We may have saved a life last night...

Ken_8

Just when you think you've seen it all...

A guy dialed in his zip code, spotted our "Find a Professional" ad, and called. He has done a complete remodel of his home in north Jersey, had a new scorched air furnace put in he attic w/ A/C and was having a problem. They just moved back into the house a day ago after a six month break to allow the remodel to happen.

The problem was too much heat upstairs and not enough down stairs in this two story beauty. I don't do F/H/A and told the owner that. He didn't care. He wanted to pay us a consulting fee to see what was wrong. Upon getting my 250# fat butt up the drop down ladder rated at 230, into the attic, I see a Goodman horizontal gas unit with a plenum duct taped to the outlet with about a 12" X 16" X 10 foot long main duct with nine 6" round take-offs laying like pregnant spaghetti shooting out all over the ceiling joists/floor to drops buried in F.G. insulation. Doing a quick mental calc. I reason the plenum extended trunk could barely handle 3 or 4 take offs - (never mind 9).

Going to the basement we found a new water heater, it was running when the picture was taken. What do you think about the venting?

To make matters worse, when the by now seething with anger H.O. called the G.C., the response he got was, "We were going to put in a horizontal pipe to a dryer hood and vent it that way, out the side of the house." Keep in mind this is not a power vented model.

We of course turned the heater off and closed the gas cock.

Guess what else. The G.C. hadn't gotten around to installing any of the code rquired CO detectors yet.

The whole family was about to take their before bedtime showers/baths. Imagine the byproduct output just before bedtime in a well built tight windowed house?

Might have been the last night's sleep they ever got.





<A HREF="http://www.heatinghelp.com/getListed.cfm?id=68&Step=30">To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"</A>

BillW@honeywell

Nice place to park a gasoline powered...

lawn mower, too! YIKES! Good thing you were on the call. What a sorry sight.

kevin coppinger_4

OH MY!

I can not believe it! and what was the lawn mower doing there! Why did they use black for the T&P valve!? What a shame...good catch...kpc

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

LEAD PIPE

crazy

Nice job. How did the H/O take it when you shut everything down?

Ken_8

I overheard his call to

the G.C. at 7 o'clock last night after he saw what I saw and with my commentary added. He told the G.C that his HVAC "sub" had placed his family's life in potential danger, and to have a guy there first thing this morning to straighten it all out - before he got to the store and bought the hollow point magnums.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Constantin

Unbelievable

I wonder how a GC like that can sleep at night... Furthermore, who was the genius that lit the waterheater before a vent was added? That seems totally criminal.

As for the lawnmower, it's for this reason that the water heater industry has brought out its flammable-vapors-resistant designs. You cannot tell folks enough that it's not OK to have uncontrolled flammable liquids/vapors in the basement. They keep forgetting... until the house blows up.

However, why limit oneself to lawnmowers? Laying tile on a kitchen floor with an adhesive also can do the trick, at least according to a safety consultant we had at our company. While the HO was outside having a cigarette, the house blew up, killing his two kids. Pilot flame on the stove was the ignition source.

George_10

Another thing this story illustrates

Is this. We all have an "inner", some call it ESP or intuition. It doesn't matter the name, but it is important that we are aware of our sixth sense of things. Why did that homeowner demand that someone who claimed not to do that kind of work, have him show up at his house.

Why did Ken decide to go. I do not believe that it is by pure chance. As many here on the Wall will attest, they have done something only because it felt right. It wasn't until later that the truth was known and it was right.

This story puts a very nice ending to a Friday of a hard weeks work. Thanks for sharing, you never know what ripple will come from it.

jim sokolovic

Who is the homeowner?

Had he posted anything here before, or just visited? Was anyone not feeling right in his family, which prompted his urgency?

I've seen quite a few water heater vent pipes get disconnected before, laying on top of the heater or on the floor - the little hood legs connection to the top of the heater is very easy to disturb. Obviously this one was never connected, though.

Mark Hunt

What can you say?


I see this crap all the time.

Ignorant people are DEADLY!!!!!

Whatever they paid you for the
consulting" Ken, it wasn't enough.

Mark H

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

JimGPE_4

Speechless.

100% deaf, dumb and speechless.

(My favorite line from Sergent Carter on Gomer Pyle, USMC.)

That photo took my breath away.

Dave Yates (PAH)

Good call

You earned a gold star for responding to that call. Seems to me the local building inspector ahould be brought into the loop.


To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

ScottMP

Wow

Ya here about stuff like this, but think it can't really happen.

Great call Ken.

Scott

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

jackchips_2

I'll add

a GREAT CALL to everyone else, Ken.

Steamhead

Ken, that was a disaster waiting to happen

and you did a real good job.

After this episode, I think that HO might be interested in hydronics, don't you?

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Ken_8

Jim,

I think he just happened by the website - maybe someone at work tipped him off? Maybe his Google search gave the "hit" for Heating Help .com? Don't know.

I sort of dropped the ball when I told the H.O. the potential danger. I told him in no uncertain terms he was risking the lives of his wife and two little kids with this kind of thing and I must have had a really scary voice and a deadly serious face. His wife started to cry and I was torn between lightening up a bit - or laying it on so they would understand the magnitude and potential tragedy that might have befallen them.

All I could do was assure them that the danger was gone once we turned the unit off and locked off the gas cock. The lawn mower was not even mentioned. I was afraid they'd freak completely out. I did mention the mower had to go in another well ventilated room (like outside in a shed or garage with no open flames).

I knew the minute I hit the top of the stairs and felt that damp humid warm air, something was whacked out. Hell, the first floor was freezing cold from the bad F/H/A install! How could an unheated floor below THAT, be warm or humid!

Pays to look around.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

jerry scharf

where was the inspector

Ken,

Was this all done under the covers? I can't imagine any inspector in the world passing that water heater and giving an occupancy permit.

Sometimes the inspectors drive us nuts, but it's shoddy work like this that makes it clear why they are needed.

jerry

Robert O'Connor_7

Ken.

Let me know what town it is and I'll be sure to to have Mr. GC notified and cited. Working for the DCA has it's advantages.....Robert O'Connor/NJ

Harold

RE: lawnmower

I have recently moved to the Pacific NW and for the first time in my life lived in an area that puts washing machines, furnaces, and hot water heaters in the garage. Ignoring the energy loss issues, this insures that these ignition sources coexist with gasoline cans, mowers, weed wackers, chain saws, assorted solvents while "working on things in the garage", and (with modern sealed fuel systems not as much of an issue) automobiles. My first reaction was "are you people insane". Same area requires outside vents for propane burners regardless of if they are sealed and use external air sources. Net result - a hole in your house that is open to outside air. And it does not really fix any of the other flamable sources.

And everyone says it doesn't get cold enough to freeze pipes except for once in 20 years. When that 20 years was up last year, there were all these news articles about water damage from frozen pipes. Duh.

Constantin

You laugh but...

... a long time ago, three guys and myself developed a outdoor gas water heater for American Water Heater (The Weatherpro). This 50 gallon unit had a balanced flue design so that even weird wind gusts couldn't get combustion to go bad. Besides offering much thicker insulation than standard, the unit was also weather-resistant.

Unfortunately, AWH never figured out how to sell any. From what I can tell, they've since discontinued the product. Did anyone here have any experience with it? I never saw them in the NE of the country since they were never sold north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Anyway, I always thought the outdoor design made a lot of sense for the warmer climates in the country. The unit stays outside (doesn't take up any room on the inside), is easily replaced when it breaks (as all WH do eventually), and due to its location and design is quite flammable-vapor resistant. Oh well.