I'm hot blooded
Hot water is one of the great innovations of modern living. I personally enjoy it on a regular basis. Most homes create this hot water with a big boiler - usually one which runs on gas. Yesterday our water started getting less hot. Being a long time veteran of gas water heaters I figured we had a situation where the pilot light had blown out. I was right...
The pilot light had been put out ... by large amounts of intermittently dripping water. It looked like the boiler tank might have cracked, but I figured it might be as simple as a valve leak. We called a plumber to come out in the morning and check it out.
That's where things took a turn for the worse. Our favorite home 'improver' (Jason) had struck again. We're used to finding issues in the house and saying 'what was he thinking?!' This time he'd bought a brand-new direct vent boiler only a few years ago, but it's exhaust vent went straight into the enclosed walkway of our neighbor's yard, rather than up and away as it should. Can you say extreme fire hazard?
This means that toxic natural gas fumes have been collecting in a wooden walkway. By law the plumber couldn't even touch the boiler to diagnose the issue until we addressed the vent. He'd be liable for the inevitable lawsuits and the eventual burning building(s). We're now looking down the barrel of the most expensive and complex home repairs of our short career as home owners. We'll need a new boiler (we can't switch to a tankless - not enough gas pressure or electricity) some new vent pipes running everywhere, and lots of grunt work to install them.
I should have known there was something fishy about the plumbing work. The electrical was too reasonable looking; there had to be bad plumbing. During our inspection we pointed out to Jason that his boiler had no bleed valve. This simple (and cheap) device converts the tank of heated water into a home hot water heater. Without it what you have is a bomb. Literally. Houses have been decimated by tank explosions. upon adding a bleed valve and having our inspector looking at everything again the inspector asked about the vent, which he couldn't see the other end of. Jason told him it ended outside the house, like it's supposed to, so the inspector simply noted jason told us it was fine and moved on to the many other issues.
Apparently Jason found an insane plumber who hates human life. At first he wanted to blow up the house, but then decided slowly killing the neighbor's and then lighting the place on fire would be preferable. I'm seriously considering legal action at this point.
The pilot light had been put out ... by large amounts of intermittently dripping water. It looked like the boiler tank might have cracked, but I figured it might be as simple as a valve leak. We called a plumber to come out in the morning and check it out.
That's where things took a turn for the worse. Our favorite home 'improver' (Jason) had struck again. We're used to finding issues in the house and saying 'what was he thinking?!' This time he'd bought a brand-new direct vent boiler only a few years ago, but it's exhaust vent went straight into the enclosed walkway of our neighbor's yard, rather than up and away as it should. Can you say extreme fire hazard?
This means that toxic natural gas fumes have been collecting in a wooden walkway. By law the plumber couldn't even touch the boiler to diagnose the issue until we addressed the vent. He'd be liable for the inevitable lawsuits and the eventual burning building(s). We're now looking down the barrel of the most expensive and complex home repairs of our short career as home owners. We'll need a new boiler (we can't switch to a tankless - not enough gas pressure or electricity) some new vent pipes running everywhere, and lots of grunt work to install them.
I should have known there was something fishy about the plumbing work. The electrical was too reasonable looking; there had to be bad plumbing. During our inspection we pointed out to Jason that his boiler had no bleed valve. This simple (and cheap) device converts the tank of heated water into a home hot water heater. Without it what you have is a bomb. Literally. Houses have been decimated by tank explosions. upon adding a bleed valve and having our inspector looking at everything again the inspector asked about the vent, which he couldn't see the other end of. Jason told him it ended outside the house, like it's supposed to, so the inspector simply noted jason told us it was fine and moved on to the many other issues.
Apparently Jason found an insane plumber who hates human life. At first he wanted to blow up the house, but then decided slowly killing the neighbor's and then lighting the place on fire would be preferable. I'm seriously considering legal action at this point.