Recently Serviced

Recently serviced, two words I find attached to the description of various components in a house. For example, the furnace has been recently serviced. The good thing about a piece of heating equipment having been serviced is the company usually leaves a tag on the unit with the date and sometimes a few notes. For the home inspector the tag can confirm a service has in fact been done recently.

One interesting twist about leaving a service tag on a piece of equipment, it also in essence makes that company responsible for their work. In Connecticut that can also mean legally responsible. So it’s a wonder to me why I find heating equipment which was “recently serviced” having potentially hazard defects.

On two recent inspections I found the boilers in both homes had been “recently serviced”. In the first house, the date on the tag was just a few day previous. The picture shows the vent pipe where it enters the chimney in the basement. That’s about a one inch hole right at the seam. The bigger twin was on the opposite side. The white and yellow stuff are mineral deposits which should have been a humongous red flag to the heating tech. Holes and corrosion do not happen over night. They are created from the cumulative effects of the combustion gases over many years. This condition unquestionably has been present and seen several times by the techs.

I found a some what similar condition on another boiler just a week or so later in another home. This boiler had been serviced, according to the tag, a few months previous. Soot stains on the flue pipe and boiler jacket, as well as soot powdered over the top of the boiler are indicative of combustion gas leaks. Again these conditions did not just happen.

To be fair it is possible, all though unlikely, theses concerns may have been brought to the homeowner’s attention, but they failed to respond accordingly for reasons unknown. If that scenario had occurred the tech has the right to disable the equipment due to the obvious safety concerns. So now the question becomes, why are these two boilers in operation with readily apparent safety issues?

One has to wonder exactly what “recently serviced” has come to mean.

 

James Quarello
Connecticut Home Inspector
2010 - 2011 SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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