Furnace died mid-January and my crew had to work in parkas for 3 days

The old unit in my shop gave out on a Tuesday with wind chills at 10 below. Had to cancel two interior paint jobs and lost around $1,200 in labor before I got a temporary unit hooked up. Anyone else had a building system fail at the absolute worst time?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_mary26d ago

Man, 10 below with wind chills is brutal. I had my HVAC go out last February during that polar vortex thing and lost a whole week of bookings. That $1,200 hit on canceled jobs sounds about right for three days, but for me it was closer to $2,000 because I had to refund deposits on three full kitchen remodels. The worst part was the glycol loop in my floor heating system froze and cracked a pipe, so I ended up with water damage on top of everything. I finally rented one of those big propane torpedo heaters from the rental yard, but it cost me $80 a day and it stank up the whole shop for a week.

spencer78226d ago

Does that torpedo heater have any safety issues with the fumes? I remember @the_mary mentioning the smell, but I'd be worried about carbon monoxide in a shop space. Sounds like you got hit way harder than most people would expect.

victor_robinson26d ago

Really shows how fragile modern life is. One broken pipe or dead furnace and everything grinds to a halt.

joel_jones23d ago

Rent a CO detector from the rental yard along with the torpedo heater and crack a bay door a few inches for airflow. Those propane units can spike CO fast if the shop's sealed up tight. And if the smell bugs you, point the exhaust towards an open window or rollup door to push most of it outside.