so you trust a drywall person to know the codes for venting an appliance and when you get information from the HVAC guy you question that??!!

single wall vent pipe, one thin layer of metal, needs 6" ( if memory serves me ) of clearance to combustibles where as B-vent only requires 1" clearance.

If your drywall guy did the hole for this, I would question the 29 years experience!!

most furnaces have specifics on how close things can be printed on the information label inside the upper door of the unit as well as in the instruction manual.

there is a minimum requirement for combustion air that needs to be considered as well. call that HVAC guy back if you cannot find the information, seems he has your best interest in mind!!

 

As above. Single wall needs a large clearance from combustable material.
B vent, needs less, and is safer for penetrations through combustable walls/materials.
A thimble is used to provide the air gap that B vent needs.

Contact your service/repair guy again, and have him come and take care of it.

 

Do not use the heat till it is repaired to code!

 

I agree with the above,either cut the hole bigger or install b vent

 

You need B-vent to penetrate that partition using a listed wall penetration. That ceiling firestop looks homemade so it would need to be listed as well. You should use the same brand B-vent as the vertical stack. The horizontal run is not properly supported. Enclosing that room makes it a "confined space". You need 50 cubic feet of room per 1,000 BTU/hr input rating of all combined appliances.

Both contractors leave a bit to be desired in my book.

Your overheat trip may have been from a lack of makeup air and not just drywall dust. Also, how did all that dust get in there? Ducts not sealed? Code requires ducts to be sealed within 10 ft. of the plenum. Now you will probably need to have your ducts cleaned.

 

we use double wall vent pipe on all gas furnaces. It requires a one inch space between all combustibles. I ALWAYS make sure my installers leave atleast 2" just to be safe.

 

Double wall flue pipe needs 1" of space. Not sure of single wall flue pipe, against code in my area to use. You also have a picture of PVC pipe, that doesn't need any clearance. If you're general contractor has never heard of such a code, I would be a bit scared of the quality of work he has done in other areas. Any builders we work with know that one.

 

That's not PVC pipe. It's a single wall vent connector (painted white) that's connected to a type B common vent. Your clearances are not allowable with single wall pipe. The single wall should be replaced with B vent.

Also as has been said, be positively sure that there is adequate combustion air openings.

 

6" clearance for single wall (c-vent), 1" for double wall (b-vent). bmatherws- that's c-vent pipe that's been painted! That penetration IS a fire hazard! Have it corrected right away! Also make sure the combustion and ventilation air requirements are met for enclosed spaces. The door should have louvered grilles top and bottom to allow the space to communicate to the rest of the space for ventilation air. Did your contractor check for proper clearances to the equipment for servicing? Was thought put in to replacing the equipment when needed? Is there enough room to disconnect the ductwok etc. ?

This is one of my pet peeves. The equipment is installed in an open space, and then later closed in such as this without any consideration to these issues. I looked at one a couple of weeks ago that had a leaking HWT. The doorway had to be opened up and the furnace and some of the ductwork had to be removed to do it. What should have been a 2 hr. job turned into 8+ hours and big $$$. Ended up having to make a new plenum adapter as the old one had to be cut out because there was alot of screws in the rear and side that were no longer accessable.

 

You're right. It's metal. That's some shiny ass metal. My powers of observation scare me sometimes. At any rate, it isn't safe as it is. Ductboard is a terrific insulator against extreme heat. It doesn't burn. Go by a house that has just burned and the ductboard stands. Cockroaches, Keith Richards and ductboard will survive a nuclear attack.

 

You may want to explore the option of changing the furnace to a condensing furnace that will vent with 2 or 3" pvc and will have a sealed combustion chamber which draws 100% combustion air from outside. With your situation now you are going to sink some money into a furnace that may not be worth it.

 

Thanx so much for all your responses!

Yeah, my gut did feel that the HVAC guy was right, but I've never done anything like this before, so just wanted to make sure I was trusting the right person. I'm SO blown away that the contractor hasn't come across this in 29 years. He looked at it today and assured us the pipe would never become hot enough to be a fire hazard. We have to figure out how to proceed now, but I think we're going to put him on the hook for some, if not all, of the cost to fix it.

The ceiling firestop is a metal plate that has been spackled to match the ceiling (done before we moved in) and the furnace guy seemed to think it was all right "as is".

hearthman - what did you mean when you said the "horizontal run is not properly supported"? The dust got in because none of the ducts or furnace were covered during the construction, so we do plan to have all the ducts cleaned, too.

Someone in the DIY.com forum mentioned that only high temp paint should be used on the single vent pipe. I guess our contractor didn't know that, either. Argh!

The furnace is only 2 months old, so we don't want to change it right away. The door of the furnace opens into the middle of the room (facing the HWT). I'll have to find a manual online (it was installed by the previous owner as we were buying the house and they didn't leave it behind) to find out about the BTU rating, so we can check the size of the room. Although, the furnace guy didn't mention that, so it might be OK, but I'll definitely check it out with him.

 

How about one more question? Another closet was built to house a stacking washer/dryer, and I was told to buy a 24" wide set, which I did. But, when we put it in tonight, the flexible metal dryer hose is getting squished between the dryer and the wall, in order for us to be able to close the door on the closet. Is this also a fire hazard, or not such a big issue?

I really appreciate your help with this!!!

 

Built by the same contractor I'm guessing? Seems he forgot to to allow for the vent!

How much is it being squished? 1/4" or so isn't TOO bad, but any more will start restricting airflow causing longer drying times, more lint buildup leading to higher dryer temps and possible fire hazard.

 

"...I'm SO blown away that the contractor hasn't come across this in 29 years. He looked at it today and assured us the pipe would never become hot enough to be a fire hazard."

just to clarify the code maybe you could ask the contractor to grasp the flue with his hand during a call for heat. Both hands would be better.

 

After the burners have been on for 10 to 15 minutes.

 

There is a fitting made that I've seen that is a flat offset with round going in and coming out on the opposite end app.12" or so long that puts it past the dryer.

 

Have permits been pulled for all of this work? If so ask you inspectors what is code for your area.

 

Being our first house and not understanding all about building codes, we did not get permits for the work. Now I'm getting scared because someone also mentioned our insurance may not cover us because we don't have permits! OMG, I am really stressing now. I wonder if we can get permits after the fact?!? I wish we'd know more about it when we started, but I thought I was in good, experienced hands.

About the furnace pipe, we're going to have it done properly.

For the dryer vent, it's not too badly squished, so it sounds as though it should be OK. It's more just pressed up between the dryer and wall, with only a little bit of squishing.

 

They make a recessed box that fits between the stud space that takes care of your dryer problem. You don't want to impede the flow from the dryer it will cause many problems the worse case overheating.
Good luck on the permits after the fact (voluntarily), you will have to get code enforcement involved,there usually is a fine for not pulling permits and any work covered up may have to be uncovered. But a job such as yours needs inspection by a third party for sure.