Hurst Boiler and Welding: Industrial Boiler & Repair Guide

A plant manager in south Georgia hears a faint tick inside a 30-year-old steam boiler and assumes it is a loose brick in the refractory. Three days later a tube gives out and the building goes cold. The fix is not really about torch work — it is about pulling a failed tube, rolling in a replacement, and welding it under a procedure that an inspector will accept. That paperwork-and-fabrication world is exactly what Hurst Boiler & Welding Company, Inc. has been living in since 1967, and understanding it is the first step toward buying, repairing, or properly running one of their boilers.

What Hurst Boiler and Welding Actually Is (and What the Keyword Refers To)

Searching “hurst boiler and welding” gets you one answer: Hurst Boiler & Welding Company, Inc., a family-owned American manufacturer of industrial boilers and hot water heaters, established in 1967 and headquartered at 100 Boilermaker Lane, Coolidge, Georgia 31738-3765. The company describes itself as an all-American manufacturer of industrial boilers with a reputation for quality work at reasonable prices. That is the plain fact behind the keyword, and everything else in this guide follows from how that company is built.

Why “Boiler” and “Welding” Belong in the Same Name

The name describes two halves of one operation, and they are inseparable in practice.

Theboiler half is design, engineering, fabrication and manufacturing. This is where Hurst boilers are born as packaged steam, hot water, multifuel and biomass units, where watertube boilers are shop-assembled, and where the drawings become pressure shells, tube sheets, headers and supports. It also covers the surrounding equipment a working boiler room needs: blowdown separators, surge tanks and pressurized feedwater tanks, so a “boiler company” here means a complete boiler-room system rather than a bare vessel.

The welding half is the service and repair capability that stands behind that manufacturing: major repairs, service and preventive maintenance on Hurst steel boilers, ASME welding, refractory work, tube repairs, and the in-house inspection that lets the company sign off on what it builds. Hurst holds ASME Code construction and inspection capability on site at Coolidge, along with “R” and “PP” stamps for repairs and plumbing work. That combination is unusual: most fabricators either build boilers or repair them, and most repair shops do not build new code vessels.

For a reader searchingASME boiler welding or boiler repair welding, that second half is the part with the deepest consequences, because a boiler is a pressure vessel first and a machine second. Later sections dig into what each stamp legally permits and how to verify a shop’s credentials in the National Board Manufacturer & Repair Directory.

The Scale Behind the Name

Hurst is not a small job shop, and the numbers give you a sense of where it sits in the industry.

Measure	What Hurst Reports
Founded	1967, Coolidge, Georgia
Campus and plant	48+ acres, 350,000+ sq ft of manufacturing
Workforce	275+ employees at full production capacity
Packaged boilers	6 to 2,000 HP (steam, hot water, multifuel, biomass), pressures to 450 PSI
Watertube boilers	Series O, A, D and Flex, 10,000 to 150,000 lbs/hr, pressures to 1,000 PSIG
Biomass cogeneration	Modular thermal-to-electric packages from 250 kWe to 15 MWe
Service footprint	Field installation crews, 24/7 customer support, parts stocked for Hurst and competitor boilers

That range matters for how you read the rest of this guide. A 6 HP hot water unit and a 150,000 lbs/hr watertube boiler share a company, a campus and a code philosophy, but they are different products with different service needs. You will find Hurst boilers described one way and Hurst watertube boilers another, and both are correct.

Who This Guide Is For

This article is written for the people who actually own the problem. Plant managers deciding on a replacement unit. Maintenance supervisors planning a tube replacement. Purchasing agents comparing quotes. Boiler operators who need to understand why a repair is refused. And the welders doing the work, who deserve credit for a job that passes inspection because the procedure was right the first time.

Here is the roadmap. We start with the company history, then map the product families, then decode the ASME stamps and National Board registration in plain language. From there we walk the real repair menu: tube replacement, overlay, plugging, furnace and refractory work. We dig into Hurst biomass boilers and solid fuel, where welding maintenance matters most. Then safety, confined space and lockout, the twelve mistakes that ruin jobs, Hurst parts and service, and finally how to choose and maintain a unit. If you want a sense of how a full-service boiler and welding company compares, see our profile of Alamo Welding & Boiler Works.

The key takeaway is simple: because Hurst designs, fabricates, welds and repairs under one roof, the feedback loop between a failure diagnosis and a fabricated fix is short. When you evaluate boiler repair welding providers, that kind of loop is worth more than it first appears, especially at two in the morning in year twelve of a boiler’s life.

From a Small Welding Shop to a 350,000 Square Foot Boiler Campus

There is a simple reason the company is called Hurst Boiler and Welding rather than just Hurst Boiler. It started as a welding shop, and it never really stopped being one.

In 1967, Clifton Eugene “Gene” Hurst opened the first shop in Coolidge, Georgia, a one-family operation built around hands-on metalwork and customer service. His sons, Tommy and Hayward Hurst, were trained by their father from an early age, learning fabrication and repair at the bench rather than in a classroom, and both eventually joined their parents in servicing customers in the field. That training still shows in how the company is run today. The third and fourth generations now work alongside the founding family’s values, with Tommy Hurst serving as President and CEO and Hayward Hurst as Director of Field Installations, daughter Teri Hurst White as Corporate Affairs Secretary, and son Jeff Hurst as Director of Marketing.

Growing One Building at a Time

The company’s growth has been steady and physical. Demand outgrew the original shop quickly, so a larger facility was built in 1970 to serve customers properly. A major expansion completed in 2007 doubled the manufacturing footprint. Continued sales kept driving further construction, and today the campus spans more than 48 acres with over 350,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The watertube line alone runs out of a retooled plant described at 316,668 square feet, according to the Hurst company history.

That kind of square footage matters less as a vanity number than as a logistics fact. A boiler is not a widget you can grab off a shelf. It is a welded pressure vessel with burners, fans, feedwater piping, controls, stacks and auxiliaries that all have to be sized, matched and commissioned as one system.

The Welding Heritage Is the Engine, Not the Side Business

Here is the argument a buyer should take away: Hurst’s welding capability is not a repair service bolted onto the side of a manufacturing business. It is the capability that makes the manufacturing business possible.

