We had our hot water heater and furnace inspection done today as part of my daycare licensing. It didn't go well. As far as I could tell the guy passed my furnace on the inspection but said it needs to be replaced soon. He had nothing good to say about it. Here's what he said:
-It's a 25 year old furnace that any others like it only last 20 years
-It's a lennox model that back in the day Lennox would give you a replacement part for free because the cost to have a new part put in and maintenanced was so costly that they gave you the part for free.
-The one that is in our house is 88,000 BTU's and should only be put in a two story house. Our house only calls for a 70-75,000 BTU furnace and that having abigger one is no better, it's worse. I can't remember all he said about that, I was to the point of trying to not cry here.
-The pipes coming off the furnace should not be going up the chimney, they should be going either out the side of the house or out the back, never up the chimney and that it wasn't even done to code. The person who did it must not have even gotten a permit. (Interesting story here: the guy left just as Jim was geting home from the doctor and when I told Jim about this one he said that when we bought the house he was told that it used to go out the side of the house but Rose's husband had someone move it to go up the chimney because he would drink his coffee in the mornings and hated the sound it made underneath the dining room and he hated all the steam coming out by the dining room window while he had him coffee.) DANGGIT! All because of your stupid coffee time?! Seriously. That whole house of slapped together by stupid people. The guy said the hot water pip is sandwiched in the chimney by the furnace pipes and that shouldn't be that way..or something. This whole experience is making my brain mush.
I looked up Furnaces and when it comes down to getting anew furnace and having to fix all the crap the previous owners did to the house it could be upwards of $6,000.
The hot water heater has to be down to 115 degrees. He could only get it down to 127.5. I guess the Relief Valve needs to be fixed somehow too. He said something about a pipe not going all the way down to the floor and that there needs to be one. After that is fixed he will come back out and re-inspect it to pass it off to the daycare form.
This is not all the happy news I have been praying for. I tried to explain to the guy that I needed the daycare to get the money to fix all this stuff. I think he was understanding that but also had to do his job, which I understand. It's just frustrating. And VERY discouraging. I also have to have the radon tested in the basement. I am SUPER nervous about that too. Here's what I know:
-Radon is the number 2 thing to cause Lung Cancer behind smoking.
-Tecumseh is filled with Radon. Not Onsted, not Adrian, not any other towns around. Just Tecumseh.
-A friend of mine just had a Radon system put in her basement and it was 800 dollars.
Oy.
