Michael Thomas
08-23-2007, 08:18 PM
Buyer was supposed to close on this Chicago condo conversion tomorrow: no hot water, leaks under every sink, construction debris in hydro-therapy tub, no appliances installed etc., the inspection was “suspended” pending unit completion to the point where complete inspection was possible.
Anyways... this was a small 1 BR/1BA garden apartment, installed was a 40,000 BTU 50 gal water heater and 40,000 BTU GFAF - could not get a look at the condenser up on the roof as it was storming throughout the entire inspection.
In addition to everything else you can see in the pictures (and some stuff you can’t) the exterior of the plenum above the coil was *covered* in condensation which was running down the exterior of the A-Coil housing and into the furnace (sorry it's not clearer in the pictures, but that "peened" appearance is all beaded water) – I’ve never seen anything like it, humidity was high and there was a 25 degree different between interior and exterior temperatures, but still… So I was wondering about the possibility of mis-sized/mismatched furnace/blower/A-coil.
An HVAC tech is going to have to look at this furnace in any case – there has obviously been drywall dust and chips and other debris going down the open combustion air intake (no manual on-site, and I've not yet found one on-line, so I don't know if the manufacturer allows drawing combustion air from the interior) and the secondary drain is not plumbed, etc. and I’ll note the excessive condensation.
But would others here have/report specific suspicions of other problems based on the sweating?
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Inspecting in the city is always interesting: supposedly this place passed inspection - you gotta' love the kitchen plumbing and that smoke alarm (that *is* a smoke - not CO - alarm).
I still haven't discovered a way to ding these stairs as hard as I feel they deserve... they just offend my sense of common sense - perhaps Mr. Peck can help me out on that one... though if they keep that door open, they may just float away (did I mention it was raining... HARD... during this inspection?) - and yes, that extension cord appeared to be live.
Anyways... this was a small 1 BR/1BA garden apartment, installed was a 40,000 BTU 50 gal water heater and 40,000 BTU GFAF - could not get a look at the condenser up on the roof as it was storming throughout the entire inspection.
In addition to everything else you can see in the pictures (and some stuff you can’t) the exterior of the plenum above the coil was *covered* in condensation which was running down the exterior of the A-Coil housing and into the furnace (sorry it's not clearer in the pictures, but that "peened" appearance is all beaded water) – I’ve never seen anything like it, humidity was high and there was a 25 degree different between interior and exterior temperatures, but still… So I was wondering about the possibility of mis-sized/mismatched furnace/blower/A-coil.
An HVAC tech is going to have to look at this furnace in any case – there has obviously been drywall dust and chips and other debris going down the open combustion air intake (no manual on-site, and I've not yet found one on-line, so I don't know if the manufacturer allows drawing combustion air from the interior) and the secondary drain is not plumbed, etc. and I’ll note the excessive condensation.
But would others here have/report specific suspicions of other problems based on the sweating?
-----------
Inspecting in the city is always interesting: supposedly this place passed inspection - you gotta' love the kitchen plumbing and that smoke alarm (that *is* a smoke - not CO - alarm).
I still haven't discovered a way to ding these stairs as hard as I feel they deserve... they just offend my sense of common sense - perhaps Mr. Peck can help me out on that one... though if they keep that door open, they may just float away (did I mention it was raining... HARD... during this inspection?) - and yes, that extension cord appeared to be live.