Hello Folks, Thought I would share an experience that I had when I use to own and manage rental properties. This blog was inspired by Steve Smith in a Blog he published earlier today
on 1-29-08 http://activerain.com/blogsview/357530/Safety-and-Seller-Ethics. Before I moved to Florida I owned numerous rental homes and a 42 unit apartment complex in Louisville, Kentucky. On all my properties, I generally took care of all the maintenance, repairs and rent collecting. The only time I would have a contractor on site was when I knew it was a job that was above my knowledge. Typically all my HVAC work was performed by a HVAC Licensed technician and my major plumbing issues were performed by a licensed plumber. While I was on site one day I was talking to a tenant who lived in a third floor apartment (top floor) and he was complaining about always getting headaches in the evenings. He typically worked during the day, would come home and after a few hours would start getting a headache. As he is telling me this, I'm not thinking too much about what he is saying, but I kind of put it I the back of my mind. That night after going to bed, I suddenly woke up around 2:00am and it occurred to me ........ I wonder if he is getting Carbon Monoxide poisoning from the furnace in his apartment? The thought scared the heck out of me and if it wasn't 2:00am, I would have gone over to the apartment then. Thinking back, I robably should have gone. At 8:00am I called my HVAC guy on his cell phone and asked him how busy he was that day. I proceeded to tell him that I needed his assistance and what I was thinking about the furnace. Fortunately, Tony said he would head over there first and wanted me to meet him. ... No Problem. Tony arrived at the apartment complex around 9:00am and we proceeded to go up to the apartment. After checking the furnace over, my suspicions were correct. The fumes were not going up the flu (pipe) like they should. And actually, you could see some black soot starting to collect on the ceiling in the closet which held the furnace. Tony proceeded to clean the furnace and fix the flu. One easy way to tell if the flu is working is to light a small piece of paper and hold it next to the Flu opening. If the flames are pulled into the flu, then it is working. If the flames are pushed away from the flu or get blown out, then you have problems. I can't begin to tell you how luck my tenant & I were for finding the problem BEFORE something terrible happened. You can never be too safe, especially when you have rental property and someone life on the line. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Correction to story ....
The Carbon Monoxide was coming from the Flu above the water heater, not the furnace. Both units were located in the same closet. It was after cleaning and checking the furnace that we realized it was coming frm the water heater.
Sincerely,
Sean Allen
Lic. Mortgage Broker
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