Six tracks. One ledger.
Hydronic radiant for the floor; glycol snowmelt for the driveway; mod-con boilers in the basement; baseboards and towel warmers where the architecture asks; legacy rehabilitation on the older stock; commissioning audits on other crews' work.
Each track below opens to a detail page with a typical loop count, a typical sqft band, a typical BTUH load, an ASME boiler class, a price band, and the references we cite when we design and commission it. Banding represents the middle 50% of jobs in the book — outliers in both directions exist and are also welcome.
| Track | Scope | Hours % | Loops | Sqft band | BTUH | Plant | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-01 | Radiant floor, slab & staple-up | 58% | 4–24 | 800–6,000 | 18k–140k | Mod-con 80k–199k | → |
| A-02 | Glycol snowmelt, driveway & walk | 21% | 2–8 | 200–2,500 | 100–200 / sf | Dedicated 199k–399k | → |
| A-03 | Mod-con boiler & venting | 9% | — | — | 80k–399k | 95%+ AFUE | → |
| A-04 | Towel warmers & low-temp baseboard | 5% | 1–6 | — | 8k–22k | Shared plant | → |
| A-05 | Legacy system rehabilitation | 4% | var. | 1,200–4,800 | 40k–120k | New mod-con | → |
| A-06 | Commissioning & loop balancing | 3% | var. | — | audit | — | → |
- A-01 Radiant floor, slab & staple-up. PEX-a tubing in 6″ or 12″ on-center, slab-poured on rigid foam below or stapled to the underside of a subfloor with reflective insulation, manifold-grouped by zone, mixed down with thermostatic three-way valves to suit the floor assembly's heat-output curve. Includes layout, tubing, manifolds, mixing, circulator, sensor pair, and outdoor-reset commissioning.
- A-02 Glycol snowmelt, driveway & walk. Heat-trace tubing under concrete, asphalt, or pavers on driveways, ramps, walks, and steps. Mixed glycol loop with its own circulator, separate hydraulic separator, slab and outdoor sensor pair, Tekmar snow-melt control. Sized per ASHRAE Applications Chapter 51 for our wind-corrected design conditions.
- A-03 Mod-con boilers & venting. Sealed-combustion, modulating-condensing residential boilers — typically Lochinvar Knight, Triangle Tube Prestige, Viessmann Vitodens. PVC or polypropylene venting per the manufacturer's instructions; condensate neutralizer kit, sediment trap on the gas line, full commissioning report against the boiler's IO manual.
- A-04 Towel warmers & low-temp baseboard. Hydronic towel warmers in primary and guest baths, low-temperature baseboard for guest rooms and stair landings that radiant alone doesn't quite reach, panel radiators (typically Runtal, Buderus, or Myson) where the elevation drawing calls for them. All running off the same mod-con plant, mixed at the manifold to a lower supply temperature.
- A-05 Legacy system rehabilitation. Conversion of single-zone cast-iron radiator systems to modulating-condensing plants with proper outdoor-reset curves; selective replacement of staple-up systems that were sized for the wrong floor assembly; deletion of monoflo tees and air-bound mains; restoration of cast-iron radiators where the homeowner wants them retained.
- A-06 Commissioning & loop balancing. We audit and re-balance other crews' radiant systems on a fee-for-service basis: measure manifold supply/return Δt loop by loop, set actuator preset, document the outdoor-reset curve against the actual envelope, install missing sensors, leave a binder. The same commissioning we do on our own installs, applied to systems we didn't put in.
What we don't do
We do not unclog drains, replace standalone water heaters, set fixtures, repipe houses, install septic, install well pumps, do gas-line work on appliances beyond the boiler, or service forced-air HVAC. Our referral list for those scopes is on the visit page.
We do not install electric snowmelt mats. We do not install slab insulation as a separate scope — it ships with the radiant. We do not install solar-thermal collectors directly; we will integrate them on a system if the homeowner has a separate solar contractor.
What the price band looks like
A complete new-construction radiant install for a 3,500 sf house in Bozeman runs in the $65,000–$110,000 range, all-in, including the mod-con plant. A snowmelt addition for a 1,500 sf driveway typically lands in the $45,000–$70,000 range. A legacy mod-con retrofit on a 1920s house with retained cast-iron radiators is generally $22,000–$38,000.
These are bands, not quotes. The single biggest variable is the floor assembly: a slab-on-grade pour is the cheapest; a staple-up retrofit with the ceiling open below is mid; a heat-transfer-plate retrofit on a finished assembly is the most expensive. The second-biggest variable is the boiler venting run.
Next, read
Open the job book for commissioned proof, or the component atlas for the parts we put on every job. The daybook records what we wrote down this winter.
Or visit
Visit · dispatch
Mon–Fri 7:00–17:30 MT. On-call winter for clients.