it actually has to heat.
Boiler Replacement quote
Tell us what your heat comes out of: radiators, baseboard or floor loops, steam or hot water, and whether the boiler makes your hot water too. We will line up a licensed, insured contractor who works in hydronic houses rather than around them.
Would you rather talk it through? Call (315) 640-3590, answered 24/7.
$100 off your first job
Credited by us on your first booked job.
- One credit per customer per property, on your first booked job.
- Valid through December 31, 2026.
Mention this offer when you book. Full terms.
What replacing a boiler involves in a radiator house
A boiler heats water or makes steam and sends it out to radiators, baseboard or floor loops. It is a different appliance from a furnace, it is replaced differently, and in this part of the country it is far more common than national content suggests: the Energy Information Administration puts 27.9 percent of Middle Atlantic homes on a steam or hot water system against 7.5 percent nationally. The work covers the appliance, the near boiler piping, the circulators or zone valves, the expansion tank and pressure relief, the controls, the venting, and the domestic hot water arrangement where the boiler also makes it. The sizing question is the same one a furnace faces and reaches this job the same way, because the energy code's alteration rules point new heating systems in an existing house straight back at the section that carries the Manual J and Manual S requirement.
- Gas fired hot water boiler replacement
- Steam boiler replacement on a one pipe or two pipe system
- Oil fired boiler replacement, and oil to gas changeover where a main is at the street
- Condensing boiler installation with a new vent route
- Room by room heating load calculation for a hydronic house
- Near boiler piping, circulators, zone valves and manifolds
- Expansion tank, air separation and pressure relief
- Indirect water heater where the boiler also makes the domestic hot water
- Liner sizing where the boiler leaves a shared masonry chimney
- Radiator and baseboard survey, including emitters added or removed over the years
- Controls, zoning and outdoor reset
- Permit application and the municipal inspection where the town asks for one
Why two boiler quotes on the same house come out differently
A boiler quote is priced off the system, not off the appliance. What the radiators are, what the pipework does and what the chimney is left carrying all move it before the model number does.
Steam or hot water
The Energy Information Administration counts them together and they are not one job. Steam and hot water systems differ in the piping, the controls, the venting arrangement and what can sensibly be changed, and a proposal that does not say which one your house has was not written for your house.
The emitters the house actually has now
Radiators get taken out during kitchen work, enclosed during remodeling and added onto in an extension, and nothing records it. NYSERDA describes a load calculation as room by room work, measuring each space and its exposure, which is also the only way anyone finds out what the current system is really being asked to do.
What the boiler vents into
Section M1801.3 of the Residential Code of New York State applies the moment an appliance is disconnected from or connected to an existing chimney, and requires the chimney to be resized as necessary to control condensation inside it and to give whatever is left the draft it needs. For oil fired appliances vented to masonry it points at NFPA 31 specifically.
Whether the boiler also makes the hot water
A boiler with a tankless coil or an indirect tank is doing two jobs, and the replacement has to carry both. It also changes what is left on the chimney afterwards, which is the same orphaned appliance question a furnace house faces.
The fuel, and whether it arrives by pipe or by truck
One home in five in the town of Skaneateles heats from a tank on the property rather than a gas main, the highest rate in Onondaga County, and Marcellus is at 9.1 percent on oil or bottled gas. A delivered fuel house replacing a boiler is making a genuine fuel decision, not a like for like swap.
The input rating against a city mechanical license class
Inside the city of Syracuse the Board of Mechanical Examiners caps boiler work by class: a Class C Residential license covers boilers up to 399 MBH input and a Class B Limited license up to 2,000 MBH. It is one of the few credentials in this trade a homeowner can check and have the answer mean something.
Which code office answers for the address
Liverpool names replacement boilers on its own permit list. Salina names additions or new heating systems. Baldwinsville has adopted a local energy code modified after NYStretch that applies to altered buildings as well as new ones. The village line matters more than the county here.
The age of the building around the pipework
More than half the housing in the city of Syracuse predates 1950 and only 6.4 percent of it was built this century. Marcellus village runs 38.4 percent built in 1939 or earlier. In housing that old, heat was frequently added after the fact, which is where awkward pipe runs and undersized venting come from.
A radiator house is not a furnace house
More than one home in four in this part of the country heats with water, and the quote should read like somebody noticed.
From the radiator survey to commissioning
Walk the system, not just the boiler room
Every radiator or run of baseboard, which rooms they serve, which have been removed or boxed in, where the zones split and how the hot water is made. A boiler proposal written from the basement alone is a proposal written from the nameplate.
Calculate the load room by room
NYSERDA's description applies here as much as to a furnace: measured areas, insulation values, window orientation, and a blower door test for air tightness. It also advises asking what you plan for the next five to ten years, because a house about to be insulated needs a smaller appliance than the house as it stands.
Select the appliance and design the near boiler piping
Manual S selection against the calculated load, then the pumping, zoning and air removal that surround it. The piping immediately around a boiler is where a good installation and an average one visibly differ, and it is worth asking to see it drawn.
