Reuben's Home Inspection
Blog
November
18th, 2008
Misconceptions
About Furnaces and Water Heaters
There are many
common misconceptions about furnaces, water heaters,
and carbon monoxide that I hear repeated on a daily
basis, and I’d like to clear a few of them up.
False:
Carbon Monoxide is also called CO2. Carbon
Monoxide is CO. Carbon Dioxide is CO2. (Mono = 1, Di
= 2)
False:
Cracked heat exchangers create CO. CO is
caused by incomplete combustion, period. A cracked
heat exchanger does not create CO. A heat exchanger
is the part of a furnace that transfers heat from the
flames to the household air. A functional heat
exchanger keeps the household air and the combustion
gases completely separate from each other. If a
furnace has a cracked heat exchanger, the combustion
gases can mix with the household air. It’s usually
just a little bit, but this is still unacceptable, and
it means the furnace or heat exchanger should be
replaced. The photos below show cracks in heat
exchangers (click the photos for full-sized images).
False:
Cracked heat exchangers can be fixed. They
can’t be fixed. The heat exchanger or entire furnace
needs to be replaced.
False: High
CO levels = cracked heat exchanger. See
above. We test the CO levels in the flue gas, which
has nothing to do with a cracked heat exchanger. Heat
exchangers fail when the metal rusts through or when
it cracks. CO does not cause this.
False: High
CO levels in the flue gas mean the furnace is leaking
CO. If there is a high level of CO in the
flue gas, there is a potential for the exhaust gases
to mix with the household air, or ‘leak’. One way
would be for the exhaust gases to backdraft, which
means that instead of rising up and out of the house,
they come back down the flue. The other way would be
because of a cracked heat exchanger. If we find high
levels of CO in the flue gas, we recommend immediate
repair – it doesn’t matter if the gases are mixing
with the household air at the time of the inspection
or not, because this condition could potentially
change at any time. Higher CO levels can often be
fixed.
False:
Backdrafting at a furnace or water heater means CO is
coming in to the home. Backdrafting means
that exhaust gases are spilling back in to the home,
rather than going up the flue. A properly functioning
water heater or furnace will not create CO, so you
can’t say CO is coming in to the home unless you test
the exhaust gases; we do this at every inspection.
Click the following link for an old clip of me
testing carbon monoxide at a home in Minneapolis.
While backdrafting doesn’t mean CO is coming in to the
home, this is still a potentially hazardous situation
that requires immediate correction. Backdrafting has
the potential to allow CO in to the home, and will
always contain CO2, which can cause sickness and
headaches in higher concentrations.
Wrong Term:
Hot water heater. Just 'water heater'. The
heated water that comes out is hot.
To summarize, high
levels of CO need to be fixed, cracked heat exchangers
need replacement, and backdrafting is never ok. These
three things are all independent, but a combination of
these conditions is especially dangerous, and a good
home inspector will make the differences clear.
[back to top]
November
11th, 2008
Gravity Furnaces
If you’re buying a home with a gravity furnace, you
should have the furnace replaced. Gravity furnaces
are those huge ‘octopus’ furnaces that can just about
fill up a whole room with ductwork. They are called
gravity furnaces because it’s gravity that distributes
warm air – the warm air weighs less than cold air, so
it rises. These furnaces don’t have blower fans, and
there is little that can go wrong with them. While I
rarely find any safety issues or problems with gravity
furnaces, the main reasons to replace them are money,
efficiency, and comfort.
The biggest concern for most people is the money it
takes to heat a home with a gravity furnace. Gravity
furnaces typically cost about twice as much to operate
as a modern forced air furnace, because they are
terribly inefficient. Gravity furnaces just have a
huge flame that warms up the air in the ductwork, and
all of the exhaust gas that leaves your home through
the chimney is wasted heat. On a gravity furnace,
about half the heat generated goes up the chimney,
making it about 50% efficient. Newer furnaces can be
as high as 95% efficient.
