This is another one of those posts about why even New Homes need to be inspected. Take a look at the picture below. Note how convoluted the run of the vent pipes are from the water heater and the furnace. There is nothing about the installation of vent pipes from gas appliances that requires them to look like spaghetti, in fact, the shortest runs with the least number of bends is desirable. It is difficult to see in this picture, but it is not possible to remove the furnace filter because it runs into the vent pipe. To make a long story short, I called to have the venting repaired so that the water heater would vent better and that changing the furnace filter would be possible. In this next picture we can see the “repair,” by the licensed heating contractor, did improve the venting of the water heater by eliminating the long bending run to the point of attachment. But,----once again it was not possible to remove the filter without pushing the vent pipe out of the way. It just made me want to vent!
Charles Buell
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PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.
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Charlie,
Always weird when the professional you call for does something like that.
Steve, yup---you can always point someone in the right direction by they will often still take a different route to get to the wrong place.
Wow I have to admitt I have not seen a home with venting like that. Really weird would be to think a professional would do something like that.
Charles, that is one of the wildest exhaust vent piping I've seen in a long time, if it was not for the pictures I would swear you were just story telling about it. I never like these type of set-up, because when both units are running simultaneously, there is always back drafting at the hot water vent diverter.
~ Life is Good
Ah yes, I remember when I had to contend with all that stuff including furnace filters. I must admit I never saw anything vented quite like that though. Typically a shaft directly above the furnace would serve as a place for the vent pipe to exit up through the roof. I'm pretty puzzled by your photos.
Bob----and to do it weird twice:)
Roy while running both vents into one is allowed----it can create some problems when everything isn't installed correctly.
Richard, sometimes installers seem to think that these "flexible" connectors mean that they can be flexed any which way.
It's pretty scarring when the so called licensed heating contractor has no clue. Makes for a great game of he said I say. I can see the conversation now: "HI says this is still wrong". "Well that's just his opinion, but I'm the one with the license". Gotta love it.
Suesan----so true, and yet isn't that always the game?:)
Wheres the dryer exhaust? Looks like plenty of room right there on the left!
Dan, I have heard of dryer vents hooked up to gas flue vents---very dangerous practice.
Hi Charles...That even looks crazy to me and I'm no expert on piping although I do know how to vent. (I promise not to do it here.)
Kate
Kate, I am sure that for you this will always be a safe place to vent if you need to:)
Those were outstanding pictures of an outstandingly bad job!
Barbara, are you criticizing the work of a licensed heating contractor that has been signed off by at least two jurisdictional inspectors?:)
Charlie - I hope you didn't turn to stone when you looked at it...
You should be careful not to stultify creativity.
Jay, I think the HVAC guy was the one that was "stoned." One definition of "creativity" is taking nothing and making somthing out of it----this is more like taking something and making nothing out of it:)
Charlie,
I liked your comments about the HVAC guy thinking it was okay and the code guys signing off on it too. More proof of the inadequacy of counting on a code inspection.
Maybe Doc Oct was his favorite character on Spider Man?
Steve----it is all job security.
Jay, it does kind of look like that doesn't it.
Filter? They must know that nobody changes them anyway.
AHHHH!----point taken:)
Good post. Sometimes you wonder if people think and think again about an installation method before starting it.
Randy, sometimes I think that these things happen because of the, "What-they-had-on-the-truck" principle:)