A renovation is so exciting – you’re getting something new, something you’ve probably wanted for a long time. We don’t want anything to ruin that excitement, which is why you need to know that a renovation could leave you with a damaged furnace and costly repairs if you aren’t prepared.
How Could Renovations Put My Furnace and Home at Risk?
When you renovate, or your home undergoes any type of construction, there’s a larger than normal amount of dust and debris that gets kicked up. This is sent through your vents and to your furnace.
A furnace that experiences excess levels of dust buildup can experience several different problems, including overheating, failed ignition, or even dirt-covered safety mechanisms failing to work.
If you let your home heating system go unprotected during a renovation, your furnace could be damaged, and you’ll find yourself with no heat and a costly repair that could have been avoided.
What Safety Precautions Should I Take?
There are several safety precautions you can take to prevent a damaged furnace.
1. Speak with a Home Heating and Cooling Technician
Don’t you agree that everything just goes so much better when you have a plan? You have a plan for your renovation, and we’re sure it’s fantastic! But take it one step further and bring your plans to a home heating technician. They’ll be able to help with the plans to make sure the renovations work with your existing home heating and cooling system, and that it won’t damage any of your ductwork.
2. Keep As Much Mess Outside as Possible
Renovations are messy – there’s just no getting around it. But as the weather warms up, it’s possible for most of the sawing, sanding and other messy work to be done outside. This reduces the amount of construction debris and sawdust getting sucked up and into your furnace.
If you do have to do the dirty work indoors, we recommend putting up some plastic sheets or tarps to reduce how much the dust particles travel.
3. Cover The Vents
Another way to reduce the dust and debris from entering your ductwork is to cover or close the vents in the renovation area. But be careful: close too many vents and airflow to your furnace will be restricted, which could cause it to overheat the same way the excess dust would.
4. Turn Your Furnace Off
While the actual renovations are going on, keep your home heating and cooling system turned off. When nothing is on, construction dust won’t travel around as much, reducing the risk of a damaged furnace.
5. Check the Filter
Your furnace filter is your first defense against damage, which means it’s important to check it regularly – we recommend every 30 days.
During a renovation, it’s doubly important to check it, but you should do so more frequently. With the increased level of dust and dirt, that filter is going to get clogged faster. A clogged filter won’t do the job properly, leaving large particles of dust in the air and in your ductwork.
As a result, the air handler will have to work harder to push that air out and to the rest of your home, causing it to wear down at a much faster rate. The heat exchanger could even overheat and crack, causing a much deadlier problem.
6. Clean Often
This isn’t the most fun method of preventing a damaged furnace, but it’s necessary. You have to clean, and clean a lot. Dust and debris can’t get into your furnace if you’ve already vacuumed it up!
Try to dust and vacuum every 2-3 days. The renovation won’t last forever, and anything you can do to help protect your furnace will be a huge help.
7. Get a Pro to Clean Your Ducts
Once the renovation is over, you’ll still have some particles and construction grit coating the inside of your ductwork. Post-renovation is one of the times that professional ductwork cleaning is strongly recommended by professionals across the industry, including us.
Once we’ve professionally cleaned your ductwork, you’ll be able to enjoy the features of your new renovation without worrying about the risks and expenses of a damaged furnace – and without the worry of breathing in yucky construction dust!
Talk to Knight About Your Post-Reno Duct Cleaning and Maintenance
A great way to make sure your furnace is still running at peak performance after a renovation is to have a maintenance check completed by us. We offer comprehensive tune ups that will not only thoroughly clean your furnace, but catch any potential problems and increase its energy efficiency. That means savings on your energy bill!