Water Heater Venting

[homeseller]

I am getting ready to sell my house and just learned that I need to correct a code violation before I can proceed. I believe there may be more than one solution to the problem, but really need some help brainstorming this. Here's the situation:

This is a 1942 one & a half story cape code style home in Minnesota. I purchased the home 10-years ago. The furnace is a high-efficiency Whirlpool with direct venting through the side of the house (17 yrs old). The water heater is a 40G Richmond natural gas water heater installed by a handyman 7-years ago. The wood-burning fireplace has been cleaned by a licensed chimney sweep annually since I bought the house.

The city in which I reside is very strict about code enforcement and has implemented a new policy within the last 4-years. Under the new policy, a homeowner must obtain a property maintenance certification prior to offering a home for sale. Knowing that I would be required to provide proof that my older furnace is in proper working condition, I hired a HVAC professional to inspect, certify and tune-up the furnace prior to calling the city to set up my inspection.

The city inspector informed me that my flue liner did not extend the required 6" past the top of the chimney (he didn't even say anything about it not being capped). When I called the HVAC guy back, he told me that he didn't say anything about it because it's not techinically related to the furnace and that most city inspectors don't enforce the code. He agreed to come back and extend the liner and install the cap for under $200...so far, so good...until he gets there and notices that the liner only goes up about 6ft from the bottom of the chimney. He tells me I'll have to schedule a new liner installation for over $1600.

Now, having given the background information, I am trying to figure out a few things...

1) How did this get missed by my inspector 10-years ago, the chimney sweep every year and the HVAC pro who was hired to make sure that everything was operational befiore my city inspection?

2) Is there any other way to approach this other then spending $1600 on a new chimney liner?

I have some thoughts and questions about the whole process, so I am hoping someone can enlighten me. When the high-efficiency furnace was installed 17-years ago, shouldn't they have installed this chinmney liner at that time? It is my understanding that venting the furnace directly through the side of the house is what created the necessity for the liner to protect against the corision that can happen when only the gas water heater is vented through the chimney.

Since it wasn't done at that time, then the next logical time to have noticed a problem would have been when I had the water heater installed. Unfortunately, the handyman I hired either didn't know or didn't care about this issue. Plus, he didn't pull a permit like he should have -- something I should have checked into.

I certainly do not want to sell a house that could be unsafe, but on the other hand, I don't want to be pouring money into it that I won't be able to recoup.

If I were to have a whole new furnace installed, would it include the flue liner? At least that way I would get the benefit of marketing my home for sale with a new furnace.

Is there any way to safely vent the water heater through the furnace pipe and seal off the flue?

Installing an electric unit is not an option, since the electrical service would have to be upgraded, opening a whole new can of worms.

Do I have any other options, and what kind of professional do I hire to do this work? Would it be a plumber, HVAC or chimney pro?

[pushkins]

That's a bold move your city made to enforce mandatory property maintenance certificates. I'm pretty sure in a court of law that wouldn't hold up, it is the property owners right to sell their home "as is", but as we all know the cost to take on this issue is expensive and then you would still have to deal with the city regardless......sort of a no win. Having said that I like the idea as it helps keep housing stock up and properties safe.

Now with your flue problem, a "handyman" probably would have been oblivious to the short flue and more than likely never even hd to look up there.
The recent HVAC pro really had nothing to do with the flue, he was there to service the HVAC and it vents out the side of the home.
NOW, the chimney sweep, they sure should have noticed the short flue, they wouldn't have been required to fix it but they should have brought it to your attention.
The culprit here would have been the initial installer of the flue.

Sometimes they can actually add a piece of liner to the flue and push the whole tube down the chimney (after all that's how they install them to start with). Make a couple of phone calls to other chimney people and see what they suggest.

If you install a new HVAC unit they will add on an extra cost for the flue, besides you already have a perfectly good working side vent flue.