I inspected a house in Minneapolis yesterday with an old gravity furnace. The furnace had supposedly been certified, and the seller left the paperwork sitting on the kitchen table. Here’s the form:
Here are a few key points:
1. The printout shown below was attached to the form and has the same date. This is the ORSAT test that needed to be attached. This shows the CO level in the stack at 3617 ppm, which is ridiculously high. The gas company will shut down the equipment and red tag it at 400 ppm. The contractor wrote “0 at registers”. Who cares about registers? That’s not where they’re supposed to be testing!
2. The form specifically says the installer checked the vent connector for signs of deterioration. The vent connector was wrapped with duct tape and completely rusted out underneath the duct tape; I could feel it crumble as I pushed on it. Signs of deterioration don’t get much more obvious.
3. The contractor was supposed to check the manual gas shut-off to make sure it’s consistent with City Code Enforcement Standards. Gate valves are not. That round handle thing in the middle of the photo is a gate valve.
So what the heck was this contractor looking at? You’ll notice the address on the form at the top was actually left blank. Maybe they inspected the wrong house?
I might follow up with this contractor to figure out exactly how they could have signed this blank check.
Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Minneapolis Home Inspector
