County Furnace Inspection

[Dave]

We just had a gas furnace replaced and now hear that we must schedule a county inspector to come check the work. Does everyone have to do this?

[SQLit]

I have seen this in several jurisdictions. It is for your safety. Improper installations create dangerous situations. Just like you are not allowed to weld a cracked heat exchanger. It must be replaced.

[CBHvac]

Actually, your contractor should have pulled permits and had it done BEFORE he started the work. In some areas, if work is completed BEFORE the permit and inspection process, the permits and inspection price doubles.

[Chip C]

Inspection/permitting/licensing requirements vary widely by jurisdiction across the US and Canada, but some level of concern for gas is to be expected.

After we had a new gas boiler installed (oil replacement), the installer called the gas company (late in the evening) and then they put us in the queue for an inspection (late the next day) ... and only upon a successful inspection will they open up the gas meter! However, that's a house that had had no gas service. In a previous house I had a gas stove relocated and I don't recall needing an inspection...possibly the gas fitter "forgot" to mention it?

Chip C Toronto

[Dave]

The contractor has listed a permit number, but this is a sixty year-old house that has not seen an inspector in 30 years. I don't want to open a huge can of worms when this house is unlikely to be on the market for another 20 years.

[Epawtows]

Yes, that was the way it was for me. The installers told the city that they were going to do the work and paid for the inspection (which was added to my bill, of course). The city sent me a letter giving approval for the installation, and stating that I had a certian number of days after that to schedule an actual inspection. So, after the new furnace was put in, I called and had a city inspector come out and approve it.

He explained why it worked that way: the inspector wants to see the job after its' completed. If he tried to show up the same day as the installation, he might show up before they were finished. Or the installation might have been canceled due to a part problem or someone getting sick, or who knows what else, and he'd have nothing to inspect. This way he can be reasonably certian that he won't be wasting his time. City budgets are tight, they can't afford to have inspectors sitting around a house waiting for the installers to finish.

It would be a little different for a more involved job, but this was a simple furnace installation, he could easily see everything he needed too after the job was done.

Also: He was there to inspect the furnace, and *ONLY* the furnace. The furnace was sitting right next to a hot water heater that the previous owner of the house had clearly *not* gotten inspected. The house is in a high-risk area for earthquakes (just north of Seattle, WA) but the water heater (~5 years old, I've had the house ~1 year) was not properly strapped to the wall. If he had been there to inspect the water heater, he would have flunked it. He was not, so he did not flunk anything.

My understanding is that, in general, if an inspector is looking at something done to an existing home, they *only* pass judgement on that specific job. This is to encourage people to get such work inspected. Someone with a really old house with a mess of badly done repairs would have to spend a fortune to get *every* system up to code at once, and thus might decide to never have anything inspected. Better that stuff gets inspected piecemeal as a house is repaired than not at all.

Eric P.

[CBHvac]

No problem...remember this...the inspector isnt there to check anything...ANYTHING but the safety and code of the installation of the furnace...period. If the contractor listed a permit number, then you have to have an inspector out. The inspector wont burn you on anything but what the permits pulled for, and thats only if its a bad installation.

[Jeff Cochran]

In my jurisdiction, yes. Normally it's inspected immediately after installation, but an emergency replacement usually allows for an inspection at the next available time period.

Of course, your County inspector's office could tell you what's really required...

Jeff