Air Intake not connected to Furnace - is this okay?

Originally Posted By: keith david
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Hi - I’m about the purchase a condo (one floor of a rehabbed 3 decker). The heating furnace (forgive me if I get the lingo wrong) is built into one of the closets in a bedroom. It is on a 3 foot high wooden platform.


There is an air intake - with a filter on it out in the main hallway that runs the length of the floor. However, the duct only leads from the hallway to the bottom of the 3 foot high platform, where it ends. It is not connected to the bottom of the furnace. The little room where the furnace is is not airtight - its open to the rafters.

My home inspector thought this was wrong - and that the furnance was drawing all kinds of air/dust/insulation etc.

The developers HVAC guy says the design is fine - and was done on purpose to minimize noise.

Any thoughts on this? I don't know anything about HVAC - but this doesn't seem right.