The Post-Event Equipment Inspection SOP

Purpose

After a flood, a windstorm, a smoke event or an earthquake, the customer wants the heat or cooling back now. Equipment that sat in floodwater, rode a quake on a rigid gas line or swallowed ash can fail on its first start as a fire, a gas leak or a shock, and the act of cleaning it up destroys the evidence the insurer will ask for. This procedure guarantees two things whoever runs it: nothing the shop restarts is restarted before the hazard the event created has been ruled out, and the photographs and measurements for the claim exist before anyone wipes, dries or hauls away a single part.

Scope

Covers residential HVAC, water heaters, boilers, pool and spa equipment, well and sump pumps, garage door openers and major appliances after flood, wind, wildfire smoke and ash, or an earthquake, where the shop is the first trade back in.

Does not cover:

• The electrical service itself (meter base, panel, service conductors). If floodwater reached them, an electrician and the utility decide reconnection, and many jurisdictions require an inspection before the utility reconnects a flooded service.
• Crew health in floodwater and smoke, which the FieldHealth cards own.
• The detailed flood assessment of each component, owned by How to Assess Equipment After Floodwater, and ash cleaning, owned by How to Clean and Restart Equipment After Wildfire Ash.
• A restart after a planned shutoff with no physical damage, which follows The Equipment Restart After a Planned Power Shutoff SOP.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Screen by phone before anyone drives. The office asks five questions and types the answers into the ticket: is there a gas smell; is water standing in the building now; did water reach outlets, the panel or any equipment, and how high on the wall; is utility power on; has the fire department or utility tagged anything. Then tells the customer, in these words: do not reset breakers, do not relight anything, do not run the equipment to test it. Acceptance: five answers recorded and the instruction given. Wrong looks like a gas smell or water in contact with live outlets. Stop rule: a gas smell means everyone leaves now, touching no switches, and calls the gas utility or 911 from outside; live water means the customer stays out and calls the utility for a disconnect, and the tech is not dispatched until power is off. Hazard: none at the desk; the instruction is the customer's protection until the tech arrives.

2. Read the outside before going in. Walk the exterior with a combustible gas detector on: the gas meter (shifted on its riser, hissing, odor), the service drop and mast, any downed conductor, and the water line marks on siding and equipment. Acceptance: detector silent at the meter and at the entry door; no conductor down within 30 ft of your path; the high-water mark located and noted. Wrong looks like an odor or a reading, a meter pulled off its piping, or a line on the ground. Stop rule: gas means back off upwind, call the gas utility, no phone use near the meter; a downed line means stay 30 ft away and call the utility, and nobody touches a fence or puddle it may be in contact with. Hazard: wet ground carries current from a downed line well past where the wire visibly lies.

3. Isolate the electrical side of every affected appliance. If water reached the panel or meter base, do not open or operate it, and stop here for the electrician and utility. If the panel is dry and you are standing dry, open each breaker feeding equipment in the affected area, lock and tag it under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2), and prove it dead at the equipment on a meter checked on a known live source before and after, per NFPA 70E Article 120 (120.5 in the 2021 edition, renumbered in 2024). Acceptance: every affected circuit off, locked, tagged and proved dead at the load. Wrong looks like voltage at a load whose breaker is off, which means a second feed or a mislabeled panel. Stop rule: any surprise voltage, stop and trace before touching that equipment. Hazard: never operate a panel while standing in water or on a wet floor; if you cannot reach it dry, it waits.

4. Isolate the fuel side. Close the appliance shutoff on every gas appliance in the affected area and tag it. If the utility shut the meter, or a seismic or excess-flow valve has tripped, leave it closed: the meter is relit by the utility or a qualified person after a leak test of the whole system. After a quake, look at every connector and vent joint before going further. Acceptance: shutoffs closed and tagged, meter state recorded. Wrong looks like a kinked or pulled connector, a vent connector separated at the draft hood, or bubbles at any joint under leak solution. Stop rule: any leak, the appliance shutoff stays closed and the leak is repaired before step 8 is even considered. Hazard: a vent separated from its appliance spills combustion products into the room on the next firing, so treat it as a carbon monoxide source, not a cosmetic gap.

5. Document before you touch. Photograph each piece of equipment wide and close, then measure and photograph the water line against it with a tape in frame, in inches from the floor, and against the equipment's own controls: the gas valve, the control board, the motor, the compressor terminal cover. Photograph the nameplate. Acceptance: for each appliance, a wide shot, a nameplate shot and a water-line shot with the tape readable, timestamped. Wrong looks like a cleaned or dried unit before photographs, which erases the claim's main fact. Stop rule: if someone has already cleaned it, photograph what remains and note who cleaned it and when. Hazard: floodwater in a basement is sewage until proven otherwise; boots, nitrile gloves under work gloves, and no hand-to-face contact until you wash.

