DIYbanter - View Single Post - Another "Should I Buy This House" Question :)

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wrote:
probably better investment to elminate chimney completely and install
new fdirect vent hot water tank and furnace/. probably less than 15
grand plus big energy efficency increase

if its just doog odor and floors are structurally ok, not peeling
buckled or rotted sanding lightly and coatiing with OUTDOOR
polyurethane and painting walls with bin will end the odor forever. ]

provided its not mold from water leakage.

Thanks. On the evening news just now, there's a story about the price
of heating oil going up to $3.00 a gallon. The furnace in this house
is oil. I've never heated a home with oil, and the realtor said the
tenant let the tank run dry. There was a valve that looked like a
relief valve (on a gas furnace, that is). It was totally rusted out,
and the realtor said, "That's not a relief valve. It's to fill the
furnace with water."

So I asked where the water heater was, and she said oil-heated homes
don't have water heaters (???). In any event, I am glad glad glad I
took the time to write out this post. At least three people not on
this group have thrown around the same 15K figure as to what it would
probably cost to get the house up-and-running decently, and from what
I'm reading here, "decent" would almost definitely involve
reconfiguring the entire heating system. No sense pouring money in to
a new chimney almost thirty feet below the home's first floor.