Apparently, this has worked this way since day one. It’s a mid 50’s house. I believe the water heater should connect above the furnace vent into the chimney. The listing agent says the buyers just had the furnace checked by an HVAC guy before they purchased the home warranty, and didn’t say anything. I say the HVAC guys weren’t concerned with the water heater venting, they were checking the furnace.
Like Stephen said, write it up including the downward run, of vent pipe just before the chimney, if it really does that as it appears. And, what is wrapped around the H2O vent pipe near the chimney?
I figured someone would catch that. It’s masking tape holding aluminum foil in place. Musta been to cover a pinhole or something. There is a slight downward angle as well. I knew I was writing those two things up, but couldn’t understand the smaller BTU appliance venting into the chimney below the larger one, and why it worked all this time, and did okay on smoke test.
It’s a brand new RE agent for me, so I didn’t want to be an “alarmist”, but a defect is a defect. I’ll call it all out.