Venting woes

NYplumber

As the saying goes, seeing is believing.

Rarely do I post here, I am more of a reader however, in the past few days I saw more than what can be described as dangerous, more like what can be described ad deadly.

 

With cheap quality homes being put up, along came cheap plumbers, some trained and some unaware what wrong they may cause down the road.

I am fine with bad work, after all the worst that can be is the drains wont flow well, or the hot water will take longer to get to a faucet but the following is LETHAL!

 

The first, a dhw tank replacement.

I wondered why the vent was uber flexible so I went to the next room over.

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1048.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="" />

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1047.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="" />

 

Apparently someone squeezed in a stackable washer/dryer and broke the elbow.

 

 

Next in the same building complex, while checking the boilers for flood damage I came apon a New York direct vent boiler in a room with no air, door blocked by a bed that barely fit into the room to begin with, and that room also served as a base for the sprinkler system.

Check out the fancy vent job.

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1042.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="" />

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1058.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="" />

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1044.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="" />

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1045.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="" />

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1046.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="" />

 

Whom ever did this knew what they were doing was wrong as they taped all joints.

 

 

Exhibit C:

A building dhw tank leaked, so I went to give a bid. Too much wrong with the photo to mention here, I'm sure you all will see whats wrong.

 

<img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj231/SpdFreak1/Plumbing/IMAG1016.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="" />







To conclude, it has nothing to do with a licenced plumber, as these jobs were done by licenced plumbing contractors. Everyone is eager to make a quick buck, and then there are others that just plain and simple dont know how to do things right.

Mark Eatherton

Great finds!!

Sleep well knowing that the occupants WILL wake up the next morning...



I see this stuff all the time, and it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I wonder to myself, is it unqualified/uneducated contractors, or is it inspectors who walk around with their craniums stuck in their rectal orifi? Or both...



The problem goes much farther than the field employees. The consumer has a valid expectation of getting services performed in a "Workman like" manner. If the supervision is inadequate, and they grab the money and run, this is the end result. They are not exercising an industry accepted "standard of care", and it will come back to bite them in a court of law.



A lot of this stuff is done by weekend warriors as well, and being a professional weekend warrior, I see these yokels in the aisles of HD/Luis E's every weekend, and it concerns me when I see the store help giving wrong information. "Oh sure, you can do it like that. Just make sure you buy some of this super sticky metal tape and put a double wrap on every joint."



One way of avoiding these situations is to allow/require annual inspections. I know that makes the hair stand up on the necks of many people who read this, including myself, but what else can we do? It works quite well in Germany. It could work well here as well. Catch it before it kills someone...



Keep up the good work. "Tis a noble trade indeed."



ME

Tim McElwain

I have a policy of

shutting anything that is unsafe off and making it inoperative so it can't be used.



I was recently sited for doing this by a local utility as not being authorized to shut off gas to equipment as I am not qualified. That is by the way after 28 years working for a gas company 10 of those years as a serviceman and 18 as the trainer for over 100 service men and women. I told them in simple terms if it is not safe and i see it off it goes and do what you have to about that. Saving lives is what it is all about.



I have never seen so much crap out in the field in all my career as I have seen since side wall venting became the way to go. People want to side wall vent everything without any semblance of safety, let alone is the equipment even allowed to be side wall vented. It is a nightmare!

NYplumber

Shut down

I did disconnect a wire for the burner circut on the direct vent boiler, and the gas on the hot water tank.

Tim McElwain

To protect yourself legally

you need to disconnect the fuel lines to the affected equipment. That is the only inoperative procedure that the courts will recognize as an actual "made inoperative". This I know because of my many years as an expert witness for gas related incidents.