What Happens to Your Furnace When Your Home is Under Construction

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Construction is, by nature, a messy process. You can’t build a house without making some dust. Not to mention sawdust, drywall dust, paint fumes, glue vapour…and all sorts of airborne particles you wouldn’t ever want to breathe in

What you might not know that it isn’t good for your HVAC equipment, either.

We hope this article helps shine a light on an issue that every Ontario homeowner should know about.

What Happens to Your Furnace When Your Home’s Under Construction

Heating and cooling technicians warn you not to run your furnace or air conditioner while you’re renovating your home. Construction dust can enter the system through the return air vents and accumulate inside, clogging your equipment and causing significant strain.

The worst culprit of all is drywall dust. If drywall dust gets in your furnace, it can quickly clog the secondary coil, infiltrate the motor and eat away at the bearings inside of the blower fan assembly.

Not to mention the state of your air ducting once it’s been blasted with drywall particles.

Shockingly, we’ve learned that some home builders in Ontario will actually run the home’s furnace while they’re still working on the house…knowing full well that drywall dust could infiltrate the entire HVAC system.

What’s worse, this action will likely void the furnace’s warranty, and future homeowners might have no knowledge of this damage until they’re on the hook for repairs.

Why Your Home’s New Furnace Might Be ‘Used’ After All

You’d expect a brand-new home to come with a brand-new, unused furnace. So, it’s no surprise that homeowners feel cheated when they discover that the builders used it first.

According to one homeowner interviewed for a CBC investigation, “I opened up the front of the furnace and it just looked like a bag of flour exploded in there. The furnace filter was caked with drywall dust and debris.”

You might wonder why home builders are allowed to run a home’s residential furnace during construction. The truth is, they’re not, at least not before the home is still in the drywall phase.

Back in 2016, furnace manufacturers took a stand against this very issue. Working with the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute (HRAI), the industry adopted the position that gas furnaces are not permitted to be used in Canada for the heating of buildings or structures under construction.

The Technical Standards and Safety Institute (TSSA) followed suit, issuing Advisory FS-232-17, which states that:

For a furnace to be used during the finishing stages of construction all of the following requirements must be met:

  • The furnace’s return air and supply air openings must be covered to minimize infiltration of dust prior to and during dust-generating construction activities (e.g. drywall installation, woodworking). 
  • All interior drywall must be installed, taped, sanded and first coat of primer applied.
  • The building must be cleaned of all debris and drywall dust. 
  • A new furnace filter must be installed, rated at MERV 11 or finer. The filter itself must be labelled accordingly by the manufacturer for easy identification. 
  • The furnace must be commissioned by a TSSA-registered heating contractor in accordance with the manufacturer’s certified installation instructions and to match values shown on the furnace’s rating plate. 
  • Arrangements must be made with the fuel distributor to inspect the furnace subsequent to it being used for Finishing Heat (can be done in conjunction with inspection of all other gas appliances prior to final occupancy)

These new rules draw a clear line between ‘Construction Heat’ and ‘Finishing Heat,’ which essentially bans builders from running the furnace while the house is still full of drywall dust.

However, it’s clear from CBC’s investigation that some builders are still skirting the rules.

What You Can Do

So, you suspect that your furnace was operating during construction (either during the home build or a renovation.) What should you do?

  1. First, don’t panic. If you’re comfortable looking into your furnace, you can take off the front panel and do a quick visual inspection. Drywall isn’t subtle, so you might see evidence of damage right away. One person described it as, “looking like a bag of flour exploded in there.”
  2. Next, call a home heating professional to conduct a furnace inspection. A knowledgeable service technician can advise you of your options if your furnace is caked with drywall dust or sawdust.
  3. If there’s drywall dust or sawdust  in your furnace, there’s drywall dust or sawdust in your ductwork as well. Many HVAC manufacturers recommend that home builders have the air ducts cleaned before the homeowner moves in, but that doesn’t always happen. Call us to discuss whether you could benefit from an air duct cleaning.

How Our Business Gives Back to the Community – And You Can, Too

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Since our start back in 1932, helping others has been an integral part of AtlasCare’s company culture. Whether it’s raising funds, spreading awareness or donating our time to a local cause, we’re always looking for ways to give something back to this community we call home.

Sometimes, we all get together to contribute as a team – but we also support individuals on our team who give back in their own way.

Here, we’d like to introduce you to a few of the efforts we’ve undertaken and organizations we’ve supported over the years. We hope that these stories can inspire you to do some good, too!

