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Stuff Thermals Screwed Up
Old House Journal
|January/February 2017
Our 1940's Colonial Revival has hot-water baseboard heaters. When we moved in a few years ago, the walls were pristine, but lately we’ve been plagued with ghosted jets of grime on the walls above the vent openings. It’s kind of creepy.
THE FIX
Your problem is a common one. It can happen whether the fuel source is gas or oil, and whether the heating system is a hot water boiler or a hot air furnace.
The ghostly stains, called thermal tracking, are actually deposits of soot or dust circulated in the air and deposited on the walls. They can also appear around electrical outlets and along studs or joists on the wall surface.
This story is from the January/February 2017 edition of Old House Journal.
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