Sizing and Zoning a Replacement for Stacked Somerville Flats

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In a stacked house, the new boiler matters less than the new zones. Separate control per floor, thermostats placed where bedrooms actually live rather than in a hallway, and a circulator arrangement that can feed the top floor without overheating the ground floor — that is the upgrade that ends the annual top-floor complaint.

Access will shape the job. Narrow stairs, low basement ceilings and a plant corner shared with storage can rule out a unit that fits on paper, so any serious proposal should begin with a basement visit, not a phone estimate.

A stacked house tests delivery before it tests engineering: a new unit must travel down narrow stairs, around a tight turn, under a low ceiling, past storage that nobody wants to move. An old unit must travel back out the same way. Any proposal that has not walked that route is guessing at labour, timing and whether the chosen unit fits at all.

Clear the route before the survey, not on the morning of the job. Photograph nothing, move nothing live — simply make sure the surveyor can stand where the unit will stand, see the flue path, and measure the narrowest turn. That one walk prevents the most common stacked-house surprise: a unit ordered that cannot reach its own basement.

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In a stacked house, the changeover itself needs a plan per floor: which flat loses heat on which day, where temporary warmth comes from, and who is home to open each floor. A household that agrees that calendar before work starts will not be negotiating it on a freezing landing halfway through the job.

Agree the thermostat question at the same time. One thermostat per floor, placed in a lived-in room rather than a hallway, is what makes zoning real — without it, the new zones are just new valves on an old argument about who controls the heat.