 

Care to Share Charity Program

Whether you’re a volunteer, a donor or a beneficiary, you can surely name at least one charity that has made a positive difference in your life.

There are literally thousands of charitable organizations doing important work in the Greater Toronto Area. As a local family-owned business, we have seen their impact on our communities first-hand.

Sadly, many of these organizations have urgent needs that are not being met. That’s why we started our Care to Share program.

Care to Share invites anyone in the community to tell us about a worthwhile charity and nominate them for a monetary donation. We revived the program in 2017 to celebrate our 85th anniversary. That December, AtlasCare made three cash donations totalling $8,500 to three worthwhile causes:

  1. Eagle’s Nest Association of Waterdown, which provides compassionate support and numerous services for local families in need.
  2. The Dale Ministries, which supports people experiencing poverty in Toronto’s Parkdale Community by providing free meals, drop-in programs and on-the-ground outreach.
  3. Scientists in School, which brings hands-on science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workshops to over 660,000 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 each year.

We had the privilege of meeting representatives from each of these organizations at our offices in Oakville. There, AtlasCare President Michael Grochmal and CEO Roger Grochmal presented each organization with funds in support of their essential services!

 

Volunteering

Everyone has a unique skill or expertise they can put toward helping a worthy cause. We encourage our staff to get involved in the community hands-on, and we often get together to volunteer together!

Earlier this year, we spent a day at the Compass Food Bank in Mississauga. Our duct cleaning technicians cleaned the facility’s duct system top-to-bottom, while the rest of the team helped to organize and prepare meals. We were thrilled to donate our services so that Compass could have cleaner air and a smoother-running HVAC system. The Compass Food Bank is always looking for more volunteers and donations of food and household essentials, so you should give them a call if you’re in the area!

The AtlasCare team has also been long-time volunteers and supporters of the Oakville-based charity SafetyNet. SafetyNet provides a wide range of services for kids and families, including free bicycles, clothing and household items. They also offer tutoring and music lessons for children who don’t have access to these services otherwise. We love volunteering at the SafetyNet warehouse, and just about anyone who wants to pitch in for a few hours can help with sorting donations! If you happen to musically or academically inclined, you can also make a big impact as a volunteer tutor or music instructor.

Fundraising and Sponsorship

We’re eager participants in a variety of local fundraisers – especially when we can take part as a team! In 2017, Roger and Michael Grochmal participated in Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Walk of Hope to help raise funds towards improving the lives of people living with ovarian cancer.

Our success as an HVAC and home services company has also given us the ability to sponsor organizations in the community. This year, we had the privilege of supporting  Burlington Soccer Club (Go Bayhawks!) as a sponsor. AtlasCare is also the Title Sponsor of the annual Golf Fore MS Classic event – a fundraiser golf tournament in support of our local chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society of Canada.

The funds raised at Golf Fore MS go towards helping to achieve two very important missions: researching the cause and cure of MS while providing services for local people affected by MS. Last year, our local Peel-Dufferin Chapter of the MS Society contributed $55,000 towards MS research and provided close to $60,000 in support to individuals in our community (including purchasing 63 pieces of equipment like wheelchairs and lifts.)

MS is a cause very close to our heart. It has affected the Grochmal family personally, along with many other families in our community. Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world, affecting an estimated 1 in 385 people and over 77,000 Canadians overall.

AtlasCare continues to be a lead organizer, title sponsor and participant in the Golf Fore MS tournament. It’s a wonderful way to honour the memory of our loved ones while raising money to support those who still live with MS.

We hope you’ll join us at the 2019 Golf Fore MS Classic on Wednesday, September 25th! You can learn more about the event or register online right here.

 

Education and Mentorship

We believe technical excellence comes from a commitment to continuous learning, whether it’s discovering new products or simply a better way to work. We’re also eager to encourage and nurture the next generation of HVAC professionals – which is why AtlasCare proudly supports skills competitions at technical colleges and through Skills Ontario.

AtlasCare has been involved with Skills Canada for many years.  Dick Thomas, our VP of Sales (and part of AtlasCare for over 40 years!) serves as the Skills co-chair for HVAC. He, along with our HR Coordinator Catherine Brelik, also lend their insight to several college advisory boards to help ensure young people learn the skills they need to succeed in our industry.

Dick also invited a group of local Scouts to AtlasCare’s offices to learn about trades in the mechanical fields. During their visit, the scouts got to see the rewards of a career in the trades!

Discover More About Our Culture

We couldn’t possibly fit all of our community engagement into one blog post, but you can learn all about us in the AtlasCare Culture Book! Here, you can see even more photos and stories about the things we do here at AtlasCare. Give it a look, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our company.

