I decided on the Owens corning systems not so much on the price per square foot but more or less what the system is specifically designed for= which is extremely humid and or wet basements; which I have. My home is a 110 year old Queen Ann Victorian with a 7 foot basement ceiling. The walls of the basement have constant effervescence= (water seeping through) and yes I have 5" gutters and the foundation is graded. So, the floor has occassional pooling water during Major sustained downpours even after I had a new concrete floor poured throughout the entire basement. This system has paid fo itself many times in the last 13yrs. For example the water main coming into my house broke at the foundation 3 inches of water filled my entire basement floor soaking all the walls and everything else in the basement at the time. I removed the fiberglass panels (1200 sq ft of them) let them dry in the sun then put them back; done! --> If that were drywall the bottom 18 inches or so would have to be cut off and re-installed, retaped, and spackeled and repainted!! This clearly was an anomaly and a worst case scenario one in which many homeowners would've had to use homeowners insurance to mitigate. So it depends a lot on what you want to do with your basement if it is a recreational area that you are going to watch movies and entertain and play games, home office etc? Also the ability you want to have color choices for painting etc.(AND!!!!) humidity and moisture are NOT that much of a concern; then drywall is the way to go. if you have an old basement that has tons of moisture issues and you want it to be clean and look way better than a root cellar this is the best way to go. All I had to do to help out what was here was instal a Humidex system= (dehumidifier of sorts) which you could make yourself with pancake fans and a humidistat. --->Moist air is heavier and sits closer to the floor so the humidex system sucks this moist air sitting low to the ground out and exhausts it out of your house like a dryer vent. + you leave the door open or cut a vent in the floor to create an warm airflow from above I have two of them and they rarely ever go off. The reason for this versus your classic dehumidifier is pure cost I live on the island in the Northeast with a kilowatt per hour is the highest in the country I bought a humidex system ($1K) and then after examining it built my own for $100 (not kidding->my hand to god) this is why the expression knowledge is power exists I knew running a standardized humidifier I would need two or three of them for the sizeof my basement + constantly emptying buckets so after doing the math made that unaffordable. So that is all of the GOOD news or the positive things to say NOW the UGLY the one major negative I have is the vinyl floor (which after several years) I now have a constant issue with glue coming up through the seams?? This is driving me crazy constantly trying to clean it and be rid of it but it is constantly coming back so I am now contemplating putting carpet over it? The cheapest this will be at my square footage is about $1000 installed by me!!... For the record ALLURE here on Long Island which is one of the companies the TV show EXTREME MAKEOVER; HOME EDITION uses.

To answer your question, chelone, we have two zones, and hot-water baseboard heat with an oil-fired furnace. The main house is one zone, at about 1600 square feet, and my husband's music studio is the second zone, at about 400 square feet. We're keeping the heat on in there (at 64 degrees) because of the computers and instruments and clients. chrisk, $1200 for heating oil, ouch. I never paid much attention to the fuel deliveries, but $700+ bills require planning in my home. A $1200 bill would have me dipping into savings. Re: fixed contracts... they certainly were the smart way to go this past year. I've never had much confidence in my ability to time the commodities markets, though. And there have been stories in the news recently about oil providers refusing to honor fixed-price contracts because it would put them out of business. Hindsight is 20/20, though. I should have gambled on a fixed-price contract this year for sure.

I bought a System 2000 boiler with a SuperStor Ultra indirect water heater in September '08, and I'm absolutely THRILLED with it. Compensating for central MA heating degree days, the new system is using about 45% less fuel than our previous setup (a 1994 New Yorker steel boiler, measured at 82% AFUE, with indirect HW). You can tell right away that you're saving money because the boiler just sits there completely cold most of the time. When it does come on, it runs only as long as it needs to and goes cold again after circulating any residual heat into the house or water heater. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. I had considered the Buderus, but it was physically larger, a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient. That included the pricey outdoor reset controller that several contractors admitted was "very tricky" to optimize. Ultimately, I opted for simplicity over complexity, and buying American was a bonus. Regarding the cracking, my installer said the most common problem is when clueless technicians try to clean the high-tech ceramic combustion chamber with a brush and crack it (basically, it should NEVER be touched). Make sure the person installing/servicing this system has been fully trained on it, and get references if possible. Some contractors claimed "you can't get parts for those boilers". Turns out all the parts are standard off-the-shelf items (burner, circulator, zone valves, etc), except for the controller and the boiler core itself. If the controller dies, you can short out two contacts with a paper clip and force it into conventional boiler mode - always hot - until someone can fix it. There's even an outlet on the controller to plug in a generator if you lose power, which I learned during the December ice storm. I was stuck with oil, but this boiler can run on natural gas or propane with a simple burner swap if you decide to switch. I thought it was a really cool feature. Warranty is limited lifetime on the pressure vessel & controller, and I believe five years on everything else, but you can confirm with the mfr. I chose the SuperStor water heater because it had a lifetime warranty and the EK one didn't. I probably sound like a shill for the manufacturer, but I'm just extremely pleased with this boiler... and happy to be saving money, helping the environment and hurting the terrorists. ;-)

From your link describing using the tung oil, I'd go with that. I would stay away from polys at all cost as they are so difficult to repair without redoing the whole thing. I am hoping to do my kitchen floor--don't know what's under the vinyl tiles or the several layers underneath, but the rest of the downstairs is oak--white I presume? I think my trim is red oak--is that possible? My house was built in 1908. I would replace the registers also, but don't go to the expense of the linked site--they seem to only sell ones to fit modern ductwork; check out salvage shops/antique shops...there is one in my town where I've bought a couple registers from their large pile--all the good old cast iron black, some with louvers, some without, but all with varying designs of patterns for the grate. I put in an additional duct to my living room, and absolutely had to have the large register if I ever move furniture to match the one in the open near the dining room doors. Your idea of tung oil has given me another and easier option than sanding insanely and doing smelly chemicals. Thanks!