02/21/2025
HOMEOWNER PRO-TIP
If you wish to avoid unnecessary service calls and ensure safety for occupants of residence’s, make sure your snowremoval contractors do a 360° walk around of your home being sure to note all mechanical venting terminations.
This furnace exhaust vent was discovered today after a forced-air gas furnace was not operating shortly after the contractor had finished removing snow off a roof. Fortunately, due to a proactive customer requesting regular maintenance, the intergral safety devices of this furnace were operating as they should which prevented any potential health hazzards with furnace operation failure.
This contractor was contacted and he ensured that he cleared all the snow from all vents before he left but obviously that was not the case.
From a neutral side of opinion, this vent may have already been partially covered with the recent amount of snow, and could have also been mistaken for the water heater vent that looks very similar, so assuming blame is not the goal here. All the more reason to make sure you throughly explain the requirements of the job to your contractor, communicate all the gas fired appliance possibilities to your contractor and if possible, inspect the work to be sure it was completed to your satisfaction.
Once this vent was cleared the furnace was restored to proper working order and the heat was back on.
Take a look in the comments to see some video on the progression of this dig-out.
