Residential Wall Insulation

Review: Removed drywall from ceiling in furnace closet. City inspector said work not correct. Missed 1st correction appt. Did not follow-up after 2nd appt.

The tenants of a house I own with two others requested energy assistance through the PG&E program. At the same time the tenants notified the owners the furnace was excessively noisy. The old furnace, located in a hall way closet, was replaced with a new furnace on Dec. 4, 2012 by an HVAC contractor. The new unit was not yet inspected by the city inspector.

On Dec. 6, 2012 the house was visited by workers of the Energy Savings contractor. I was not at the house but one of the tenants was present. The tenants notified me later that their range had failed a carbon monoxide test and could not be used. On Dec. 7 I went to the house to see the range and to see the other work performed by the contractor. I noted that the two air vents in the furnace closet door had been sealed off with drywall. I contacted the furnace installer and asked him to look at the range and the modifications that had been made to the furnace door by the energy contractor. The furnace installer charged us $135 to make the range safe from carbon monoxide and to add a "low combustion" air vent in the closet. He was paid on January 29, 2013.

On March 29, 2013 I met the HVAC contractor and the city inspector at the house for the final inspection of the furnace installation. The city inspector noted that the drywall had been removed from the ceiling of the furnace closet (the closet is now open to the attic) and stated there needs to be "rodent wire" at the open ceiling to prevent rodents or other animals from entering the house through the open ceiling. The open ceiling provides the "high combustion" air needed by the furnace but, without rodent wire, also allows a path for rodents. The furnace installer said the drywall on the ceiling was not knocked out by him but rather by the workers for the energy savings contractor.

On April 1, 2013 I contacted the Energy Savings Assistance Program X-XXX-XXX-XXXX and was told someone would contact me within five days. No response.

On April 16, 2013 I contacted [redacted] X-XXX-XXX-XXXX, RWI. She made an appointment for me to meet a supervisor on April 17 between 9:00 and 11:00 at the house. Both the tenant and I waited at the house until 1:00 on the 17th to no avail. The supervisor did not show up. And, the contractor did not call either the tenant or me to explain why the appointment was missed or to reschedule the appointment. I attempted to contact the energy contractor on the 17th but their phones were not working properly according to the person I spoke to for brief seconds. I left a phone message later requesting a call back. No response.

On April 21 I contacted a woman by the name of ** (?) and explained my problem with the contractor's work and the missed appointment. I believe she is an employee of PG&E but my written notes are not complete. No response was received.

On May 13 I contacted [redacted] at RWI again. She said the supervisor had come for the April 17 appointment but "no one was home". She made another appointment for a supervisor to meet me at the house on May 14 between 9:00 and 11:00. Success! [redacted] (or [redacted] arrived within the appointed time frame. He looked at the problem and stated that he doubted his experienced worker would have broken the drywall out of the ceiling. I defended the HVAC contractor by saying that when he performed his work there were vents in the closet door for combustion air and so he had no need to knock out the drywall . Shawn asked what work I wanted performed, if, they were to do any work. I stated that I wanted to satisfy the city inspector and make the house safe for the tenants. Shaun said he would talk to his boss and let me know what they would or would not do. That was my last contact with RWI. I wrote a letter of complaint to PG&E in June but did not receive a reply.Desired Settlement: Install "rodent wire" as required by the city inspector. And, if the repair work requires crawling through the attic, I would like the insulation in the attic to be restored to its current state.

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response

We (Rwi) enrolled his rental to to the ESA program on 12/5/2012.

The work was preformed on the same day. The job was inspected and passed by PG&E inspector [redacted] on 12/17/2013

On 12/7/12 The property owner [redacted] called RHA (our Contract administrator) and asked for a list of what was performed on the home. He was given a summary of the measures that were installed by the operator.

On 4/1/13 The property owner contacted RHA again with the issue that he has outlined in his complaint. We attempted to make contact with the tenants to schedule.

We logged calls on 4/1/13,4/2/13 and 4/3/13. We then sent the tenant a certified letter per our contrat with RHA and PGE.

On 4/16/13 The property owner called us stating no one ever called him back. The property owner left his phone number and we scheduled a site visit for 4/17/13 9-11. Supervisor was late to appointment and no one was there. Property owner called RHA on 4/17/13 and said that we no called no showed. RHA transferd his call to us and he left a message.

We attempted to contact again with the property owner and tenent again and did not recieve a call back.

On 4/22/13 The property owner called RHA again and said that there was an issue and that we had not taken care of it.

We called on 4/23/13, 4/24/13 and 4/25/13 left messages on all 3 attempts and mailed a certified leter per our contract. Even after closing we attempted to contact the property owner on 4/29/13, 5/2/13 and on 5/13/13 we were able to make contact and schedule another appointment to look that issue for 5/14/13 9-11.

On 5/14/13 Supervior [redacted] made contact with the property owner and was able to look at the the issue with the furnace closet. The Property owner stated that our crew cut the ceiling out of his FAF closet. Our supervisor could find no evidence of that happening. The home was built in the 1950's and it is quite common for furnace closets to be completely open to the attic as was the case here. The crew in question moved insulation batts that were covering the top of the closet that were close to the flue pipe on the furnace for saftey reasons. We did not remove any sheet rock or open up any cavity. The crew moved insulation batts that were laid over the open closet. away from a flue to midigate a potental hazardous situation.

After looking at the findings of my supervisor and the fact that a PG&E inspector had signed off on the job there was nothing left for us to do. The property owner has another contractor doing HVAC work on the home since RWI was out preforming work on the home in December of 2012.