HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Last spring I got a call from a homeowner in Draper — nice older rancher, recently remodeled kitchen that opened into a hallway. She was furious. Her smoke detector had gone off three times that week: once when she boiled a pot of pasta, once when her teenager took a long shower with the bathroom … Read more
I got a call last spring from a homeowner named Karen — it was 2:47 in the morning, and she was standing outside her house in her robe, her two kids in the car, engine running in the driveway. She’d heard her CO detector beeping and did exactly what she was supposed to do: got … Read more
Last spring, I got a call from a homeowner in a suburb outside Salt Lake City — nice family, two kids, three-bedroom ranch with a finished basement. They’d just had a small kitchen fire, caught it early, no injuries. But here’s what got me: not a single detector in the house had gone off. Not … Read more
I was called out to a home last winter for what the homeowner described as a “furnace smell.” She’d had the same CO detector on her wall for six years and felt confident her home was safe — it had never gone off, so everything must be fine, right? When I got there with my … Read more
I was doing a home performance audit last spring — routine stuff, blower door test, duct leakage, the works — when the homeowner mentioned she’d been waking up with headaches nearly every morning for six months. She’d already ruled out mold, seen her doctor twice, and replaced her mattress. Before I even pulled out my … Read more
Last spring, I got a call from a homeowner in a newer subdivision — let’s call her Karen. She’d woken up at 2 a.m. with a headache and nausea, chalked it up to bad takeout, and gone back to sleep. The next morning, her carbon monoxide alarm was chirping. Turned out her furnace heat exchanger … Read more
Last February, I got a call from a homeowner in a suburb about thirty miles north of me. She’d been dealing with headaches every single evening for about six weeks. Thought it was stress, then a sinus infection, then maybe the new candles her daughter had given her for Christmas. Her doctor had run bloodwork. … Read more
I was called out to a house in late February — routine furnace tune-up, nothing unusual on the work order. The homeowner, a retired teacher named Carol, met me at the door and mentioned almost as an aside that her family had been having headaches all winter. Fatigue, too. She figured it was the dry … Read more