The atlas documents the parts we put on every job. Manifold, modulating-condensing boiler, PEX tubing. Three submittal-style sheets in this edition; more sheets to follow as the binder's archival pages are typeset for the web. The picks here are not exhaustive — they are the picks we go back to.
Each sheet records what the component is, why we install it, what we have replaced it with on past jobs, the part numbers we keep in shop stock, and where to find the manufacturer's IO manual when you need it at 11 p.m. on a Sunday.
The 4-to-10-port stainless or brass header that gathers and balances every loop in the system. Caleffi 663/668 series and Uponor ProPEX dominate the binder.
The sealed-combustion, modulating-condensing residential plant that drives every system in this book. Lochinvar, Triangle Tube, Viessmann — three options, one set of commissioning protocols.
Cross-linked polyethylene and raised-temperature polyethylene — the tubing in every slab, every loop, every trunk. Why we pick PEX-a over PEX-b, and where PE-RT belongs.
An atlas is not a product catalog. The point of these sheets is to make our material choices legible to the architect, the general contractor, the inspector, and the homeowner who is reading the binder in 2032 trying to understand what they have. We name part numbers because part numbers do not lie: a Caleffi 663-2 is a 2-port manifold made by Caleffi, full stop, and any future plumber holding the part can verify what it is in five seconds against the manufacturer's published literature.
We update the atlas when we change a pick. The 2024 Bridger Canyon residence used the Caleffi 663 series because that is what we spec; a 2031 install will use whatever Caleffi (or a successor manufacturer) offers in the same niche. If we move off Caleffi to a different brand, we will publish the move and the reasoning here.
Next sheets in queue, in publication order: Hydraulic separator, ECM circulator, Outdoor-reset control, Mixing valves, Brazed-plate heat exchanger, Indirect water heater, Condensate neutralizer. Drafts on the workbench; typesetting on rainy afternoons.
Cross-references: see the scope tracks for what these components do in service; the job book for which manifold and which boiler we installed on each commissioned system.