Is the construction finished ? IMO the ducts get cleaned at the end of construction as for the rooms not heating ideally that was not done in zones at the beginning so I have no idea as to waht can be done you need to talk to anoter HVAC pro. When you smaell gas leaking you call the gas company not the HVAC to come when he feels like it. it looks like a construction zone in the pics so maybe explain that and why your kids are running space heaters in an unfinished with agas leak. I need a lot mor einfo like what flue is PVC

Contruction is finished - been in the house 4 months. The pictures are of our furnace filter compartment. The basement is completely finished - other than a small mechanical room - with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

We're running space heaters because the basement is 59 degrees while thermostate is set to 69 degrees

I should have called gas company in retrospect...just kept second-guessing myself.

The flue pipe is PVC because it is a high-efficient furnace...I read that you cannot use metal with high-efficient furnace due to corrosion???

"When you smaell gas leaking you call the gas company not the HVAC to come when he feels like it."

Be a little careful here. If you call the gas company and they detect gas, they will "Red Tag" (turn off and lock) the heating system. Then what do you do?

Get the builder back in and mention in passing "attorneys"!

If you have a flue leak, you could have carbon monoxide. I would hope you have a carbon monoxide detector and a gas leak detector. At least two of three of each.

Unfortunately most of those issues are pretty common, gas leak should have been tested..

(8) Apply plumbing glue to seal the flue leak. Pick your battles.

It is Your decision. (1) You can spend months of fighting to shopvac your registers or (2) do it yourself in 10 minutes.

But if you are trying to renegotiate price with your builder 4 month after the completion - don't involve us.

Did you sign a contract with the builder? Did the builder hire a HVAC subcontractor? What is the warranty period stated in the contract? What does the contract say how defects are resolved during the warranty period?

Your issues are with the builder in my opinion. The builder needs to deliver a clean house with an operating HVAC system. A bathroom that can only be heated to 52-58 degrees is unacceptable. If the builder is not doing anything then you need to consult with an attorney as to what are the next steps.

Whenever you smell gas and the builder won't respond then you need to call the gas company. The gas company will bring their leak detector and find all the leaks. No one should live in a house with a gas leak for two months.

I realize we can shop vac our ducts ourselves, but what about all of the drywall dust inside the filter comparment and we assume inside HVAC components? We read that this is very damaging to HVAC components, shortens the life of equipment, and some manufacturers won't even warrant their equipment when drywall dust gets in there.

What about the need to run space heaters in our fully finished 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom basement (1/2 of our house) to make it usable? This is a $million+ home in the midwest. We didn't have any of these problems in the $250K house we moved from!

Clearly the HVAC system was not designed properly.

We were supposed to have a 30 day walk-through to get all problems resolved. We're in month 4.

We're not trying to renegotiate price, we just want things fixed so we can live in our home safely and comfortably. We don't believe we should have to pay out of our pocket for that when we entrusted a huge portion of our life-savings to the builder to provide us a quality, safe, comfortable home.

OK, we have had our system evaluated and our basement temperatures range from 6 to 10 degrees cooler than the thermostat setting (BAGI standard is 3 degrees). We have almost no air flow out of one of our bedroom registers. We have a bathroom that is nearly unusable - below 60 degrees (if doors are shut) with Thermostat set to 70. We don't have returns in the bedrooms. Neither bathroom in the basement has a register. We have been told the system cannot be fixed without ripping down ceilings and rerouting ductwork.

Who is to blame if the system was this poorly designed? We have been in our home less than 4 months. Our builder offered to buy our home back, but there is nowhere to go in this market. There is not a single comparable home for sale in our county.

This is ridiculous and I'm sorry that you are going through this in a new home! Every single bedroom in my house has a cold air return, and every single bathroom has a vent. How did this pass an inspection? To need a space heater in a brand new basement says it was planned poorly. Our Hvac contractor ran their program to tell them exactly what size returns etc were needed based on our plans. Ask them to show you yours?

The HVAC contractor brought over the plans yesterday and admitted that everything was done incorrectly and that our system designer was incompetent and has been fired.

* The basement bedrooms have 4" ducts (that split off 7" into a 6" and 4") - I'm sure there are lots of twists and turns as well.

* There is no return in the basement bedrooms

* The basement main return is right off of the air handler, so it sounds like a tornado in the basement, and I'm told that renders a lot of the other returns useles..not sure I understand that

* Our main thermostat and return are right next to our double oven

* We have some pass-through boots in our main floor registers

* We have no return in our Master Closet which is 15'x15'

* Neither basement bathroom has a register

* We've had two gas leaks in the same area

* We've had a flue pipe leak

We actually knew the system was done incorreclty because the HVAC ducts ran through both basement bedrooms such that the ceiling would need to be dropped below the height of the windows.

Our construction ground to a hault for 3 months, and our builder and HVAC contractor held on to their pride and dug in their heels rather than take an honest look at our system and the poor design. We were treated like we were being too demanding and crazy.

The HVAC contractor did eventually reroute ducts such that our basement ceilings could clear the windows - DUH! But, we had many questions and uncertainties about the quality of the system...We were assured by our builder and the owner of the HVAC company that the system was sound.

* When they modified our system to fix the bedroom ceilng issue, they put two 90 degree turns in the main trunk line...that can't be good or efficient can it???

Well, we were right, and now we've moved into a house that does not function properly.

Should we demand that the ceilngs be ripped down and everything be corrected?

I don't have the admission in writing, but I did record it. Our state is a one-party state, so it is legal to do so.

I feel kind of bad about recording it, but we need to protect ourselves and the investment of a huge portion of our life savings.

You are correct about the potential profit if we would sell to the builder. If we decide to sell, we should definitely do it ourselves...but there are currently so many problems.

That's quite a list Max. Sounds like the guy who designed system was totally incompetent.

I may be totally wrong but I've heard of high velocity systems that don't use the full sized ductwork. But it is probably a totally different system so what is there would have to be ripped out and a lot of repair work. I have no idea of the pros and cons of that type of system.

My nephew had water issues in basement with his new home in the first Spring and onward. His sump pump ran continuously, so much that he put a second in just in case the first one gave out and lead to flooded basement. You can bet they are recording you if legal so be careful of what you say to them. It was a issue with my nephew, even though it didn't affect the water problem they tried to make out that it did. FYI, they wanted to have yard graded better before grass laid down. When the builder refused then delayed to they got a friend with bobcat to do it. Which actually improved water drainage away from home. They had to use arbitration to settle per agreement in contract. There is a good chance there is a arbitration clause in your contract with builder. That is becoming common with builders contracts.

FYI, they settled for a cash amount to hire their own contractor rather than allowing builder to remedy. Took 4 years. Couldn't sell home because of problems so they were trapped there. They were lucky there wasn't a big need to sell while all that was going on.

You may not be able to get your builder to remedy all of the problems with your system, but it sounds like there are some code issues (e.g., the return next to your oven) with the installation. The builder is required to fix those deficiencies. I suggest you hire an HVAC expert to review your system against the applicable code and make a list of needed corrections. If your builder won't budge, you might pursue filing a complaint with your state's board for contractors.

I think it is time for more big guns to be brought out and I would start with contacting a lawyer and have a letter wriiten outlining the issues and what will follow if not dealt with. Ther eis no way for us to really help all we can do is empathize . I would make sure you save all those ics but I sure would get the vents cleaned and you might need to change the furnace filters a couple of times too.