Settle the venting and the chimney
Whether the new appliance stays on the chimney or vents out a wall, what is left on the flue afterwards, and who has priced the liner. New York's residential code puts duties on that chimney at the moment the appliance changes, and the snowfall normal here of 123.8 inches decides how high a sidewall termination should sit.
Permit and scheduling
Where the municipality requires one, and Skaneateles village will not issue without a copy of liability and workers compensation insurance and a signed job proposal carrying an accurate project cost. Only about five months of the year allow a heating system to be out of service for a day in comfort, so the shoulder seasons are the sensible window.
Installation and commissioning
Old appliance out, new one set and piped, the system filled, purged of air and brought up to pressure, the controls set and each zone proved. Air in a hydronic system is the most common reason a new boiler gets blamed for a cold radiator in its first month.
Inspection and handover
The municipal inspection where a permit was pulled, and you should end up holding the load calculation, the equipment paperwork and the permit record.
What boiler replacement looks like
Whether the boiler is really the thing to replace
When you may not need this at all
- If one radiator stays cold while the rest of the house is warm, that is usually air, a valve or a circulator, not an appliance at the end of its life. It is a repair and this is not that conversation.
- If the boiler is old and the house heats well, age on its own is thin evidence. The Energy Information Administration puts 31.1 percent of main heating equipment in this census division at twenty years or older.
- If what you actually want is cooling, that is a separate purchase in a hydronic house and it does not require the boiler to be touched at all. The two decisions can be made in either order.
- If the obstacle is funding rather than the work, NYSERDA operates income eligible residential programs including EmPower plus, which begins with a home energy assessment and puts air sealing and insulation ahead of the equipment recommendation. That is also the right order technically, because a tighter house needs a smaller boiler.
- If a new kitchen, an extension or insulation work is coming in the next year or two, the load the boiler should be sized against is the house you will have, not the house you have now.
What is out of scope
- Diagnosing a boiler that has stopped, is leaking or is locking out.
- Replacing individual radiators, or moving pipework beyond what the new appliance needs, unless it is written into the scope.
- Chimney rebuilding or masonry repair above the roof line.
- Oil tank removal, and remediation where a tank has leaked.
- Asbestos on old pipe insulation, which is a separately licensed trade.
- Domestic plumbing beyond the boiler and its connections.
Onondaga County towns we arrange boiler work in
- Boiler Replacement in Syracuse
- Boiler Replacement in North Syracuse
- Boiler Replacement in East Syracuse
- Boiler Replacement in Liverpool
- Boiler Replacement in Cicero
- Boiler Replacement in Clay
- Boiler Replacement in Salina
- Boiler Replacement in DeWitt
- Boiler Replacement in Manlius
- Boiler Replacement in Fayetteville
- Boiler Replacement in Camillus
- Boiler Replacement in Baldwinsville
- Boiler Replacement in Marcellus
- Boiler Replacement in Skaneateles
- Boiler Replacement in Solvay
Radiator, steam and boiler questions we get asked
Why is everything I read about replacing heating written about furnaces?
Because most of the country heats that way and this part of it does not. The Energy Information Administration's 2020 survey puts 4.48 million Middle Atlantic homes on steam or hot water, 27.9 percent, against 7.5 percent nationally. If you have radiators, national furnace and duct content is describing somebody else's house.
Does the load calculation rule apply to a boiler too?
Yes. Section M1401.3 of the Residential Code of New York State covers heating and cooling equipment without distinguishing the type, and section R503.1.2 of the state energy code sends new heating systems that are part of an alteration back to R403, which carries the same Manual S and Manual J requirement. Replacing a boiler in a ninety year old house is squarely inside that.
My boiler goes into the chimney. Does that change?
It may. Section M1801.3 applies whenever an appliance is disconnected from or connected to an existing chimney and requires it to be resized as necessary to control flue gas condensation and to provide the required draft, with oil fired appliances on masonry chimneys pointed at NFPA 31. Ask what the plan for the chimney is and whether it is inside the price.
I heat with oil or propane. Is it worth changing fuel?
It is a real question here rather than a sales line. The town of Skaneateles runs 20.3 percent on delivered fuel and Marcellus 9.1 percent, the two highest in the county, and a delivered fuel house is the case where a cold climate heat pump comparison is most likely to come out well. It is also the case where the backup plan matters most, because there is no gas main to fall back on.
Will I need a permit?
In Liverpool, yes, because the village names new and replacement boilers on its published list. Salina names additions and new heating systems. Camillus and Baldwinsville have adopted the optional exemption for a replacement that keeps the same listing and specifications, which a change from atmospheric to condensing does not. Clay publishes nothing, so a Clay address needs a telephone call to the codes office.
Start with the radiators, not the boiler
Tell us which rooms have what, and where the pipes go. That is the survey a sensible boiler proposal is built from.