Because Hurst welds its own work, it can fabricate the pieces that a boiler needs when the original part is gone, long gone, or was never catalogued. The Hurst parts catalog includes replacement furnaces, manway plates, hand hole plates and custom tube sheet drilling, plus ASME code fittings and piping stocked in sizes from 1/8 inch all the way to 36 inch in 125#, 150#, 300# and 3000# ratings.

Hurst states that it manufactures and factory-assembles virtually every component needed for a complete boiler room, uses only its own U.S.-manufactured boiler tubes, and incorporates only UL-certified parts. The company leans into that with a “Boilers Made in the USA” and “Georgia Made” message, which is not just branding for a domestic audience. It is a supply chain argument to anyone whose downtime is measured in dollars per hour.

Why Buyers Care About the Loop

Consider the practical difference this creates. When a tube fails, the diagnostic question is easy: is this a code repair or a modification, what procedure applies, and who can weld it to a procedure an inspector will accept? At a manufacturer that builds and welds in the same building, the answer comes from the same campus. The failure is diagnosed by people who understand the design intent, the replacement is fabricated from in-house capability, and the documentation is produced alongside the work rather than chased afterward.

That shortened loop is the practical argument behind the whole Hurst story, and it is also why the company publishes a service scope comparable to other regional boiler and welding works while operating at a scale none of them can match. For plant managers, the practical way to verify any of this is to check the maker’s registration in the National Board Manufacturer and Repair Directory and confirm its certification standing against the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code.

Sixty years of growth tells you the shop model worked. The 350,000 square feet on 48 acres tells you how far it carried.

Inside the Product Range: Firetube, Watertube, Vertical, Low NOx and Biomass

Hurst is not a single-product shop. The published catalog on the company’s company profile runs from a compact vertical hot water unit all the way up to modular biomass cogeneration packages, and it divides into families a buyer can genuinely compare: firetube, watertube, solid fuel and biomass, plus the auxiliaries that turn a pressure vessel into a working boiler room. Shopping that list by “biggest is best” is the mistake. Match the boiler’s shape to the duty instead, because each family makes a different bargain about capacity, pressure, footprint and operator attention.

Firetube: Scotch Marine, Firebox and Vertical

Most industrial steam plants start with a Scotch Marine firetube boiler, built in either wet-back or dry-back form. Wet-back routes the hot flue gas back to the front of the shell for more heat per square foot of floor space. Dry-back leaves the front accessible for tube cleaning and repair, which matters on coal, wood and heavy ash service. Hurst’s Performance Series is built around a three-pass arrangement, driving the gas across the tube bank more than once before it leaves the stack.

Firetube is the economical answer for modest to medium steam loads. The trade-off is physics you cannot engineer away: the water sits inside the tubes, so the unit carries a large inventory of hot water and steam. That inventory smooths pressure swings, but it also means the boiler answers a load change slowly. A plant that must swing from weekend idle to full process demand in minutes will feel that lag.

Firebox boilers are the solid fuel branch of the firetube line, built for coal, wood and other solid fuels. Vertical boilers cover the other end of the scale, where floor area and building height rather than steam output drive the decision.

Watertube: Series 600-A, 700-O and 800-F

The engineered packaged watertube line is published in three downloadable series: Series 600-A, Series 700-O and Series 800-F. Together they span 500 to 3,000 HP, or 17,250 to 103,500 lbs/hr of steam output, sitting inside Hurst’s broader watertube capability of up to 150,000 lbs/hr and pressures to 1,000 PSIG.

Watertube circulates the water and steam mixture through tubes surrounded by hot gas, which is why it starts faster, tolerates higher pressures and scales to high-capacity work that would overwhelm a firetube shell. The price of that capability is money and skill. A watertube package costs more, and it wants an operator who understands water chemistry, blowdown and separation control. Firetube is forgiving. Watertube is not.

Low NOx, Burners and Controls

Low NOx modular boilers cover the emissions-sensitive end of the standard line, and Hurst publishes burner configurations available across the range, so a plant can match the burner to the fuel and the combustion control to its air permit. The Firemaster integrated monitoring control system ties burner operation back to the boiler instead of leaving it on a standalone controller that nobody troubleshoots.

Solid Fuel and Biomass

Solid fuel fired boilers cover coal, wood and hybrid configurations. The biomass boiler systems line is published at 3,450 to 60,000 lbs/hr of output, or 3.4 to 60 mmBTU, at pressures from 100 to 900 PSI. The argument for this family is fuel cost independence and carbon credibility. The price is a permanent operating commitment: fuel handling, ash management and emissions compliance are costs from day one, and the welding, tube and refractory work never really stops.

Skid Packages, Hybrids and the Rest of the Boiler Room

Hurst also offers skid packaged boiler systems delivered with piping, controls and auxiliaries pre-assembled, plus hybrid hot water condensing systems for low-temperature hot water loads where efficiency matters more than steam. The Stackmaster internal stack economizer pulls heat recovery inside the boiler package rather than adding a separate stack device. The auxiliaries list runs from feedwater systems and pressurized feedwater tanks to surge tanks, blowdown separators and integrated PLC boiler controls.

Boiler type	Best suited to	Hurst configuration	Published capacity / pressure	Key trade-off
Scotch Marine firetube	Modest to medium steam loads, tight boiler rooms	Wet-back or dry-back shell, three-pass Performance Series	6 to 2,000 HP, up to 450 PSI	Compact and affordable, but large water inventory and slow load response
Firebox and vertical	Solid fuel service; footprint- or height-constrained installs	Firebox furnace design; vertical shell configurations	Sized per fuel and load	Fuel flexibility and compactness, but ash wear and slower response
Engineered packaged watertube	High-capacity or high-pressure process steam	Series 600-A, 700-O, 800-F	500 to 3,000 HP; 17,250 to 103,500 lbs/hr; broader range to 1,000 PSIG	Fast start and high pressure, but higher cost and demanding operation
Low NOx modular	Emissions-permit-sensitive plants and retrofits	Modular sections, burner configurations across the range, Firemaster monitoring	Across the packaged range	Permit compliance and tuning, with added complexity and maintenance
Solid fuel / biomass	Plants buying fuel independence and carbon credibility	Coal, wood and hybrid fuels; biomass systems	3,450 to 60,000 lbs/hr (3.4 to 60 mmBTU), 100 to 900 PSI	Lower fuel cost, but fuel handling, ash and emissions work
Hybrid condensing hot water	Low-temperature hydronic heating loads	Skid packaged systems with condensing heat recovery	Matched to the hot water load	High efficiency, but limited to low-temperature duty

One last practical note for anyone weighing a manufacturer against a regional shop: put both on the same page. A regional boiler and welding outfit may beat the factory on response time, while the factory may beat it on capacity, code data and the size of the parts bin. Either way, invasive tube work means gouging and cutting out sections of tube, which is worth understanding before you scope the job. The air arc welding and carbon arc gouging guide covers the process in detail.