While money and efficiency go hand-in-hand, I’m
listing them separately because replacing your old
gravity furnace is also good for the environment; the
more efficient your furnace is, the less greenhouse
gases get released in to the atmosphere. Replacing
old gravity furnaces is a ‘green’, socially
responsible thing to do!
Your home will be much more comfortable with a
forced air furnace. Old gravity furnaces operate by
allowing the heated air to rise up the middle of the
home, and the cool air falls back down along the
outside walls, making the middle of the house warm and
the outside walls fairly cold (see diagrams below).
Additionally, with a forced air furnace you’ll now
have the option of adding central air conditioning,
which is not possible with a gravity furnace because
there is no blower fan to distribute the air.
With all the benefits of replacing a gravity
furnace, why don’t more people do it? Cost. A
gravity furnace and the ductwork for a gravity furnace
will almost always contain asbestos. An asbestos
abatement contractor will need to remove the old
furnace, which obviously drives up the cost of the
replacement. The ductwork will also need to be
modified, because the new furnace should have smaller
supply ducts going to the outside walls, and larger
return ducts on the inside walls. This is the
opposite of how gravity furnaces are designed to work.
Besides all of the logical explanations for
replacing or not replacing a gravity furnace, you
should also consider the emotional aspects; most home
buyers that I work with are very nervous about buying
homes with gravity furnaces. I always wonder how
many potential buyers already passed on a home just
because they were worried about the gravity furnace!
[back to top]
November
4th, 2008
Converting Two-Prong Outlets
A common question I get about older homes is whether
two-prong outlets can safely be changed over to
three-prong outlets. Most home buyers today don’t want
to be stuck with two-prong outlets throughout the
house. Two-prong outlets can always be changed to
three-prong, and this can be accomplished a few
different ways. Today I’ll give a very brief
explanation of what the third prong is for, and I’ll
discuss a few ways to convert to a three prong outlet.
I didn’t consult an attorney before writing this
article, so I feel like I should add a disclaimer before
giving any electrical how-to advice: Don’t do any of
this work if you’re not qualified. This is only an
overview.
The third prong on an outlet is
referred to as the ‘ground’, and it provides an alternate
path for electricity that may stray from an appliance or
product. This is an important safety feature that has
been required since 1962, which minimizes the risk of
electric shock, and allows surge protectors to protect
your electrical equipment, such as televisions, computers,
stereos, and other devices.
The ideal way to upgrade to a three
prong outlet is to install a three prong outlet that has a
continuous electrical path back to the panel. If the
outlet is installed in a metal box, and that metal box has
metal conduit all the way back to the panel, this will
probably be pretty easy to do. To test this, you can use
an inexpensive pig-tail electrical tester, which is
available at any hardware store for about two dollars.
With the circuit energized, touch one end of the tester to
the hot wire, which should go to the smaller slot on the
outlet, and one end of the tester to the electrical box
(see photo below left). If the tester lights up, the box
is grounded. Now all you need to do is attach a bare
copper wire to the box, and use this as the ground wire
for a three prong outlet (see photo below right).
 
If you perform the test with a pig-tail tester and
the light doesn’t light up when you touch the hot wire to
the box, the box is not grounded (or you’re not touching a
hot wire!). In this case, you could run a ground wire
back to the panel, or you could replace your two-prong
outlet with a GFCI outlet. A GFCI outlet provides the
best possible protection against shocks, but without a
ground wire, this outlet will not provide any protection
for your electrical equipment. A surge protector plugged
in to an ungrounded outlet will do nothing. You will need
to add a sticker to the GFCI outlet that reads “No
Equipment Ground” – this sticker comes with every GFCI
outlet.
What about two-prong to three-prong
adapters? These can only be safely used on a grounded
two-prong outlet. A pig-tail tester will light up on
a grounded two-prong outlet if you touch one lead to the
smaller slot on the outlet, and the other lead to the
screw in the middle of the outlet.
If this is the case, you can safely
use a two-prong to three-prong adapter, as long as you
secure it to the outlet with the cover plate screw. Any
other use of a two-prong adapter is unsafe.
