Think This One Needs A Cleaning?

[dougfamous]

Got called out for no heat, go to check if stat is sending signal to furnace and find this gem:



I'm willing to bet this poor Lennox ran with the door switch taped and no filter for WEEKS while they did the drywall, sanding, etc in here. A closeup:



You can see where my finger left a clean spot on the cabinet. YIKES. I couldn't clean it right there because the customer wouldn't pay for it (new house), so we have to wait to see if builder will pay for it.

[coolmist]

Homeowner needs to see if the builder will give them a new house. That furnace is doomed.

[HVAC Pro]

At first glance, I thought a snake had slithered in there!

[sargent j]

That HX is toast, and not covered under warranty with that.

[hvac wiz 79]

furnace should go in well after rock is sanded... need heat ? use portable heaters .. same for cooling .. thats a shame to the homeowner .... was on a job 2 weeks ago & noticed that the store next to the one i was working on didnt even have a poored floor .. still dirt but was running the AC .. we checked out inside of RTU for ****s n giggles & well that thing was so f*@ked

[neophytes serendipity]

Yeah, get a builder to pay for construction heat or cooling....

Tell them "no", and the contractor won't get any more work.

Build in money for a cleaning, then you are too high to get the job.

Drywallers won't guarantee their work unless it is over 68*... Flooring guys whine about the moisture content.... Trim guys whine about the moisture content... Laminate guys whine the glue won't work if it is too hot/cold/humid... Electricians are always too hot or too cold....

Yeah, some of the issues are legit, but the HVAC contractor is bearing the burden of maintaining jobsite conditions with homeowner equipment and the HVAC guy eats it in the shorts.

The builder makes their money and the homeowner gets screwed.

[alantennessee1]

I keep telling the estimater to add in 50% for plane stupid things that happen. So we can turn a profit.

[tpa-fl]

Doesn't anyone use "portable" package units for construction heating/cooling? I see it quite often down here with the higher-end builders. Additionally, on any remodel design I do, where there'll be a new HVAC system installed, the old unit stays in until the VERY end. With 2 ton package units being so inexpensive and relatively lightweight, I can't justify doing a job without one.

[amickracing]

Some of the better generals around here have clammed onto some older electric furnaces. They have a cheap plenum with a few registers on it and r/a box built and they are good to go. Other than that, almost everyone around here runs the new equip for new const heating (rarely cooling, unless it's carpet or finish guys).

[tpa-fl]

Plenum? bah... Some flex here, some flex there, and you've got yourself some good construction cooling/heating

[rubberduck]

oops. that's going to void the warranty

[ricm]

We here in Canada, often run into the builders that insist that the home-owner's furnace is used during construction... and the dumb-assed people that run my company won't cave into the builder's demands for fear of loosing the contract.

Sadly, we pay for the first year of annomalies that haunt these poor furnaces. A/C is never an issue, as our summers aren't hot enough to warrant A/C during construction.

I'm the one they send to appease the customer, but I do not hesitate to side with customer.... initiate the repair, and make DAMNED sure that the customer isn't billed. Dry wall dust (Sheet rock for my southern bretheren) is a killer... and if I go to a furnace that is saturated.... I clean it proper, and bill my company for their own fault in not putting pressure on the builders.

As for my fear of loosing my job? Not worried. I'd rather work for less pay for a company that takes care of it's customers.... my company is trying to meet that profile. They just need to grow a set, and pester the builders to do better. There is good competition here, lots of jobs for everyone, and the trades are screaming for techs.... so the ball is in our court to set the standard.

[dougfamous]

Originally posted by ricm
I'd rather work for less pay for a company that takes care of it's customers.... my company is trying to meet that profile.

Let me guess, they have the "less pay" part down pat and are working on the "take care of customers" part?

[aircooled53]

If it is that bad, wonder what the evaporator coil looks like and for that matter all the ductwork, he will be breathing that for a long time.$$$$ Somebody needs to pay..