The Welding Credentials: What ASME Stamps, Codes and National Board Registration Mean

A boiler is a pressure vessel first and a machine second. The only thing separating a legal, insurable repair from a liability is a qualified procedure, a qualified welder and a documented data report. That is why an ASME-certified boiler repair shop can seem more interested in paperwork than in the weld bead.

The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is, by ASME’s own description, the single largest source of technical data used in manufacturing, construction and operation of boilers and pressure vessels. ASME issues a new edition every two years, and the 2025 edition is current. Every stamp, qualification and data report flows from that document.

Decoding Hurst’s ASME stamps

Hurst Boiler & Welding Company cites ASME S, H, U and R stamps, plus an PP plumbing stamp for piping and building systems work around the boiler. Each is a legal permission, and each is narrower than most buyers assume.

Stamp	What it covers	What it legally permits
S	Power boilers	Design, fabricate and stamp new power boilers to ASME Section I, with an ASME data report.
H	Heating boilers	Build heating (hot water and low-pressure steam) boilers to ASME Section I rules.
U	Pressure vessels	Build and stamp new pressure vessels to ASME Section VIII, with data reports.
R	Repair of boilers and pressure vessels	Repair and alter existing boilers and pressure vessels under the Code, using the repair organization’s mark and a repair data report.
PP	Plumbing	Fabricate and install plumbing work to ASME plumbing requirements.

An S or U stamp lets a company legally manufacture a new code vessel and apply the ASME nameplate and data report. An R stamp lets it work on a boiler somebody else built, which is exactly what a 30-year-old Hurst unit with a pulled tube needs.

What a stamp does not do

A stamp is not a promise the work is good. It is a promise the organization has a documented quality system, qualified procedures and tested people. It does not allow welding outside a written procedure, substituting a convenient electrode, or skipping documentation because the job is “only” a repair. A well-meaning crew without a qualified Welding Procedure Specification can put a boiler out of code status faster than a bad weld can.

Where each discipline lives inside the Code

• Section I covers power boilers: construction, design, overpressure protection and repair rules, including Part UF tube overlays.
• Section VIII covers pressure vessels: tanks, headers, heat exchangers and the Part UW repair rules.
• Section IX covers welding, brazing and fusing qualifications, including the Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) and Procedure Qualification Record (PQR) that prove a procedure was tested. For how process and position change consumable selection, the all-position welding rod guide is a useful primer.
• Section II Part D covers material properties, so allowable stresses, groupings and limits trace to the code rather than to opinion.

One simplification is worth knowing. The National Board notes that ASME Section IX Appendix L offers a streamlined method for qualifying welders under both ISO and ASME requirements using a single test coupon, meaning fewer test pieces and less paperwork for the same code compliance.

The National Board: registration, inspection and the marks on the paperwork

ASME writes the rules; the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors (NBBI) runs the registration side. NBBI publishes the National Board Inspection Code (NBIC), with the 2025 edition in use, plus National Board Synopsis NB-370 that ties the Code requirements together for inspectors and jurisdiction authorities. Authorized Inspection Agencies (AIAs) inspect and register data reports in states and Canadian provinces that adopted the National Board system.

NBBI also licenses a family of accreditation marks: the R mark for repair organizations, NR for manufacturers, VR for repair of pressure vessels, and the T/O marks tied to National Board and owner-user inspection work. Those marks and the entries in the National Board Manufacturer & Repair Directory are how a buyer confirms that a specific shop, at a specific plant address, is authorized to do the work being quoted.

Why the paperwork decides whether the boiler keeps running

A repair not performed to a qualified procedure by a qualified welder, or missing its data report and NDE records, can take a boiler out of code status and out of insurance coverage in one stroke. That is the real reason a company like Hurst, which builds and welds under one roof, can hand you a repair package that survives inspection, and why a regional shop such as Alamo Welding & Boiler Works can compete on credentials rather than just price.

How to verify any shop, including Hurst

Do not take a stamp on a letterhead at face value. Verify it yourself in about ten minutes:

1. Search the shop’s certificate on ASME’s public Certificate Holder Search, which lists Authorized Inspection Agencies and other ASME certificate holders.
2. Search the shop in the National Board Manufacturer & Repair Directory and confirm the R or NR registration and the address where the work will actually be performed.
3. Ask for the WPS and PQR covering your repair, the welder qualification records, and the repair data report you will receive when the job closes.
4. Confirm with your jurisdiction authority (state boiler office or the AIA) that the boiler’s inspection interval and the repair will be accepted.

That last step is where the credential stops being paperwork and starts being insurance.

What Boiler Welding Repairs Actually Involve

Nobody brings a boiler to a shop because it made an interesting noise. They bring it because a tube leaked, a furnace cracked, a manway gasket blew out, or a stack economizer started dribbling soot. The real question is whether someone can fix it properly and put it back in service.

Here is the distinction that matters. A patch stops the leak. A repair restores the pressure boundary, removes the cause, returns the boiler to documented code status, and leaves a record an inspector will accept. Failures are rarely random: they are erosion, corrosion, fatigue, or a bad installation detail working on you for years. If the cause survives the repair, the second failure is not far behind.