[back to top]
October
28th, 2008
Inspections, Permits, and Other
Public Property Information
While real estate web sites give the most
important information about homes for potential buyers,
there are many other free, easy to use web sites that can
give you additional information about properties. Before
I inspect houses for potential buyers, I typically do a
little research on the property so I can pay special
attention to certain areas. Here are a few of my favorite
web sites – if you love looking at properties online, or
maybe just snooping on your neighbors, bookmark these
sites.
-
Minneapolis One Stop –
Minneapolis properties have the most detailed property
information available. You can view
Minneapolis Truth in
Housing reports
performed after 2/26/07, and any open repair items. If
you’re buying a foreclosure in Minneapolis, this is a
great way to find out what repair items you’ll be
responsible for! Permit history is available for
properties going back about 20 years – at the permit
page, clicking the blue “i” will give you detailed
permit information. You can also use this site to look
up taxes, owner information, rental and business
licenses, and more.
-
Saint Paul Property
Info –
This is a great site for property information on Saint
Paul homes, but not as detailed as Minneapolis. This
site is not quite as easy to use, but you can use it to
look up permit history,
Saint Paul Truth in
Housing history, rental and animal license
history (have pets lived at this house?), and citizen
complaint information about properties, among many other
things.
-
Plymouth My Property Information – For properties in
Plymouth, you can view permit details, appraisal
history, owner information, and even a photo of the
front of the home.
-
Hennepin County Property Information Search – Great
information on Hennepin County properties. This site
gives owner information, information on the last sale of
a property, and decent aerial photos (click on “View
Map”, and then on the right, click on “2) Click For
Oblique Aerials”). I frequently use this feature if I
can’t find a photo of a home I’m going to inspect and I
want to know if I need to bring my extension ladder to
get on the roof.
*One word of caution
for this site – this information is not as reliable as
information given by specific cities. I recently
inspected a home that was listed by the Realtor and by
Hennepin County as a tri-plex, but it had been illegally
converted, and would not qualify for a rental license.
The City of Minneapolis had the property listed as a
duplex, and I was told that Hennepin County just publishes
the information they’re given – their information is
not verified.
-
Zillow –
Gives a surprising amount of information about
properties whether they’re listed for sale or not. This
gives property estimates for all of the properties in
neighborhoods, which is somewhat accurate. The web site
claims to be within 20% of the sale price of 68% of
homes sold in the Minneapolis/ Saint Paul area. This
site also gives sale history, the number of bedrooms and
bathrooms, aerial photos, and Google Street Views when
available. Try looking up your own home to see how
accurate it is (or isn’t).
[back to top]
October
21st, 2008
Combustion Air
Everyone knows that oxygen is required for a fire,
right? So where does the oxygen come from for your
furnace, gas water heater, fireplace, and other
fuel-burning appliances? Typically, this is supplied
through a combustion air duct. You’ll find combustion
air ducts on all newer houses, and on many houses that
have had new furnaces or water heaters installed. While
it was once thought that these ducts were not as
necessary on older, drafty homes, newer research has
shown that these leaks are not always reliable (and they
are never desirable).
In homes that have bathroom exhaust fans and kitchen
exhaust fans, especially the downdraft type, it is
especially important to have a combustion air duct
installed. While combustion air ducts are not really
intended to provide make-up air for exhaust fans, this
is really what they end up doing, in addition to
replacing the air that gets used by the fuel-burning
appliances. While it’s beyond the scope of this blog to
get in to the specifics of how these are all
inter-related, there are a couple of simple, but very
important things to do as a homeowner.
- Don’t block the duct opening. This is the
easiest, most obvious thing that you can do (or not
do?). The photo below shows a typical combustion air
duct, with the opening un-obstructed. You’ll feel
cold air coming out of this duct on to the floor in
the winter, but this is air that needs to come in to
the house. I’ve seen people tape the bottoms of these
ducts shut, and I’ve seen rags stuffed in to the
duct. This is very bad idea, as carbon monoxide could
be produced from lack of air. To help keep cold air
from dumping in to the house, a loop can be created at
the bottom of the duct, or a bucket placed below it,
as long as it doesn’t reduce the overall opening.
