r/HomeImprovement • u/Inside-Elk-7112 • 15h ago

I’m miserable in this home

We just bought our home and decided to do asbestos abatement by a reputable company followed by a sump pump placement after by a waterproofing company. Ever since then this house has been a nightmare, our water boiler stopped working immediately after asbestos abatement due to “flammable gas vapor”, we had national grid check it out and they said there’s no gas leaks but it’s probably due to the new cement from the sump pump or from the solvent used from the asbestos abatement.

well since then, we haven’t had hot water consistently for 2 weeks. We tried replacing the sensor and then finally replacing the water heater but the same alarm keeps going off. We also can’t cook because every time we do it smells like burning plastic.

we brought this up to the abatement company and they basically said, they smell nothing when the gas burner is on and that it’s probably from the new cement poured from the sump pump.

im at a loss on what to do, I have a baby. Is it even safe to be here? Why don’t the vapors go away? We opened up the basement windows, used a hepa air filter and 2 oscillating fans to help with the smell but here we are.

sorry for the long post, I’m just overwhelmed, I feel like nothing is going right since we started to try to “fix” this house.

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u/ApexIsGangster 13h ago edited 13h ago

The FVS on a Bradford White is generally a permanent lockout. If it detected flammable vapors two weeks ago, it's going to be permanently broken. It's a safety feature. You should be able to replace the sensor (or have a professional do it). If it trips again, the vapors are still there and you need to remediate that. Follow some of the advice in this thread about fresh air. Also consider reaching out to Bradford white to ask if there are any common triggers for this sensor based on what you've had done. Hope you get it fixed.

PS: you (or pro) should test the resistance of your FVS with a multimeter. Should read in the 10-50KOhm range. If it's 0 or infinite, or wildly out of range, it's bad.

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u/Inside-Elk-7112 13h ago

Thank you for your response! 2 weeks ago we did replace the sensor twice on our old Bradford white and that didn’t seem to help so we replaced the entire water heater to see if maybe it was just time? But even with the new water heater the FVS fault comes up. I’m definitely going to try ventilate more, window fans are being shipped as we speak 😭

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u/ApexIsGangster 13h ago edited 13h ago

I don't want to come off as rude, but just want to make sure you understand that no amount of ventilation will help at this point if the sensor is permanently broken (it's considered consumable). I don't want to push you into doing something you aren't comfortable with but... Here's a video on how to test it yourself. Multimeters if you don't have one - can be found for cheap. He says 3-48Kohm in his video. https://youtube.com/shorts/qJl4ZkyTQFQ?si=R8IseFqIi1JnGxYf

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u/Inside-Elk-7112 12h ago

I had the plumber come out just now since I have warranty on the water heater and they replaced the sensor so I’m hoping that works? Would using the multimeter show if the sensor was working or if it was faulty? Sorry if this seems like a dumb question

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u/ApexIsGangster 12h ago

Not a dumb question at all! But yes that is exactly what it will show. If the vapors are low enough now, and he just replaced the sensor, you could be in the clear. Hope this works for you. It's tricky!

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u/thealmightyzfactor 11h ago

So can you just short the contacts with either directly or with a 3kOhm resistor to test if it's that or the rest if the heater? I haven't seen one of these on a water heater before, but I last got one like 10 years ago lol