October 8, 2021 Follow Our Progress on the Historic Valentine Whitman House

Our Latest Project – The Historic Valentine Whitman House in Lincoln, RI

valentine

We are very proud to announce our partnership with Heritage Restoration on the historic renovation of the Valentine Whitman House in Lincoln, RI. The house has undergone several renovations since it was built in 1690; but, it has been 200 years since the last renovation and it will now be brought back to its original glory by the team at Heritage Restoration.

TJ’s Plumbing and Heating, Inc. will be responsible for the plumbing, heating and air conditioning in the home. With 30 years of experience in the plumbing and HVAC industry and our unique approach to working in old and historic homes, we are excited to work on this project. Unico will be featured in the home. This is not the first time we have installed Unico in a historical home. We also installed Unico in the historical Daniel Wheaton House in Easton, MA. You can read more about the Daniel Wheaton House in our UnicoCaseStudy.

If you are not familiar with Heritage Restoration, there is no-one better suited to restore this historic old home. They specialize in old and historic homes and buildings. With over 30 years of experience, and a passion for historic construction, their comprehensive approach offers thoughtful, historically accurate and appropriately contemporary craftsmanship.

Historical Significance of The Valentine Whitman House

As stated on the Preserve Rhode Island website, the architecture of the Valentine Whitman House is historically significant, and unique to the state of Rhode Island.

“In the late 1690s, Valentine Whitman Jr. built a house along the Great Road, in what was then Providence but is now the Town of Lincoln. Whitman’s house was large and elaborate for its time, with tall timbers, elegantly decorated with chamfers. One end of the two-story house was constructed entirely of granite stone, similar to other nearby buildings: the Clemence-Irons House (ca.1691) in Johnston and the Arnold House (ca.1693) in Lincoln. Eventually, this type of construction, unique to Rhode Island, became known as the “stone-ender.” Whitman’s house stands today as an exceptional example of this rare type, with fewer than ten stone-enders surviving today.”

If you are interested in supporting the restoration project, please contact Rob at Heritage Restoration. Be a part of history!

You can also follow Heritage Restoration on their YouTube page.

TJ’s Plan for the Restoration Project

TJ’s will be completing plumbing and HVAC in the Valentine Whitman House. We expect to begin our portion of the project during the month of November.

HVAC

The HVAC delivery system will be provided by Unico high velocity systems. The mini ducts are the perfect choice for historic homes as we can hide them almost anywhere in the space and not take away from the historic architecture.

The second floor will have a horizontal Unico air handler with ceiling outlets that will deliver all the heating and cooling to that space. The ducting in the attic will be sealed and insulated with R8 insulation. We plan on a custom-made hidden return system.

The first floor will be heated and cooled using a horizontal Unico air handler that will be hung in the basement. All outlets will be floor-mounted and concealed to hide them from view. TJ’s will be working with the team at Heritage to achieve an older look to maintain the integrity of this historic home. We are also planning for a first floor hidden return ducting system.

Both Unico systems will use the following components:

Unico Advanced control system
Unico ECM blower motor
Unico 410 A – cooling module
Unico Hot water coils
Condensate pans with safety float switch
Bosch IDS series inverter condensers
Tekmar Invita thermostats

The HVAC system will be a multi-stage heating system that state-of-the-art Invita thermostats will control. Stage one will be the Bosch IDS heat pump. The Bosch heat pump will deliver heating to the home down to an outdoor temperature of 32 degrees. Bosch’s high-efficiency variable capacity inverter compressor can adjust output to any level between 25% and 110%, to cool and heat the home using minimal energy for maximum comfort

Stage two will be a 95% efficient gas-fired hydronic heating condensing boiler that sends hot water through the Unico hydronic coil, producing heat. This is called a hydro air system. The boiler system will have an antifreeze solution in it to prevent any possibility of freezing pipes.

Plumbing

The plumbing will be an old school installation using copper piping and cast iron for noise, in some locations. We will be installing fixtures in three bathrooms, updating the historic house to have modern working plumbing.

Follow Our Progress

Stay tuned as we continue to update this page as work on the Valentine Whitman House progresses!! This promises to be a very exciting project!! You can also follow our progress on all of our social media platforms:

TJ's Plumbing & Heating

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