The Repair Menu You Will Eventually Need

1. Firetube tube replacement. The classic repair. The head or tube sheet comes off, the failed tube is cut out, and a matching tube is installed, then drilled or flared and rolled (expanded) into the tube sheet. Under-expanded joints weep; over-expanded ones split the tube sheet hole. Pressure test the joint before it is closed up.
2. Watertube finned tube replacement. On a Hurst watertube boiler, damaged fins and tube sections are cut out, new sections welded in, and the finned geometry restored. Fin pitch, height and spacing must match the original design, because the fins are the heat-transfer surface. The wrong fin pattern means a cold spot.
3. Tube repair by weld overlay (dry-lay repair). When a tube is thinned by erosion, wastage or corrosion but is still in one piece, the answer is to build wall back up by depositing weld metal over the affected area. It is governed by ASME Section I Part UF, which covers repair of existing boilers and sets limits on wall loss, repair location, and when post-weld heat treatment is required.
4. Tube plugging. A controlled and limited measure, never a permanent fix. Code limits govern how many tubes may be plugged and where, and plugs must be kept apart and away from the hottest zone. Plugging cuts capacity, loads the neighbours, and puts a clock on the remaining tubes.
5. Furnace, tube sheet, manway and hand hole repair. Including complete replacement furnaces, hand hole plates, manway plates and custom tube sheet drilling. Hurst stocks replacement furnaces, manway plates and hand hole plates, so replacement geometry matches the original rather than being guessed at.
6. Refractory and insulation. The most-skipped part of a tube repair. Hurst’s catalog runs to Hurst Hybrid Mud, Castable 1800 and 2800 degree, Furnace Crete, Coreline, One Shot, mineral wool, Kaowool, blankets, fire brick, refractory hangers and stainless steel. A welded tube in a stripped furnace will crack back, because without lining and tube supports it cycles harder than designed.
7. Nozzle, flange and pressure piping replacement. ASME code fittings and piping from 1/8 inch to 36 inches, plus gaskets: Tadpole tape, fiber tape, Kaowool strips, hand hole and man hole gaskets, and 150#, 300# and 600# spiral wound and neoprene flange gaskets. Valve stock includes Kunkle, Conbrado, Apollo, Milwaukee, United Brass, Nibco, Crane, ASCO and ITT, in feed water, gate, globe, blowdown, check, ball and safety/relief types.
8. Economizer, heat exchanger and pollution control equipment repair. Stack economizers, deaerators, feedwater tanks and emissions equipment fail in predictable ways, and most repairs there are welding work that the original manufacturer approaches very differently from a general fabrication shop.

Non-Destructive Examination: Proving the Repair

Every intrusive repair is verified, and the method depends on what was done.

• Visual examination on every joint.
• Dye penetrant for surface-breaking defects in non-porous materials.
• Magnetic particle for surface and slightly subsurface defects in ferromagnetic material.
• Ultrasonic thickness measurement to quantify remaining wall on thinned tubes.
• Radiography for internal integrity of critical butt welds, with the boiler out of service and the area shielded.

Then comes the hydrostatic or pressure test that proves the pressure boundary holds. Results belong in the repair file.

Cutting out a failed tube is itself a technical decision. Many shops reach for a saw; carbon arc gouging is the usual answer for carbon steel because it cuts fast and leaves a surface that grinds back to sound metal. Either way the tube sheet takes the abuse, and a gouged tube sheet is a new problem the repair did not have.

Parts availability is part of the repair. Hurst’s catalog lists furnace replacement, tube sheets, and ASME code fittings and piping as stock items, and trained personnel handle repair and refurbishment work on site or off site through its parts and service operation. Before you commit the boiler, vet the shop in the National Board Manufacturer and Repair Directory.

Biomass and Solid Fuel: Where Welding Maintenance Matters Most

Out of every type of boiler in service, solid fuel units take the most punishment. A Hurst biomass boiler doesn’t simply sit and produce steam. It ingests wet, gritty, and chemically unpredictable fuel, firing at extreme temperatures while fighting a constant battle against erosion, corrosion, and thermal shock. With that much abuse, welding maintenance isn’t a backup plan here, it’s one of the most important factors for long term reliability.

A Wider Fuel Range Means Wider Wear

Hurst states that it manufactures seven different types of biomass stoker and gasifier designs, with systems capable of running on more than 2,000 different biomass fuels. From dry hog fuel to wet chicken manure, each feedstock produces its own wear pattern. Some of the fuels commonly used include:

• Wood, bark, sawdust, shavings and chips
• Rice husk, corn husks and nut or shell residues
• Bagasse and agave fiber
• Chicken manure and sludge
• King grass and other energy crops
• Municipal solid waste and construction debris
• Paper, card, board products

Dry, abrasive fuels grind away at tubes. High chloride or sulfur fuels create an acidic ash side. Moisture heavy wastes open the door for accelerated corrosion. Many plants don’t stick to just one of these either, changing suppliers over time and introducing an entirely new set of variables with every load.

To combat this variability, Hurst designs for fuels from 0 to 50 percent moisture content, with primary combustion zone temperatures reaching as high as 1,850 degrees F. Its extended burn chamber allows for longer residence time to burn out particulates, while a PLC controlled fuel and air system holds temperature within 3 to 5 degrees of setpoint and an automated ash removal system takes care of the ash load with minimal manual handling.

The Four Ways Biomass Attacks Heat Transfer Surfaces

With such an aggressive environment, pressure parts fail from more than one source at a time. These are the most common culprits:

1. Abrasion: Fly ash acts like a blasting agent, steadily thinning tubes on the furnace and convection pass, especially in high particulate fuels.
2. Corrosion: The mix of moisture, sulfur, and chlorides produces acidic conditions. This can attack from both the water side and the ash side, often targeting areas already weakened by abrasion.
3. Thermal cycling: Constant firing and shutdowns cause tubes to expand and contract. Cracked or spalled refractory only amplifies these stresses.
4. Erosion at flow paths: Baffles, flame deflectors, screen tubes, and tube supports take the highest particle impact and erode first.

One key defense against these failures is Hurst’s high-temperature cast refractory ceramic lining, which is described as completely modular for easy repair and replacement. This modularity is crucial for welding crews, as it allows damaged sections to be removed and restored to their designed thickness without rebuilding an entire furnace.

A Practical Biomass Welding Repair Strategy

For solid fuel units, the order of repairs can make or break an outage. The most effective approach is a combination of access planning and code compliant welding:

• Overlay when possible: If wall thickness is below nominal but still above allowable limits, an overlay weld build up can restore it in place. These repairs must fall within the parameters of ASME Section I, Part UF and be performed with a qualified welding procedure. For a general breakdown of overlay and buildup techniques, our guide to flux core welding can be a useful primer, though boiler tube work will almost always call for a process matched to the specific tube material.
• Replace when needed: Once thinning exceeds allowable limits, the tube must be cut out and replaced, not overlaid.
• Match filler and preheat: Preheat and any post-weld heat treatment must follow the qualified procedure based off of tube material and remaining wall thickness. Thin, heavily cycled tubes paired with heavier fittings require extra care to prevent cracking.
• Bundle with cleanouts: Plan repairs alongside ash side cleanouts. Opening the furnace once for both saves scaffolding, gas freeing time, and refractory labor.

