Post mortem on furnace issue
Spent the last two days getting by with heat from a Patton brand quartz tower space heater that the landlady brought over. It only heats one room at a time, so we can only live in one room at a time if we want to be warm.
The furnace guy finally showed up today around 4pm with the landlady. He took a look at the furnace without turning anything back on. Got out his mirror and looked at the innards and said “Oh! Ohhh yeah, look at that, completely blocked with soot.”
He had to rip out the entire furnace and put a new wall unit in, it was that far damaged. The landlady had all kinds of questions as to how it could get that way. The furnace guy said that the number one reason was likely cat hair, given what he saw in there before pulling the thing apart, and emphasised that it wasn’t my fault, that this was buildup over time - over years, due to the furnace not being checked out routinely.
The landlady asked how often she should check the furnaces in the units (there’s six in this house). The guy told her it should be done every three to four years!!! I couldn’t believe that. I interjected, and told them that the PG&E guy told me that it should be checked EVERY YEAR. The furnace guy then agreed, sure, yeah, ok yearly is good, too.
*rolls eyes*
Amazing, these people are….
The landlady then said that the previous owner had always let people with cats live in these units, too, and that she doesn’t know how often he checked the furnaces previous to the five years she’s owned the house.
So, based on her statement, we can assume she’s NEVER had the furnaces checked since she’s owned the house - that’s five years without routine maintenance at the very least.
She then went on to ask the furnace guy how the carbon monoxide poisoning factors into a dirty furnace.
SERIOUSLY, she’s THAT brain dead.
He explained it to her carefully until it appeared that the lights went on. Then she exclaimed “OH! So all we have to do is check the furnaces every 3 - 4 years then!”
NO YOU DUMB BITCH! CHECK THEM EVERY SINGLE YEAR!!!!!
omfg.
Later still, she wanted to know how the carbon monoxide testers work. I showed her the one I bought, and urged her to get a ceiling mount or hard-wired one for each unit, and told her where I found the testers at. She marveled at how I was able to catch on to the furnace issue so quickly. I told her that this is the number one winter fear/issue back home in Michigan, so I have my own mental alarm so to speak, and perk up if I start feeling ill like I did. She was incredulous, and said “Wow we just don’t HAVE these issues out here like you do back East! It’s a good thing you knew what to look for and that no one was hurt!”
NO REALLY.
SHE SAID THAT.
As he went through removing and putting in a new furnace, the heater guy was happy to show me how it all worked, how to turn off and relight the pilot, and that it’s okay to open the bottom part of the wall unit and vacuum any dust/cat hair outta there - that it won’t harm the pilot light (and if it does, well he showed me like I said how to relight it).
Now I’m all comfortable and knowledgeable about gas furnaces. I can add this to the list with hot water heater anodes, which I learned from dealing with another incompetent landlady a few years ago.
Back in the day, Ma taught me how to lay carpet, hang drywall and insulate walls and attics when we had to move into a unibomber shack cheap Depression-era home when I was eleven.
One day, I’ll re-learn how to work on cars.
*big ‘ol sigh*
I’ve already had a talk with my man. It’s 100% mutual feelings about the landlady. We’ll be moving out by Autumn, 2009 at the latest. We would move out ASAP, but we just won’t be able to afford it before 2009.