An old city is a different water heater job
Portland's close-in neighborhoods were largely built between 1900 and 1940, and a lot of them still have the basement, the gas line and the venting arrangement they were built with. That is the normal job here, not the awkward exception.
Tight basements and crawlspaces
Getting a 50-gallon tank down a narrow 1912 staircase is a skill, not an afterthought. It is also why some quotes quietly grow on the day.
Undersized gas lines
A line sized for a 40,000 BTU tank will not feed a 180,000 BTU tankless unit. On conversions this is the single most common reason a phone quote turns out to be fiction.
Pre-code installs
Missing seismic straps, a capped T&P line, no expansion tank, venting that was legal three codes ago. We find at least one of these on most first visits.
Bull Run water
Soft and low in mineral content across the whole city. Easy on scale, hard on anode rods — which changes what maintenance should actually focus on.
