Boiler Installation in Bearspaw
Boiler installation in Bearspaw comes with things a city lot doesn't have: well water filling the heating loop, a boiler that may run on propane or natural gas, and sometimes a heated shop or garage on the same system. Each of those changes what goes in and how it's set up. Every job starts with a free written quote.
We put new boilers onto existing radiators, baseboard and in-floor loops, fit a first boiler where a house is adding radiant heat, and install combi boilers or a boiler paired with an indirect tank for domestic hot water. The work is done by Red Seal journeyman plumbers and Alberta-licensed gas fitters, and we're licensed and insured. Jason Mounsey, one of our two owners, has more than 20 years in the trade with a focus on hydronics. For the wider picture, see our page on boilers and hot water heating.
We dispatch from both Calgary and Airdrie for boiler work in Bearspaw, as we do for our general plumbing and heating in Bearspaw. Call 587-834-3668 or send the form with the address and a description of the current system, and we'll tell you honestly when we can get there.
Planning a boiler installation in Bearspaw? Call 587-834-3668 and we'll tell you honestly when we can get there to look at the system.
Call 587-834-3668“Quick response to my urgent need for a new boiler. Pleasant, knowledgeable and efficient.”
Bill Emery
Calgary · 1 year ago
What a boiler installation in Bearspaw covers
Most jobs are one of two kinds: a new boiler going onto a heating system that's already there, or a system being built around a boiler for the first time. The quote looks quite different for each.
Replacing a boiler on existing radiators or baseboard
When the radiators, baseboard and piping are sound, most of the work happens in the mechanical room. The old boiler comes out, the new one goes in, and the pumps, controls and venting are brought up to what the new unit needs. Our page on boiler replacement walks through that swap. If the boiler might be repairable, start with boiler repair: a failed pump or control on its own doesn't mean the whole boiler has to go.
A first boiler for in-floor heat
Adding radiant heat to a house that runs on a furnace, or building it into an addition or a new slab, takes a boiler, piping out to a manifold, and tubing in the floor. The boiler is only one piece of that. Our in-floor radiant heating page covers the floor side of the system.
Combi or boiler with an indirect tank
A combi boiler heats the house and makes domestic hot water on demand from one unit, which saves room in a tight mechanical space. A boiler feeding an indirect tank stores hot water instead, which can suit a household where several showers and the laundry run at once. See combi boiler installation for the first option, and our hot water tank page if you're weighing it against keeping a separate water heater.
Shops, garages and outbuilding loops
A shop or garage loop that could freeze is commonly filled with a glycol mix rather than plain water. One manufacturer's installation manual notes that "Propylene glycol solution is commonly used in a closed loop where freeze protection is required" and that "Its specific heat is lower than that of water". Put simply, glycol carries less heat than the same flow of water, so the pumping and the boiler settings have to allow for it. Mixing, filling and testing a glycol loop is work for the installer, not a weekend project. Away from the outbuildings, the scope above is the same install work in Calgary.
Sizing the boiler to the house
A boiler that's too big for the house switches on and off more than it should, and one that's too small falls behind on the coldest nights. We size the boiler to the house, meaning its insulation, windows, air leakage and the design temperature, rather than to whatever the old unit's badge says.
What has changed since the old boiler went in
The boiler you have now was chosen for the house as it was when it went in. Since then there may be an addition, a finished basement, a bonus room over the garage, new windows or more insulation in the attic. Some of those add to the heat the house needs and some take away from it, so the old rating isn't a reliable guide in either direction. When you call, tell us what has been built, finished or upgraded.
Zones and what's on them
How many zones there are, and what each one heats with, shapes both the boiler and the controls. Cast-iron radiators, fin-tube baseboard and in-floor tubing don't want the same water temperature, and in-floor loops generally run cooler than the other two. Where one boiler serves a mix, the piping and controls have to give each zone what it needs instead of running the whole system at the hottest setting.
Hot water for the household
If the boiler will also make domestic hot water, through a combi or an indirect tank, the household's demand matters as much as the heating side: how many bathrooms there are, whether there's a soaker tub, and how often showers and laundry overlap. That decides whether a combi will keep up or whether stored hot water is the better fit.
Well water and the heating loop
A hydronic system is a closed loop. Once it's filled and purged, the same water keeps going round. That makes the first fill matter, and on a well the chemistry of that water isn't known until it has been tested.
Why fill water matters
One manufacturer's installation manual states that "Water quality has a significant impact on the lifetime and performance of a boiler's heat exchanger." Minerals and sediment that come in with the fill water stay in the loop, and the heat exchanger is the part of the boiler they affect.
Top-ups add fresh minerals
Each time water is added to the system, a fresh dose of whatever is in it comes along. The same manual warns that "Repeated or uncontrolled water fills will increase the potential for damage." A boiler that keeps needing water has a leak or a fault somewhere, and topping it up only deals with the symptom. Our article on a boiler that keeps losing pressure covers the usual reasons.