 

Why Your Home Insurance Might Not Cover Water Heater Damage

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You know that home insurance is important. But are you completely certain that all your home’s systems are covered?

In our previous blog on home insurance, you learned of the various kinds of water damage that are and are not covered under the standard home insurance policy in Ontario. There, we talked about damage caused by burst pipes, leaky plumbing, spring flooding and sewer back-up.

One thing we didn’t cover in that article is another potential source of damage in your home: your hot water heater. Does home insurance cover water heater damage?

Why A Busted Water Heater Could Cost You Big

Although it isn’t mandatory here in Ontario, most banks and lenders will insist that you purchase and show proof of home insurance before they’ll approve you for a mortgage. It’s easy to understand why.

Home insurance can protect you from the costs of a fire, storm, or another unexpected disaster. It also represents peace of mind – the comfort of knowing that your family won’t have to be responsible for a major financial hardship in an already difficult situation.

Without this coverage, many of us would be forced to pay for the significant repair and replacement costs out-of-pocket.

But as you already know, home insurance doesn’t cover every kind of damage and disaster that can occur to your home. And recently, the list of exceptions has expanded to include certain water heaters.

Today, most basic home insurance policies no longer cover damage resulting from a water heater that has been installed for a certain number of years – often 10 years or more.

This means that if your water heater leaks, you could be financially responsible for fixing your basement and replacing your water-damaged belongings yourself.

Why Home Insurance Doesn’t Cover Water Heater Damage

How can insurance companies get away with not covering this type of damage? After all, a water heater is something every single home has.

To understand what’s going on here, it helps to explain what insurance companies mean when they talk about ‘insured perils.’

A peril is a chance event that is both unexpected and accidental. Most home insurance plans cover these types of events.

For example, suppose someone comes by and sprays graffiti on your garage door. Since this event wasn’t something you did on purpose, and you couldn’t reasonably predict that it would happen, your home insurance would likely cover the cost of this damage.

Vandalism is generally considered an insured peril. Other commonly insured perils include fire, lightning, theft, wind, hail, falling objects, vehicle impact and smoke from a malfunctioning appliance.

But what about a leaking water heater? Most storage tank water heaters hold 50 gallons, or around 200 litres, of water, which is more than enough to seriously damage your basement floor and any nearby belongings.

As far as most insurance companies are concerned, this is not an insured peril – at least if the unit is over a certain age. Here’s why.

As the name suggests, storage water heater units keep hot water in a tank to be available immediately when you need it. When you turn on the tap, hot water flows out of the tank and cold water flows into the tank to replace it. A thermostat controls the burner or electrical element that maintains the water’s temperature.

Over time, the corrosive minerals in the water can wear away at the tank’s metal components, including the valves and the walls of the tank itself. Storage water heaters do have measures in place to minimize corrosion (the anode rod, for example) but they still require regular maintenance to stay in top shape.

Unfortunately, so many people forget to have their water heater serviced. It is common to see water heaters leak or fail around the 10-12 year mark for exactly this reason.

This has led many insurance companies to view water heater failure after 10 years as an avoidable incident, not an insured peril.

How to Protect Yourself from Water Heater Damage

First thing’s first: if you ever notice your water heater leaking, shut it off right away! You can shut off the water valve near the unit or cut the main water valve in your basement. It’s important to know where to find these valves before it becomes an emergency!

Next, there are a few things you can do right now to avoid unexpected water heater expenses in the future.

  1. Call your home insurance provider to find out what your policy says. Some policies cover water damage to your home caused by a broken water heater, but not a replacement unit. Others only provide coverage for units installed or manufactured less than 10 years ago. It’s important to know where your policy stands.
  2. Check the age of your water heater. Most water heaters come with a certification plate that states the year of manufacture. If you have rented your water heater, check with your provider.
  3. Have your water heater serviced by a professional. This is especially important if your unit is approaching its 10th year. If it’s not in great shape, you should start thinking about a replacement before you find yourself with a soggy basement.

When it comes time to replace your water heater, there are several extra measures you can take to minimize the chance of water damage, including:

  • Install a leak detector that will automatically shut off the water intake valve when it detects a leak.
  • Install a water heater recovery plate under the new tank to contain any leaks that do occur.
  • Have your other basement appliances elevated off the floor to keep them from being damaged by low levels of flooding.
  • Drain the water heater storage tank any time you will be away from home for an extended period, especially in the winter. This will prevent the pipes from bursting if they freeze.
  • Invest in basement waterproofing.