Now if this piping system should leak, guess what folks? We have accessibility.

Think about it, this piping is just like the water piping, with no vapor barriers needed, no special "training" no NOTHING. Just easy to maintain/inspect systems.

The post office ceiling rads are black steel supply lines and cast iron radiators. It sure outlasted the state of the ART plastic stuff with NO SPECIAL training. Seems the dead guys knew something about integrity in installations as THEY were PROUD of their work and didn't try to hide it or bury it. They actually wanted folks to see their work of art.

When I walk through these hallways, looking up, I marvel at how these folks installed systems that last and last before we put a bloke on the moon.

Cutting corners will always come back to bite you. Labor is expensive BUT trying to use any material because "it is faster" is not the most brilliant thing to do IMHO.

I still use schedule 40 black pipe for ALL my gas and steam work. I use copper TYPE "L" strictly for my hydronic heating even though I could get away legally with M tubing.

As more and more "state of the art" systems fail, we all lose credibility.

The general public are the ones I feel so sorry for because they trusted someone to "do the right thing," and now they are sitting on pins and needles waiting for their heating system to fail also.

The CDA does ask about the pH values of the water flowing through their piping.

We in New York are lucky as we had the Levitt houses failures to learn from But now we have state of the art high tech failures happening that ONLY a "plumber" can make right.

All we do is isolate the under ground (slab) piping system and run proven quality materials like black steel with good old cast iron longevity base board.

Common sense will prevail about accessibility of anything mechanical. Would anyone buy a car where you can't get at any of the piping or electrical components?