Test before the first fill
The manual treats filling from the supply as "acceptable in areas where municipal water or well water has been treated and filtered to remove excessive minerals and sediment, and water chemistry is known to be suitable for closed loop hydronic systems." Where that isn't known, it says: "If unsure about water quality, request testing and assessment (and treatment, if required) from a local water treatment expert. Alternatively, water or hydronic fluid of known quality can be brought to the site." If the house already has a recent water test, send it with your enquiry. Treating the household supply is a separate decision, covered on our well water treatment and water softener pages. Water that's fine for drinking and washing isn't automatically right for the boiler, which is why the fill is checked against the manual for the boiler being installed.
Fuel, venting and combustion air on an acreage
Which fuel the house runs on, where the venting can go, and where the boiler takes its air from all get settled before the quote is written.
Natural gas or propane
An acreage may have a natural gas line or a propane tank, and the boiler has to match it. One manufacturer's installation manual is blunt on this: "Operating any appliance using a fuel other than the fuel listed on its rating plate is prohibited." Tell us which fuel the house uses when you call, so the boiler on the quote is the right one. Gas and propane connections are made by our Alberta-licensed gas fitters.
Venting a condensing boiler
A condensing boiler doesn't vent up a chimney the way many older boilers do. It vents through its own dedicated pipe, run and terminated where its manual allows, and it produces condensate that needs a drain route of its own, kept somewhere it won't freeze. In a house built around a chimney-vented boiler, the new vent and drain are often the biggest change in the job, and they're also why the permit question below matters.
Clean combustion air
A boiler burns air as well as fuel, and what's in that air counts. The manual says to "Ensure you install the appliance where the combustion air source is not subject to chemical fouling or agricultural vapors." Its list of contaminants includes "Sodium chloride or potassium chloride used for water softening" and "Calcium chloride used for snow clearing", along with laundry bleaches and detergents, and paint or varnish removers. If the mechanical room also holds the softener and its salt, or a shelf of paint strippers and cleaning products, those either move out or the boiler takes its combustion air from outdoors.
Permits for boiler work in Rocky View County
For a Bearspaw address in Rocky View County, permits for heating work go through the County, under Alberta's provincial permit rules.
What the regulation requires
Alberta's Permit Regulation says "A permit in the gas discipline is required to install, alter or add to a gas system." There is a narrow exemption for "the replacement of a dryer, range, water heater or space heating appliance" in a single family home, but only where "no design change is required to any gas piping or venting system". Swapping a chimney-vented boiler for a condensing one with its own vent changes the venting system, so the exemption doesn't apply. Nor does it where the gas piping has to change. Where the job also changes the household water piping, as tying in a combi boiler or an indirect tank can, the same regulation requires a plumbing permit to "install, alter or add to a plumbing system."
Rocky View County subtrade permits
The County's building permit FAQ says "Building and subtrade applications can be submitted through myBuild", and that subtrade permits "may also be required (e.g. gas, electrical, plumbing, private sewage or sewer connections)." Its subtrade inspection requirements state that "All subtrade permits are inspected by our third party inspection agency, Davis Inspections Services Ltd.", and that the permit and approved documents "must be on site and available to the inspector for each inspection."
On your quote
The written quote shows which permits the job needs and how they're handled, so you know before you agree to anything. For a question about a specific property, the County's permit office is the one to ask.
Related boiler and acreage services
Bearspaw plumbing and heating
The rest of our plumbing and heating work in Bearspaw.
See serviceBoiler replacement
What swapping an old boiler on an existing system involves.
See serviceIn-floor heating
The floor side of a radiant heating system.
See serviceWell water treatment
Treating a well supply for the house, separate from the boiler loop.
See service
Monthly Financing Available
Spread the cost into manageable monthly payments.
Monthly payments through our Financeit partner, subject to approval.
Simple, honest, on your schedule.
Tell us about the house
What heats it now and roughly how old the boiler is, natural gas or propane, whether the heat comes through radiators, baseboard or in-floor loops, any shop or garage on the system, and whether you're on a well. If you have a recent water test, mention it.
We look at the whole system
The mechanical room, the route the venting would take, the gas or propane supply, how the zones are split, and where the water to fill the loop will come from.
Written quote
It sets out the equipment, the scope, the venting and which permits the job needs. The quote is free, and nothing goes ahead until you've accepted it.
Install, fill and commission
The boiler goes in, the loop is filled with water that suits it and purged of air, every zone is run to check that it heats, and we walk you through the controls before we leave.
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Where we cover Calgary.
We dispatch from Calgary and Airdrie. Find your neighbourhood for area-specific notes on common builds, hard-water patterns, and the systems we see most.
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