SPOKANE, Wash. — Many people across the Inland Northwest struggled to keep warm during an extreme cold snap in mid-January. For a number of owners of houses built by Hayden Homes in Spokane County, the struggle wasn’t a matter of keeping their homes comfortable — it was a matter of keeping their bedrooms above freezing.
Over the course of a weeks-long investigation, NonStop Local spoke to several Hayden Homes owners who say their furnaces froze, dropping the internal temperatures of their homes to below freezing.
As NonStop Local investigated the story, it went far beyond trying to stay warm during the freezing temperatures. NonStop Local spoke with homeowners, home inspectors, home builders and the regional director of Hayden Homes to get a better understanding of why so many homeowners faced a similar problem.
One of the home owners NonStop Local spoke to was Barbra Page. Page and her husband bought what she called their dream home from Hayden Homes more than two years ago.
She said it was everything she could have wanted — until it wasn’t.
“These people, including myself, didn’t deserve to go through this,” Page said.
She said a leak began to seep into her bedroom, and then her home got cold — very cold.
“That next day rolled around; it was 29 degrees in (the office) and 22 degrees in the bedroom,” Page said.
She discovered her furnace was frozen and said her only goal was to stay warm. Page said she and her husband, who has health complications, slept on the floor of her office with an electric fireplace for 36 hours because that was their only heat source.
“Usually, when he has his treatment, he doesn’t feel very good for a while. But then, on top of being cold and still recouping from a hip replacement, I didn’t know what else to do other than just stay with him,” Page said.
She said she reached out to Hayden Homes.
“It didn’t surprise me what I called, and he said your warranty is up, and we can’t do anything,” Paige said.
After days without heat, Page was able to get a third-party professional to look at her furnace, and their evaluation was not what she was expecting.
“He made a statement in his paperwork that those furnaces should have never been put in these homes under our weather conditions,” said Page.
Page isn’t the only owner of a Hayden home whose furnace froze. NonStop Local found this was happening at Hayden Homes developments across the region.
Crystal Ossello, who purchased her home from Hayden Homes in Airway Heights, said her furnace also froze. She took to social media and found she wasn’t alone.
“It turns out that other people are in the same situation if not worse,” Ossello said.
Ossello said she is looking for Hayden Homes to take accountability.
“How about doing the right thing?” Ossello asked. “Setting people up for not having problems right out the gate, that is why people buy a new home to not inherit a problem.”
Ben McGerty, the Regional Director of Hayden Homes, said that’s what they always aim to do.
“We believe in doing the right thing,” McGerty said. “That’s one of our mottos for our company is we really want to stand behind our product and do the right thing. What that means to different people is the question.”
McGerty told NonStop Local that the furnaces that froze during the cold snap were high-efficiency gas furnaces that were permitted between 2017 and 2021. They aren’t used anymore.
Joe Simpson, the owner of Hammer & Chisel Construction, isn’t affiliated with Hayden Homes, but he worked on several homes impacted by the cold snap. He told NonStop Local that he believes it wasn’t the furnace itself but where they were installed — the attic.
“A lot of our homes have an unconditioned attic,” Simpson said. “Essentially, what that means is above that is exposed to the elements. So when we have temperatures like this, and it freezes when you’re putting in a 90% furnace that produces condensation, it freezes.”
NonStop Local asked McGerty about installing furnaces in unconditioned spaces, and he said his company followed the manufacturer’s guidelines.
“An unconditioned space is a pretty standard installation for this region, whether it’s an attic or an insulated garage, — and for these units in these locations where we install them it is per the manufacturer’s guidelines as long as you use heat tape,” McGerty said.
NonStop Local reached out to the furnace manufacturer, Carrier. They sent us the installation and maintenance instructions. While Carrier does allow for furnaces to be installed in attics, page 16 has this caveat:
“In areas where the temperature may be below 32 degrees, a condensate freeze protection kit is required.”
We contacted Simpson from Hammer & Chisel Construction again and he said while he can’t speak to all of those furnaces that froze, of the four he saw none had a freeze protection kit installed.
We asked Hayden Homes whether these kits were installed. They said the manual we saw only applies to the 2019 models, and they used other model years as well. In a statement, they told NonStop Local that the freeze trap functions like heat tape and they “met or exceeded the intent of this accessory with a thorough application of heat tape.”
McGerty said their focus right now is making things right, “once we figured out the scope of what was actually happening — whether you’re in warranty or not — we still want to do the right thing. We are here to help.’
They are now taking additional steps during their installation process, such as wrapping the condensate line with insulation tape and heat tape that can protect the pipe from temperatures as low as -40 degrees.
In addition, they have also created an action plan and are offering educational sessions to all homeowners that highlight how to maintain these units. Moreover, Hayden Homes is also offering a free home inspection to verify that the heating unit is operating properly.
Hayden Homes has additional resources on their website. The home building company also has their full 300-point quality assurance checklist posted online.
Page said she is trying to move forward, but that she’ll continue seeking answers for what happened to them.
“Justice matters,” Page said. “You have to have justice for people in these circumstances and take care of them.”