Fuel Logistics and the Bigger Picture

Wood fired biomass is often positioned as carbon neutral, as the CO2 released equals what the tree absorbed while growing. However, this doesn’t account for harvesting, grinding, drying fuel at up to 50 percent moisture, trucking, or the energy used to run the boiler’s own systems. A mill burning its own dry sawdust next door will have a vastly different footprint than a plant trucking wet green waste hundreds of miles.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most biomass electricity in the United States comes from direct combustion, with biomass burned in a boiler to produce high pressure steam that drives a turbine. That makes the boiler the workhorse of biopower. Ultimately, it’s not just the furnace that keeps that workhorse alive, but a qualified welding crew with the correct code stamp, procedure, and documentation to repair it when the fuel inevitably fights back.

Boiler Welding Safety: Confined Space, Lockout/Tagout, Ventilation and Fire Watch

Welding on or inside a boiler is far more hazardous than shop work. Pressurized water, trapped steam, hot ash, and in some units a live fuel bed all create energy sources that can remain long after a boiler is shut down. One missed isolation or vent can result in a rupture or fire, so these controls must be planned for before any arc is struck.

Confined Space Entry

For welding purposes, a boiler, pressure vessel, or tank is often considered a confined space and triggers the additional requirements of 29 CFR 1910.252(b)(4). With only a manway or handhole for access, every entry needs strict controls.

• Keep equipment outside: Gas cylinders and welding machines must stay outside of the space. Only leads, the torch, a grinder, and necessary hand tools should pass through the opening.
• Prevent movement: Any heavy equipment left near the opening must be blocked to prevent it from rolling and blocking the only exit.
• Plan for retrieval: When entry is through a narrow manway, safety belts and lifelines must be used so a worker cannot jam in the opening. The retrieval gear must be ready before the first step inside.
• Never enter without an attendant: A trained attendant must be stationed outside for the entire entry with a preplanned rescue procedure. If arc welding is suspended for a substantial time, electrodes must be removed from holders and machines disconnected.

Venting, Purging, and Explosion Prevention

Hot work on any used drum, barrel, tank, or container is only safe if it has been cleaned to the point where it is absolutely certain no flammable material remains. Per 29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(iv), all hollow spaces, cavities, or containers must be vented to allow air or gases to escape before preheating, cutting, or welding. Where residual vapors are still a concern, purging with an inert gas is recommended.

On boilers specifically, this applies to tube spaces and any hollow sections. A section sealed at both ends can hold combustion gases from previous firings. Venting means opening a physical path for those gases to escape, not simply turning off the burner.

Fire Watch and Fire Prevention

Combustibles must be relocated at least 35 feet (10.7 m) from the work area when practicable. If they cannot be moved, they must be protected with flameproofed covers or metal guards. A fire watch is required when appreciable combustibles are within 35 feet, when floor or wall openings expose combustibles below or on the other side, or when combustibles are on the opposite side of a metal partition that can conduct heat.

The fire watch must have suitable extinguishing equipment readily available and must remain on duty for at least a half hour after welding or cutting is complete. That post-work time is critical, as smoldering can occur in refractory, insulation, or a wood fuel bed. Hot work is also prohibited in unauthorized areas, in sprinklered buildings with impaired sprinkler protection, or in explosive atmospheres. For most plants, NFPA Standard 51B is the referenced basis for the required hot work permit.

Ventilation, Fumes, and PPE

Mechanical ventilation is required in spaces under 10,000 cubic feet per welder, in rooms with ceilings under 16 feet, and in confined spaces. The minimum rate is 2,000 cubic feet per minute per welder unless local exhaust hoods or airline respirators are used. Local exhaust should maintain a velocity of 100 linear feet per minute toward the hood, and oxygen must never be used for ventilation.

For PPE, follow OSHA’s shade number guidance based on the process and electrode size. Arc welding requires a helmet with a hand shield, while gas welding requires goggles. For aluminum work, surface preparation is just as important for fume considerations, so reviewing resources on aluminum cleaner for welding can be a useful part of prep. As noted by the NIOSH Pocket Guide, welding fumes pose risks to the eyes, skin, respiratory system, and central nervous system, making ventilation and proper PPE non-negotiable.

Lockout/Tagout and Residual Energy

Under 29 CFR 1910.147, a written energy control program is required, complete with procedures, training, and annual inspections. Isolation must be verified, not assumed. Use group lockout for crews and have a documented shift-change procedure to keep control of locks at all times.

For boilers, look past electrical switches for hidden energy:

• Pressure: Pressurized water in the boiler or feedwater side.
• Thermal: Steam trapped in the header, hot ash, or refractory that can hold heat for hours.
• Combustion: A live fuel bed, which in biomass units can continue to smolder without air supply.

Blowdown, drain, cool, verify with a gauge and temperature check, then apply locks and tags. A gauge reading of zero is not proof that all pressure is gone.

Pre-Job Checklist

1. Permits: Job hazard analysis and hot work permit completed and signed.
2. Energy control: Locks and tags applied to the burner, fans, pumps, and feedwater per the energy control program.
3. Isolation verified: Steam, water, and fuel isolated. Pressure and temperature verified at the gauge and the drain.
4. Prepare the vessel: Boiler drained, purged, and vented. Hollow spaces opened to atmosphere or purged with inert gas.
5. Entry readiness: Confined space determination done, attendant posted with a rescue plan and retrieval gear.
6. Work zone: Cylinders and machines outside the space, heavy equipment blocked, and combustibles moved 35 feet or protected.
7. Fire protection: Fire watch assigned with extinguishers on hand and a half-hour watch scheduled.
8. Air control: Ventilation in place at 2,000 cfm per welder or local exhaust at 100 linear feet per minute toward the hood.
9. PPE and procedure: Correct PPE and shade selected, with the qualified WPS, preheat, and filler metal confirmed.
10. Sign off: Fire watch signed off after the required post-work monitoring period.

Twelve Mistakes That Ruin Boiler Welding Jobs (and How to Avoid Them)

Most boiler repair failures are not dramatic. They are quiet, procedural failures that show up weeks later as a weeping tube, a cracked tube sheet, or a boiler that will not pass its next inspection. Here are the twelve mistakes that show up again and again in plants across the country, what goes wrong when each one happens, and how to prevent it.

