…when he came and worked on the furnace.
That would explain it. He got the HE furnace in, but forgot to:
A. Re-install the water heater flue.(It was laying in pieces)
B. Close up the gaping holes in the return vent 5 feet away.
C. Have a license to do any of the work.
To top it off the 70 year old lady living alone in the house didn’t have a working CO detector and all the furnace work happened 3 years ago.
looks like the “test pressure” pipe (that is from WAFI) is capped
Perhaps he figured the return holes helped provide more makeup air the burners as he decided to pull in basement air anyway and the water heater he decided to decommission thanks to the flame rollout observed .
My other guess is he wanted to get away from the rats and mold down there.
Better yet he left to go yell at the plumber for a trap over 24 inches of tail length between fixture and trap weir.
Simply forgot to return seeing as he was out of Beer and the Plumber bribed him with a few cold ones out of his trunk.
Dont you love the color combination of paint and efflorescent salt .
I bet he was the cheapest guy he could find at the time! Price is what you pay Value is what you receive!
Wow… all that detail…
From an IPad mini photo. :mrgreen:
How about the combustion air intake piped into the return duct?
Imagine what I do with a real camera and 300 plus photos.
Think there is time on-site ?
[seriously just uploaded report with crawl shot showing extension cords between floor boards ]
Missed on site / seen at home in detail High res photo. 
It’s at about 4 1/2 hours and I did it all on site, but I do not print off reports on site. I still think it’s best to go back to the office and give yourself time to mull it over or do exactly what you’re talking about, review your photos one last time just to make sure. I had about 160 photos on this house and used about 80 in the report.
That water heater looks healthy.
Sick as a dog with a super nasty cold and had a home with 2nd floor added but my walk pattern was horrible and there were tons of items off kilter from normal inspections here besides me.
Thank Goodness I take pics or would have returned the darn fee for fear.
Still unsure and will post later about a little bit of it.
Those aren’t fun. I’ve had a few of those and all you can do is stagger around snapping photos and hope you don’t throw up. Feel better.
What’s a “test pressure pipe” and what’s a WAFI?
Where?
WAFI = Kevin Woods (What a fruckin Idiot) and thats what he calls the TPR valve in his non home inspection report.
Come on Kenton keep up with the gossip!
Heres the thing…
Would that work ?
What if the location was a sealed closet in a bedroom ?
…hmmmmmmmm
No exterior air supply but drawing from a return vent in another room.
Dumb or genius ?
Ooooh, OK thanks. I was looking for an external combustion air supply duct.
Cat 4 so it would always be schedule 40 unless drawing from the top knockout or in this case the picture looks like a side knockout with a straight shot to the return unless it is being used to stop vibration and not actually drawing from the return.
vent louver ] anyone …comments ?
Water heater flame roll out, anyone?
Time for a new one.
Recommended Plumber examine and replace / repair.
No further diagnostics needed from a General Home Inspection.
The combustion air wasn’t connected to the return, the perspective of the photo just makes it looks that way. That was a small fitting with a screen.