- Make sure the intake is un-obstructed. In
Minnesota, the intake is required to be located at
least 12” above grade, to help keep it clear from
snow, leaves, and other debris. If the intake is
closer than this, consider having it raised. If there
is a damper installed at the opening at the exterior,
remove it. Dampers allow air out, not in! I’ve seen
dampers installed on many homes when the vinyl siding
installers didn’t know what the opening was for, so
they installed a damper, which blocks the combustion
air opening.
- Keep the intake clean. This is something you
should check at least once a year. The intake will be
located at the exterior of your home, and looks like
the one pictured below. There should be a 1/4 steel
screen installed, which will keep larger pests from
entering in to your home. If this screen is dirty,
clean it with a wet/dry vac.
When I perform home inspections for buyers, I check
for all these things and a lot more!
[back to top]
September
30, 2008
Preparing Your Home For The Inspection
Home inspections can be a
major source of stress for people selling their
homes. If you’re selling your home and want to make
your inspection go better, the easiest and most
obvious thing to do would be to hire your own private
inspector to go through your house before the buyers
have it inspected. This is a
seller’s inspection.
If you don’t want to have this done, there are still a
few simple things you can do to make the buyer’s
inspection go better.
Change your
furnace filter. This is the simplest
no-brainer. When I inspect a house and find a nasty
furnace filter, I’ll often recommend having the
furnace and ductwork cleaned. A dirty filter also
shows a lack of maintenance and care for your home,
and can make first-time home buyers nervous.
Fix electrical
hazards. This seems like an easy one, but
it’s a very common problem that sometimes has easy
fixes. Any extension cords that are being used in lieu
of permanent wiring should be removed, and outlets
installed if necessary. The two most common places
are for garage door openers and water softeners.
Also, go through your home and look for missing cover
plates – look at outlets, light switches, and junction
boxes. Here are the most common places to find
missing cover plates:
-
The garage, especially
at the outlet for the opener
-
The kitchen – behind
the fridge, behind the stove, above the microwave,
and under the kitchen sink.
-
In the laundry room
-
Unfinished basement
areas
Fix plumbing
leaks. This should be another no-brainer,
but to be sure, go through your home and test all of
your plumbing fixtures for leaks. Repair or replace
your laundry sink faucet if it leaks around the stem
or the handles. Fill up every sink with four inches
of water, let it drain, and carefully examine the
drain lines for any leaks.
Test your garage
door opener. Place a 2x4 flat on ground and
let the overhead door close on it. If the door goes
back up, it’s working the way it should. If it
doesn’t, adjust the sensitivity settings on your
opener so it auto-reverses when it hits the 2x4. If
you can’t get this happen, replace the opener.
Warning: this test could cause damage to your opener,
and some home inspectors won’t do this test.
Check your
gutters and downspouts. Clean your gutters,
and repair any leaking joints. Make sure all of your
downspout extensions are properly connected, and make
sure they drain well away from the house – six to ten
feet is ideal.
Make everything
accessible. If your attic access is in a
closet, move whatever personal belongings you have
that would prevent access to the attic. If you have a
crawl space, make sure that area is accessible as
well. If it looks like items have been stored to
intentionally block access to an area, it raises red
flags.
[back to top]
September
23, 2008
Natural Gas Information You
Won't Hear Anywhere Else
On Sunday, September 21st,
a gas explosion demolished a vacant fourplex in north
Minneapolis. This was the second north Minneapolis home
to have this happen since March. I’ll go out on a limb
and say I’m sure both explosions were caused by natural
gas leaks, which were both the results of copper thieves
doing their thing. In both cases, neighboring residents
reported strong natural gas odors before the explosions.
Natural gas is obviously dangerous, but really, how
dangerous?
I believe that the utility
companies cater to the lowest denominator when it comes to
public service announcements about gas. I’m sure we’ve
all heard the saying; “If you smell gas, get out!” I’ve
heard the same radio commercial many times saying not to
turn on a light switch, use the phone, a computer, etc…
just leave the area immediately. I’m not going to say
this is bad advice – better safe than sorry, I’m sure, but
I’d like to share some of my experiences with natural gas.
