Bazaar day in the inspection dept

Every now and then one has to shake their head. Real world situation defy logic and numb one senses. I received a call from a very reputable chimney sweep today, concerning an oil burned venting issue The home is a early 60’s ranch, where an elderly couple reside. The oil burner is vented threw the foundation into a sewer pipe sloping downward. That’s right it vents into the ground??? Well recent rain must have collapsed the original clay sewer pipe and backed up exhaust into the home. For years the people have complained they were sickly Anyone here hazard a guess why? Tomorrow I will be making an inspection to approve they chimney sweeps solution. I will continue my findings and post the solution. Weird day today. Got another call to inspect a 2 year old wood stove that had never been permitted The owners are selling the two family home and the mortgage company and buyers insurance company require a certificate of inspections. The owner tells me they never knew wood stoves required permitting or inspections. My reply was did you read the manual as all manuals printed after 1979 require language of code compliance. First response to they is to pull a permit and bring in the manual.. I tell them I will review the folder for the residence and get back to them.
In the folder is board of health and fire dept inspections listing numerous safety violations of t cracked chimney and wood stove installations violations. I do not know why these were never brought to my attention before. Numerous wiring violations, an oil burner converted to a gas burner without inspections, vented into the same chimney as the wood stove. pie plate used to seal another opening in the chimney. I will update this post as I inspect situations tomorrow. btw Closing set for Monday

First the stove that needed an inspection 3 years later.

After the install owners neglected to pull a permit
Dutch west Cat medium stove stove condition good, Except burning junk probably ruined the cat combustor, Chimney terrible. Cracked, motar eroding out , about what one can expect out of a 200 year old chimney. Did I mention it is un linned and also vents the oil burner?. 4" clearance in front of the loading door 3 " each side clearance to combustiables to the rear issues
Did not pass Money will be adjusted at the closing., I had to condem the installation and chimney. With the burner using the chimney, the people have a choice either power vent it or line the chimney. If they line the chimney, the stove will have to be removed. If they power vent, the chimney must be repaired, all loose motar removed and replaced, plus a full liner for the stove . In either case it will be expensive to solve. Might be cheaper to power vent, abandon the chimney and remove the stove. They have 14 days to vent the burner in a safe manner. The stove is red tag condemed. After 14 days, I can not leave them exposed to aditional danger, they will have to vacate the home.

The burner vented into the sewer

That's right vented into the septic system. These owners were exposed to many type of dangereous gasses oil burner exhaust and sewer gas. It is amazing these people survived Though they have experienced years of sickness. The solution was to re route using All Fuel Pipe into the flue above the downstairs cellar fireplace. The original fire place was being bricked as I inspected the venting. The old Mama Bear Fisher stove that had been in that fireplace was sitting near by. Never to be used again. The chimney sweep came up with the best solution using ALL Fuel pipe He had to to pass threw a combustiable wall and clearances to combustiable issues. He used a tee making the final 90 degrees turn into the fire place flue.
The tee setup satisfied the cleanout door issue. This is the Chimney sweep, I would use to make my installs if I were unable to.