1. Welding without a qualified procedure. The most common reason a repair fails inspection is a weld made with no supporting WPS and PQR behind it. ASME Section IX of the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is the part that governs welding qualifications, and a qualified procedure plus a performance qualification record is what makes a weld defensible. If the shop cannot produce the paperwork, the weld does not exist as far as the inspector is concerned. Prevention: demand the WPS and PQR before the torch is lit, and check that the WPS matches the joint, the material, the position and the thickness.
2. Choosing the consumable for convenience. A stick electrode is grabbed because it is on the truck, or ER70S-6 wire is substituted because it was on the spool, when the code-specified process for that joint calls for something else entirely. Low-hydrogen electrodes are required in many boiler joints for a reason: they limit diffusible hydrogen, which is the main driver of cold cracking in thick, restrained carbon steel. A wire that passes the chemistry check on paper can still be the wrong answer. Prevention: fill out the filler metal and process column of the WPS before the consumable order, not after.
3. Wet or damaged electrodes and wire. Porosity in a repair weld is very often a storage problem, not a welding problem. Damp electrodes, corroded wire, a spool left in the rain, or wire that has been stored where the spool rims can rust will all produce hydrogen and porosity that a good preheat will not fix. Prevention: keep consumables in a dry, heated storage area, rotate stock, and reject anything with visible damage. If your plant is buying consumables for repair work, a practical buying guide to all-position welding rod types and their uses helps crews pick correctly.
4. Skipping preheat on heavy sections. A thick SA-516 tube sheet or a heavy tube wall cooled without preheat develops a hard, brittle heat-affected zone that cracks as it cools. This is a textbook failure mode, and it is often discovered at hydrostatic test rather than during the weld. Prevention: preheat per the WPS, measured with a calibrated temperature indicator on the actual joint, not estimated by torch proximity. Preheat is not a rule of thumb.
5. Not venting and purging before welding. This one is an explosion risk, not a paperwork risk. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.252 requires that hollow spaces, cavities or containers be vented so air and gases can escape before preheating, cutting or welding, and the same section prohibits hot work on used drums, barrels, tanks or containers until they are cleaned thoroughly enough that it is absolutely certain no flammable material remains. A boiler that has been drained still holds steam in the header, scale that can release gas, and oil in the feedwater side. Prevention: vent, purge with an inert gas, and verify with a four-gas meter before any hot work begins.
6. Sawing the failed tube out instead of grinding it. A saw cuts a ragged, gouged edge and thins the tube sheet around the hole. That thinned, work-hardened metal cracks under pressure and makes the real repair far harder. Prevention: use a grinder, a nibbler or a tube cutter, then dress the hole and ream it to a clean fit before rolling the new tube.
7. Careless tube rolling or expansion. A rolled joint that is expanded too hard will thin the tube wall and work-harden it; one that is expanded too lightly will weep. The joint is what decides whether the repair lasts a week or a decade. Prevention: pressure-test the rolled joint before the tube sheet is closed up or the furnace is rebuilt. If it leaks, you can still fix it cheaply at that stage.
8. Ignoring post-weld heat treatment. Where the WPS requires PWHT, particularly on heavy sections, skipping it leaves residual stress that will move the joint later, sometimes while the boiler is under load. Prevention: treat the requirement as part of the job, not an optional extra, and schedule the time for it.
9. Leaving the refractory, insulation and tube supports out. This is the mistake that quietly kills otherwise perfect welds. A new tube rolled into a stripped furnace, with the insulating lining missing and the tube supports removed or bent, will cycle far harder than the original design because the tube now sees direct radiant heat and no support. A welded tube in a stripped furnace will crack back. Prevention: restore the lining, insulation and supports to their as-found condition before the boiler goes back on line, and photograph the rebuild.
10. Failing to document the repair. No repair data report, no NDE records, no as-left condition note. The National Board requires repair organizations to document repairs and, where applicable, register repair data reports under the NBIC. Undocumented work can take a boiler out of code status and out of insurance coverage, which turns a two-day repair into a shutdown. Prevention: treat the documentation package as part of the deliverable, not an afterthought.
11. Contaminating stainless or stainless-lined tubes. Carbon steel wire, a carbon steel brush or a grinding wheel that just touched carbon steel will leave iron on the surface of a stainless tube. That iron rusts, embrittles the surface and can start a corrosion cell in the wrong place. Prevention: dedicated stainless tools, dedicated grinding wheels, and cleaning before welding. A guide to alloy steel welding electrode selection and safe use covers the filler choices that go with these joints.
12. Skipping the pressure test. After intrusive work, the boiler must be hydrostatically tested, and the pressure boundary must be checked after any hot work. Skipping the test because the schedule is tight is how a small weep becomes a tube failure on the next start-up. Prevention: build the test into the outage plan with the National Board inspection interval, and never return the boiler to service on a “it looks fine” basis.

Before You Light the Torch

Copy this list onto the job board. It takes two minutes and it catches most of the twelve mistakes above before they happen.

• Paperwork: WPS and PQR in hand, filler metal and process confirmed, and the repair scope written down.
• Isolation: lockout/tagout applied per 29 CFR 1910.147, with the energy control program verified and isolation tested before work starts.
• Atmosphere: boiler vented, purged, and gas tested; cylinders and machines staged outside the confined space with an attendant and rescue plan posted.
• Ventilation and PPE: local exhaust running, respiratory protection selected from the NIOSH guidance, correct shade numbers on the helmets and hand shields.
• Fabrication: correct consumables dry and in date, preheat and interpass temperatures verified with a calibrated instrument.
• Post-work: refractory, insulation and tube supports restored, NDE completed, hydrostatic test performed, and the repair data report and as-left condition record filed.

One last practical point. Hurst offers repair and refurbishing work performed by trained personnel on site or off site, and stocks the consumables that actually close a job out properly: gaskets, refractory, castable, Kaowool, fire brick and tube stock. Having the correct tube and lining material on the shelf before the outage starts removes an entire category of mistake before it happens.

Every one of these mistakes is cheap to prevent and expensive to ignore. That is the entire argument for working with a shop that welds to a qualified procedure, documents the repair and can show you the stamp.