6. Inspect by hazard type and mark each item pass, repair or replace.

   • Flood: any gas control, control board, motor, igniter, limit or compressor terminal box that went under water is a replacement part, not a drying job, which is the position equipment manufacturers and NEMA's guidance on water-damaged electrical equipment both take. Flex duct and duct liner that held water are flagged for replacement.
   • Wind: impact on the coil, an oil stain on the line set (refrigerant leak), a torn disconnect whip, a unit shifted on its pad straining the line set, debris in the fan.
   • Smoke and ash: loaded filters and coils, ash in the outdoor unit and combustion-air intake, heat damage to line-set insulation or wiring on the fire side of the house.
   • Quake: water heater moved against its straps, equipment shifted on its base, duct joints parted. Acceptance: every item carries a mark. Stop rule: any replace mark on a safety or fuel or electrical component makes that appliance do-not-energize. Hazard: ash disturbed dry is an inhalation route for fine particulate and, from a burned structure nearby, possibly metals; wet it lightly and wear a fitted N95 or better under a written program per 29 CFR 1910.134.

7. Tag the do-not-energize equipment and tell the customer why. Red-tag it at the appliance and at its breaker, leave the lock on, and for a pull-out disconnect take the pull-out with you and say so on the tag. Explain in one sentence per item what failed and what the next step is. Acceptance: tag at both points, customer told and signed the work order line. Wrong looks like a customer who intends to try it after you leave. Stop rule: if the customer refuses the tag, record the refusal on the ticket and call the service manager before leaving. Hazard: the hazard is the next person who starts it; the tag and lock are the control.

8. Restart what passed, one appliance at a time. This is the step where energy and fuel go back in. Remove your lock, stand to the side of the panel with your face turned away as you close the breaker, and for gas, leak-test every joint you or the event disturbed before the first ignition. Before lighting anything in a flooded space, sniff and meter for fuel or solvent vapor carried in by the water. Wear a personal CO monitor and watch the full first cycle. Acceptance: running current within nameplate, draft established at the hood within the first minute, flue CO within the manufacturer's air-free limit, ambient CO showing no rise above background, and the protective devices you can prove without jumpering or defeating anything (a sump's float by lifting it, a condensate safety switch by raising its float) shown to act. Wrong looks like rollout, a draft that will not establish, rising ambient CO or a tripping breaker. Stop rule: shut it down, back to step 7 for that appliance. Hazard: a fault you did not find announces itself at the panel or the burner, which is why you are beside them and not in front.

9. Close out. Remove tags only from equipment that restarted cleanly, and leave the customer the photo set, the water-line measurements and the item list. Acceptance: ticket shows every appliance with a final state of restarted, do-not-energize or awaiting utility. Hazard: none at this step; it is paperwork.

The record this produces

One post-event inspection record per site, attached to the job: the five screen answers, the meter state, the high-water mark in inches, and per appliance the photos, the water line against its controls, the pass, repair or replace marks, the restart readings or the tag reason. The customer's adjuster reads it to settle the claim; your service manager reads it to quote replacements; and if a restarted unit fails later, it is the first thing anyone pulls.

Worked pass

A basement flood, two days after the water went down. Screen answers: no gas smell, no standing water, water reached about halfway up the basement outlets, power on, nothing tagged.

• Step 2: detector silent at the meter and door. High-water mark on the basement wall at 14 in. Pass.
• Step 3: panel bottom at 48 in, dry, floor dry. Furnace and water heater circuits locked, tagged and proved dead. Pass.
• Step 4: both gas shutoffs closed and tagged, meter on, no leaks under solution. Pass.
• Step 5: photos taken. The furnace gas valve sits at 11 in and its blower motor at 6 in, both under the 14 in line. The water heater stands on an 18 in platform, so its burner compartment and gas valve sit at 20 in and above, 6 in clear of the water.
• Step 6: FAILS for the furnace. Gas valve and blower motor were submerged, so both are replace marks and the furnace is do-not-energize. The water heater platform legs are stained but nothing above them is marked; pass.
• Step 7: furnace red-tagged at the unit and breaker, lock left on, customer signed the line explaining that a gas valve that has been under water is replaced, not dried.
• Step 8: water heater only. A faint solvent odor near a paint shelf the water had reached, so ventilation for 20 minutes and a clean meter reading before lighting. Leak test clean; draft at the hood within 40 seconds; flue CO inside the manufacturer's limit; ambient CO at background throughout the cycle. Pass.
• Step 9: final states: water heater restarted, furnace do-not-energize pending replacement quote, outdoor unit not run because it depends on the furnace blower.

The 6 in margin that cleared the water heater came from measuring against its own controls rather than eyeballing the tank.

References

• 29 CFR 1910.333 (electrical safety-related work practices) and NFPA 70E Article 120 (120.5 in the 2021 edition, renumbered in 2024), for de-energizing and proving equipment dead.
• 29 CFR 1910.134, for respirator use under a written program.
• NEMA, Evaluating Water-Damaged Electrical Equipment.
• See related: How to Assess Equipment After Floodwater; How to Clean and Restart Equipment After Wildfire Ash; The Equipment Restart After a Planned Power Shutoff SOP; Design Events: What the Code Assumes Will Happen to the House.