[dougfamous]

Originally posted by aircooled53
If it is that bad, wonder what the evaporator coil looks like and for that matter all the ductwork, he will be breathing that for a long time.$$$$ Somebody needs to pay..

Yeah, we get that all the time in these new houses. "Why is there so much dust in here?". We are forbidden to say the words "duct cleaning" to the customers, because the builder refuses to pay for duct cleaning (if they did one, all of them would want it) and we sure as hell aren't paying for that, since it wasn't us that ran the furnace during the drywall phase.

[jerryb175]

I think that it would probably be best to wait to power or fuel furnace specifically after all phases of construction are complete except flooring.

[ts89]

If this was new construction, the HVAC contractor should never have wired it up for operation until ready for final inspection, or at least installed filters (hi effiency) before leaving the job site to prevent this from happening. I beleive the contractor needs to clean it for free and concider this a lesson learned. He also needs to talk to all the installers about this and make them clean the system if it happens again!! And if he is the one that left it this way he should kick his own a##.

[dougfamous]

Originally posted by ts89
If this was new construction, the HVAC contractor should never have wired it up for operation until ready for final inspection, or at least installed filters (hi effiency) before leaving the job site to prevent this from happening.

Obviously you've never done new construction.

I beleive the contractor needs to clean it for free and concider this a lesson learned. He also needs to talk to all the installers about this and make them clean the system if it happens again!! And if he is the one that left it this way he should kick his own a##.

We are at the mercy of the builders (you know, the ones that pay the bill). If they call and insist we wire it up, then what choice have we got? We've repeatedly insisted they use construction heaters or used furnaces for temp heat, they refuse. Now what? If you want to do the entire development, then you have to do it THEIR way, they are paying the bill. They will also be paying the bill to clean/repair this because our warranty clearly files this under misuse/abuse.

[NBeener]

...but it fits my situation only too well.

My new home is under construction, with a Carrier Infinity 58MVC 96AFUE furnace. $$$$ ... as y'all know.

The builder's folks started using the Infinity for construction heating as soon as they started working inside (ie, prior to drywall, flooring, trim work, cabinets, etc., etc.).

They did NOT draw fresh air from the outside (as 'required' in the installation manual). They simply used the 'normal' register on the main level of a single-story house (furnace is in the basement).

The first people to light it up "hot-wired" it, by sticking stripped ends of a black and a white wire into the female side of an extension cord, and plugging the extension cord into a construction outlet, at the street. They DID have a simple dial thermostat, in use.

For the first week or more, my Skuttle inline air cleaner WAS inline. Somebody then decided that was a bad idea, and took the Skuttle offline, leaving the 58MVC to handle all the work.

I brought this to the builder's attention. I think they horribly abused a very expensive unit.

They've offered to:

• thoroughly clean IT, and the ducts
• pay for the extended (10yr) parts & labor warranty
• "replace the unit if it fails (and I still own the house), after the expiration of the 10yr warranty."

It seems they know they screwed up. A replacement, in the event of a "failure," doesn't make me sleep better at night. This may have caused lots of potential problems that fall short of a "failure." I'm really not interested in dealing with those issues, either.

In a quick call to Carrier Customer Relations, their initial impression was that my warranty is now void (neglected to give them the serial number of the unit, though ).

I believe the builder should replace the unit, prior to delivering the house (mid-to-late February). I think they screwed up ... and got caught.

I'm trying to avoid getting the HVAC contractor in the middle of this, but -- from my few conversations with him -- he sounds like he's in MY court, on this one....

Any opinions??

I'd be grateful.....

[dougfamous]

Good luck with that. Every builder I ever did work for would tell you to go fly a kite. Check your paperwork, you probably can't even sue them. Most builders slip "binding arbitration" clauses in their stuff now, and guess who pays the arbitration fees?

If they're willing to clean it and offer the 10 year warranty, then take it and get the builder's offer to replace it after that in writing.