Investor · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2014 · 21 posts · 9 votes
As part of the City of Grand Rapids rental property inspection, i need to get my furnace and hot water heater "approved". As part of that I need to get a liner installed in my chimney where the hot water and furnace are vented to. I need to re-do the venting a bit after the liner is installed. While I am doing that I am going to get a new water heater.
I have two estimates, one that I like from "the" major plumbing and heating store in G.R., but they will not file the approval certificate with the city after the work is done... almost sounded like a protest statement between that business and the city (I don't blame them).
So fellow GR landlords; who knows a good plumbing/heating contractor that is registered with the city to do these inspections and file paperwork along with getting a new hot water heater and chimney liner / venting work done? OR a registered contractor that will simply inspect and file the paperwork after I have the fore-mentioned contractor do the actual work?
I have had two different companies come out and sticker my furnace and water heater. Bel-Aire heating and cooling, and Hendrick's Heating and cooling. Hendricks charges less than Bel-Aire for each unit being stickered. Good Luck!
FYI: Due to past problems with certain plumbing and HVAC contractors, the City may not accept inspections done by those companies, i.e. it may not be because the company doesn't want to work with the City--it may, in fact, be the reverse. (The reason given by the City is that water heaters and HVAC systems have been "stickered" by those companies without actually being inspected or brought up to code or those companies have done work without pulling the proper permits.) However, this may or may not be the case with the company you are referring to.
I have had two different companies come out and sticker my furnace and water heater. Bel-Aire heating and cooling, and Hendrick's Heating and cooling. Hendricks charges less than Bel-Aire for each unit being stickered. Good Luck!
I unfortunately went through this painful experience last summer. The first city inspector told me that I needed to have a licensed heating/cooling contractor inspect the furnace and water heater and "sticker" them if they passed inspection. I hired Vredevoogd to do that. They came out and did the inspection and found no issues and charged me $300.
A week or two later I got a call from the Grand Rapids mechanical inspector asking me when he could schedule a time to come out and inspect the furnace and water heater. Since I hadn't been told that there was a Grand Rapids "mechanical inspector" in addition to the "regular" city inspector, I told him that I had already had everything inspected by Vredevoogd and they had found no issues. The guy became quite indignant and said "No, no, they don't decide if there are any issues. I decide if there are any issues!".
So I asked him why I had been told to hire a contractor for $300 if the city didn't accept their results? He didn't have a good answer for that, but reiterated that he needed to come out and inspect it himself. So he did, and he found all kinds of "issues". The biggest one was that both the furnace (which was two years old) and the water heater (pretty old) vented into the same duct which went into the chimney. He said they the water heater needed to be vented separately, I.e out the foundation wall.
So I called Vredevoogd back and told them that the city was requiring all of this work to be done and that I didn't think I should have had to pay the $300 when there were all of these issues that they hadn't found. I should also mention that I've used Vredevoogd many times for service on my own HVAC, including replacement of my furnace two years ago. They've always been very good.
To make a very long story a little shorter, I talked to the manager and he indicated that the city had recently changed some of their rules and there was some confusion (at least at Vredevoogd) about what the city's inspection criteria were. Vredevoogd offered to come out and do the required work, or they would refund the $300 and I could find a different contractor. I decided to just have them come out and do what needed to be done and just be done with it, being more than a little frustrated at this point. $3700 dollars later, I had a new water heater (vented separately) and a new chimney liner for the furnace venting (and a few assorted other issues fixed). In my younger days in the Navy, I believe this whole experience would have been classified as a circle jerk, and possibly even a cluster #%@.
Wow David, that crazy. I've had city inspectors come look at several of my units this year without any of the issues you describe - hate to hear stories like that! In the past I've always had luck with Bel-Aire...quick turn around and never have an problems with the city.