Parts, Service and Support: Keeping a Hurst Boiler Running for Decades

Ask any plant manager who owns a Hurst boiler what actually worries them after year one, and it is rarely the vessel. The boiler was new, it was installed correctly, and it has done its job for a decade. The worry is the 2 a.m. phone call from the night shift: the burner will not hold pressure, the water column is drifting, a stoker drive has quit, or the draft has collapsed and nobody can find the part on the shelf. That gap is exactly what Hurst’s after-market organization exists to close.

Hurst states it plainly: parts and serviceability are the keys to preventive maintenance and peak operating efficiency. The After Market and Service Departments stock replacement parts for Hurst boilers and for other major competitors’ boilers, which matters when you run a mixed fleet of equipment from different eras and different makers. The parts center sits at the Coolidge, Georgia plant, and orders leave via DHL, FedEx, UPS and LTL Freight Services, so a small gauge and a multi-hundred-pound economizer assembly both have a defined route to your dock. Customer service staff are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide, by phone or online.

Support That Begins at Commissioning

The other half of the story is field installation. Hurst’s crews are headed by experienced personnel, and during installation they educate the plant’s own maintenance staff on the proper use, care and maintenance of the unit. That handover is often the difference between a boiler serviced on a schedule and one nursed along until something cracks. The company also offers used and excess inventory, CAD drawings and a literature library, and it performs on-site ASME and UL inspection at the plant, per its company profile.

The Shopping List That Actually Stops Production

Most owners do not need an exhaustive parts catalog. They need the handful of categories that take a unit offline. Hurst stocks them, and the list is worth keeping on file:

Category	Typical items	Brands carried
Forced draft burners	Motors, blower wheels, electrodes, transformers, ignition and control components, air flow switches, oil pumps, diffusers, gas train valves, oil nozzles, regulators, pilot assemblies, flame sensors, modulating motors	Beckett, Industrial Combustion, Gordon Piatt, Power Flame
Controls	Ignition and sensing modules, programming and level controls, actuators, switches	Honeywell, Fireye, White-Rogers, Danfoss, Dwyer, Cleveland, McDonnell Miller, ITT, Warwick, B&W
Cast iron and wood fired	Grates, stoker parts, augers, troughs, fuel feed rotary valves, rotary air lock valves, retorts, fire brick, ash removal chains, flights, drives	Solid fuel and biomass lines
Refractory and insulation	Furnace linings, castable, fire brick, mineral wool, mill board, gaskets	Matches Hurst furnace designs
Instruments	Pressure gauges, water column gauges, temperature, aquastats, draft, bottom, back and angle mount	Boiler room instrumentation
Gas analysis	Handheld combustion analyzers	Fireye, Bacharach
Pumps and fans	Feedwater and condensate pumps, combustion air fans	Burks, Grundfos, Xylem, Goulds, MTH; Twin City fans
Boiler-room vessels	Feed water tanks, surge tanks, blowdown separators, chemical feed systems, water softeners	ASME-certified and non-code units
Water treatment	HBM Single Tank and HBM Twin Tank softeners	See capacity note below

Water treatment deserves its own line in that list, because scale is the quiet killer of tube life. The HBM Single Tank softeners handle 10,000 to 25,000 grains of hardness removal at flow rates up to 10 gpm, while the HBM Twin Tank units handle 10,000 to 60,000 grains at up to 280 gpm. Pick the size that matches your feedwater flow and the hardness your utility actually delivers, not the size that matches your boiler.

Ordering: Get the Details Right the First Time

The practical tip worth stealing is the Hurst parts request form, which asks for the boiler model, part number, part description and service details so a quotation can be matched accurately. Fill it in completely. A quote built from a half-described part is a quote you will argue with later, and a rushed replacement order is where freight charges get eaten. Keep your nameplate data current: model, serial number, horsepower, design pressure, fuel type and, on a watertube, tube size and quantity.

Parts and repairs are separate lines, and repairs are where code credentials matter. Shops such as Alamo Welding & Boiler Works illustrate the type of qualified boiler-repair operation a plant should be comparing, and the same point applies in reverse: when your repair work goes out, verify the shop against the National Board Manufacturer and Repair Directory before authorizing a pressure-boundary weld.

None of this makes the boiler maintenance-free. But parts availability, code-capable repair support and a documented service history are what turn a capital purchase into a twenty-year asset rather than a recurring expense.

Choosing, Installing and Maintaining a Hurst Boiler — and the Bottom Line

Boiler buying is not a price comparison exercise. It is a twenty-year commitment to a machine that burns fuel inside a pressure boundary and depends on strangers arriving with the right tube and procedure. Answer the questions in order; do not let price collapse the sequence.

Ten questions to answer before you request a quote

1. What is the duty? Steam or hot water? A cleaning line wants dry heat with no carryover, a food plant wants steam quality and condensate return, a pulp mill wants 900 PSI, a carpet mill wants hot water.
2. What is the load profile? Peak, average, turndown and ramp speed. Firetube holds more water and responds slowly; watertube starts faster and tolerates swings. Peak five times average moves you up a line.
3. What fuel, and what does logistics cost? For solid fuel, moisture and ash content decide everything. Hurst publishes biomass capability from 3,450 to 60,000 lbs/hr and 100 to 900 PSI, and lists more than 2,000 fuels, from wood chips and rice husk to bagasse, nut shell residue and municipal solid waste. Size the fuel system first.
4. What does your air permit require? Permitting, not brochure horsepower, sets the burner limit. Hurst offers biomass boiler systems and low NOx modular boilers with burner configurations across the range, plus PLC-based controls.
5. Will it physically fit? Footprint, ceiling height, door widths, weight, rigging access and room for blowdown piping. Packaged skid options exist when field erection is not worth the schedule.
6. Pressure and capacity? Hurst’s packaged range runs 6 to 2,000 HP at up to 450 PSI, while watertube products reach 1,000 PSIG and 150,000 lbs/hr. Know which family you are in before comparing quotes.
7. What has to integrate with it? PLC controls, the Stackmaster internal stack economizer, blowdown separator, pressurized feedwater tank, feedwater system and water treatment.
8. How far is service from you? How far is the Coolidge, Georgia parts center? Hurst states that a Hurst trained plumbing and heating contractor from the customer’s region will install and maintain the system.
9. What is the return? Fuel cost, carbon credits where they exist, and CHP potential. Hurst’s modular biomass cogeneration packages run from 250 kWe to 15 MWe, so run the numbers early.
10. Who welds your repairs for two decades? Are they ASME-stamped? Hurst holds S, H, U and R stamps, with ASME and UL construction and inspection handled on site at the Coolidge plant.

