The heat went out last night in the Fallapartment. Just when we thought that we were finished with the heating-system-failure-in-the-dead-of-Winter problem, we found the temperature in the Fallapartment plummeting on Saturday night (this always happens on a weekend). As it went down through 63° – 62° – 61°… we called our heating guy to see if he could get it back for us.
Our heating guy is very good to us. He showed up on his Saturday evening to bail us out, even though this is not an address that he normally services. He had no part in the installation of the travesty that we found in the basement, but he fixed it anyway.
Here’s the back story.
I was concerned last week about the amount of oil in the tank, so I called to ask about it, and we came to the conclusion that all was well until next week, when I would schedule an oil delivery. I have been told that the top of the button on the float gauge is where the level of oil is in the tank. Here is the gauge from last night:
So, is it empty, or not? If you read the oil level at the top of the yellow button, we are good for another week or so. If you read the level at the bottom of the button, we are suckin’ on fumes.
Here’s a spoiler: You read the level at the bottom of the button.
As you can see, this ancient technology (a cork on a stick) is “highly accurate”… or not. I will never trust a dip stick ever again. This makes the fuel gauge in our real house
look like a well-designed, high-tech device.
The way to the heating system in the Fallapartment is down a winding stair that is pretty frightening. It starts out here:
As you turn the corner, you are confronted with this:
Notice the black hole on the far side of the stairway, where there is no wall to keep your foot from plummeting into the abyss. The stairs are slanty and uneven.
There is the hole on the right hand side. You must be sure of foot in this part of the stairs.
Turning the corner, you can see the tops of our stepladder and bicycles down at the bottom of the hole.
If you don’t slip and fall, you finally reach the bottom.
Looking back, here is the mess we just came down.
Cinder blocks; sort of glued together. Take a look at how this thing is constructed.
It is basically a pile of debris cemented together at a precarious angle. The angle that you see is not from a tilted camera. Look at the beam at the top of the photo; it goes straight across. The stairs really do lean like this.
But I digress. On to the oil tank. Here it is.
The smears of oil running down the sides of the tank are just special. Do you think it might be leaking? No wonder the basement stinks.
So, last night we called up our heating guy (who is a saint!) and he came out and rescued us. First he filled the tank with oil, then he had to unclog the fuel line to get us running again. Apparently, it had filled itself with sludge when it sucked the tank dry. Here is the fuel line he discovered:
It goes into the concrete floor, which is now illegal. This line should not have been used when they replaced the boiler last Winter because it violates the safety codes. Here is why.
That is a severely corroded pipe, disappearing into the basement floor. If that rots through, there will be a bad oil spill in the basement. There is nothing to prevent the entire tank of oil from siphoning into the basement. And it looks like it won’t be long now. How do you spell “EPA”?
And if we follow the line across the room to the boiler, we see:
The place where the fuel line comes back out of the floor, which is just about as corroded as it is at the other end.
I’m sure glad I don’t own this place. We are hoping that this inevitable disaster won’t happen until we are out.
Oh, and here is the fuel gauge after the tank was filled.
Yep. Bottom of the button. Who knew?
Speaking of moving out of this dump, they are supposed to start finishing the floors at our real house tomorrow. The appliances go in on Thursday. Can moving day be far behind? Soon! Soon!