How Hurst compares to the other three options

Criterion	Hurst	Local fab shop	National OEM	Parts-only contractor
Upfront price	Mid to high	Low, often partial	High	Lowest
Lead time	Longer than a shop	Shortest, by shop capacity	Longest	Not applicable
Service scope	Parts, install, repair, ASME and UL inspection	Narrow, often the weld only	Broad, regional	Parts and labor on your unit
Code stamps	ASME S, H, U, R, plus PP	Varies, often limited	Full range	None for building
Parts availability	Own and competitor parts, drawings, literature, videos, used inventory	Whatever they can fabricate	Good, priced accordingly	Good for machines they cover

Hurst’s mid-to-high price buys code design and full boiler-room scope, not margin. The company publishes CAD drawings, a literature library, boiler videos, image galleries and used and excess inventory, and its parts and service department stocks replacements for Hurst boilers and competing makes. That is the differentiator: a manufacturer whose own field crews can also repair, rather than a sales desk that vanishes after commissioning.

What installation and commissioning actually involve

Site prep first: foundations, housekeeping pads, fuel train piping, electrical service, venting, blowdown routing and rigging access. Then utility connections, burner commissioning and instrument calibration. Field crews led by experienced personnel train plant maintenance staff while still on site.

Safety valves must be tested and tagged, National Board inspection intervals apply to jurisdictionally regulated boilers with data reports registered through the National Board Manufacturer and Repair Directory, and blowdown and water treatment run from day one, because scale and carryover damage a boiler faster than almost any other neglect. The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is the reference for design and repair work.

• Daily: water level, gauges, draft and combustion readings, burner logged.
• Weekly: inspect blowdown and feedwater, test safety and low-water cutoffs.
• Monthly: service the burner, check flame sensor and airflow switch, inspect refractory.
• Annually: tube and refractory inspection, safety valve test, burner and control calibration, documented code inspection.

The bottom line

A boiler is a pressure vessel first and a machine second. The ASME stamp, the qualified procedure and the documented repair decide whether it runs safely for two decades or becomes a liability. Everything else is negotiable. Code status and repair quality are not.

Hurst Boiler & Welding Company, founded in 1967, is a family-owned American manufacturer in Coolidge, Georgia, with more than 350,000 square feet of manufacturing on a 48-plus acre campus. It builds firetube, watertube, solid fuel and biomass boilers, welds and repairs the ones already in the field, and supports plant teams and the welders who do the work.

So talk to a Hurst sales representative, and ideally to a plant engineer who has run one of these boilers for a decade. Ask what failed, what it cost to fix and who welded it. Our guides on welding standards and safety practice, consumable selection and boiler and pressure vessel repair work give you the vocabulary for those questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hurst Boiler and Welding Company?

It is a family-owned U.S. boiler manufacturer founded in 1967 and based in Coolidge, Georgia. The company designs, fabricates and services firetube, watertube, vertical, low NOx, solid fuel and biomass steam and hot water boilers, and it also performs ASME welding, refractory work and boiler tube repairs on its own and other manufacturers’ equipment.

What size boilers does Hurst build?

Packaged steam, hot water, multifuel and biomass boilers run from 6 to 2,000 HP at pressures up to 450 PSI. Engineered packaged watertube boilers cover 500 to 3,000 HP (about 17,250 to 103,500 lbs/hr) at pressures to 1,000 PSIG, while solid fuel and biomass systems are published at 3,450 to 60,000 lbs/hr and 100 to 900 PSI.

What do the ASME stamps S, H, U and R mean?

The S stamp covers power boiler construction, the H stamp covers heating boilers, the U stamp covers pressure vessels, and the R stamp lets an organization perform repairs and alterations to boilers and pressure vessels under the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. Hurst holds all four and also cites an R and PP stamp program for repairs and plumbing work.

Can Hurst repair a boiler that another company manufactured?

Yes. Hurst states it provides repair and refurbishing services by trained personnel either on site or off site, and its parts center stocks replacement parts for Hurst boilers as well as for other major competitors’ boilers. Any repair still has to be performed to a qualified procedure by qualified welders and documented to code.

What kinds of biomass fuel can a Hurst boiler burn?

Hurst says it manufactures seven different types of biomass stoker/gasifiers and handles more than 2,000 different biomass fuels, including wood, bark, rice husk, sugar cane bagasse, chicken manure, agave fiber, king grass, municipal solid waste, construction debris, husks, sawdust, shavings and sludge. Hurst also states its systems can burn fuel with 0 to 50 percent moisture content.

Why does boiler welding require lockout/tagout and confined space controls?

Because a boiler stores several kinds of energy at once: pressurized water, steam, hot ash and sometimes a live fuel bed, and because OSHA 29 CFR 1910.252 treats a boiler as a confined space. That means cylinders and welding machines stay outside, an attendant watches any manway entry, the space is vented and purged before hot work, and energy is isolated and verified under 29 CFR 1910.147.

How do I find parts for an older Hurst boiler?

Hurst runs a parts center at its Coolidge, Georgia plant and ships via DHL, FedEx, UPS and LTL freight, and it publishes a parts and service request form asking for the boiler, part number and description. Its catalog covers burners, controls, refractory and insulation, gaskets, valves, pumps, fans, instruments, water softeners, blowdown separators and ASME code fittings and piping from 1/8 inch to 36 inches, and it also lists used and excess inventory.

Is a biomass boiler worth it compared with natural gas?

It depends on fuel logistics and load profile. Biomass wins where a consistent local supply of low-cost fuel exists, where carbon credits or renewable energy goals matter, and where combined heat and power can be used. It costs more to install and demands fuel handling, ash management and emissions compliance, and the emissions and economics case depends heavily on how far the fuel travels and how dry it is when it arrives.

How do I verify that a boiler repair shop is properly certified?

Look them up in the ASME Certificate Holder Search to confirm the stamp they claim, and check the National Board’s Manufacturer & Repair Directory to confirm they are registered to repair the code and jurisdiction they work in. Then ask to see the welding procedure specification and the supporting procedure qualification record, plus the repair data report they will file when the job is done.