To start, I find gas leaks in
about one out of every three houses I inspect. These
leaks are very small – sometimes so small I can’t smell
the leak unless I’m very close to the pipe. I use an
electronic gas detector to find these, and I spray the
suspected leak with a soap and water solution to verify
that it’s really a leak, and not just a false reading by
my detector. If I see little bubbles, I report it as a
minor leak, and recommend repair by a plumber. I’ve never
evacuated a house because of a leak, and I’ve never called
the gas company.
How serious are these minor
leaks? To find out, I did a little testing at my own
house. I feel like I need to preface this with Don’t Try
This At Home (there). I started my test by spraying soap
and water on a gas fitting and slowly loosening the
connection until bubbles started forming (pictured below,
left). At this point, I could barely smell gas by putting
my nose to the pipe. I held a lighter to the gas leak…
nothing. I opened the nut more and more, and was finally
able to get a small blue flame about half the size of the
flame on my lighter. At this point, I could faintly smell
it from a few feet away, and got a bubble about two inches
wide (pictured below, right).
With this much gas coming
out, about half of what a cigarette lighter would emit, I
would recommend immediate repair and would also notify the
owner of the leak so they could get it fixed right away.
For the smaller leaks that are barely noticeable, I note
them in my inspection reports and recommend repair, but I
don’t consider them an imminent safety hazard. So there,
I said it; not all gas leaks are hazardous. If you walk
in to a room and smell gas, that’s a problem, and you
should heed the gas company’s advice.
[back to top]
September
16,
2008
Townhouse Inspections
If you’re buying a townhouse,
have the common areas inspected; not just the inside of
the home. We always quote the same price to inspect a
townhouse as a single family home, because we inspect
townhouses the same way; the roof, siding, windows…
everything on the outside. Some people feel that these
items don’t need to be looked at because they’re covered
by the association, but these are well worth having
inspected, regardless of whether they’re covered or not.
The most obvious and logical
reason to have the common areas at a townhouse inspected
is to make sure you know what you’re buying. Customers
frequently think the common areas, such as the roof, don’t
need inspection on a townhouse because it’s not their
responsibility. What happens if the roof starts leaking
and causes a big stain on your ceiling? The association
will likely be responsible for repairing or replacing the
roof, but who takes care of the water damage in your
unit? Even if you don’t end up spending a dime on the
repairs, just the amount of time you could spend dealing
with these types of repairs would make it well worth your
while to have the common areas on a townhouse inspected.
Another great reason to have
the common areas inspected is because the association may
not be aware of problems, and may not have repairs in the
budget. If an association is budgeting to replace the
roofs 10 years from now, but there’s only two years left
on the roofs, who pays for it? The owners, of course.
These are what assessments are all about! I was once a
member of an association where we had several assessments
in one year, the largest of which was a $1200.00
assessment to replace the failing driveways. The extra
money you pay to have these items inspected is a wise
investment.
If one of our customers
specifically doesn’t want the common areas inspected,
we’ll skip them and typically charge $75.00 - $100.00 less
for the inspection, but we strongly advise against this.
In the long run, this fee is a drop in the bucket compared
to the repair costs that just one failed component could
cost. Below are some photos of a few costly repairs I’ve
identified at townhouses just within the last year. As
you look through these photos, just ask yourself if the
association is aware of these issues, and has a budget to
repair or replace these items. The answer is often no.
-
 
We all have that meticulous
neighbor that gets out the fancy air conditioner cover
in the fall and wraps up the compressor unit on their
air conditioner. Is this really necessary? The people
that sell covers would certainly like you to think so,
but the manufacturers of AC units don’t agree (so
neither do I).
What’s the reasoning behind
installing an AC cover? According to one manufacturer,
“Our AC cover protects from dirt, hail, snow, ice,
nesting animals, moisture, bitter cold and harsh
sunlight.” News flash: the compressors for AC units can
only be installed outdoors, and they are designed
to be outdoors all year round! They are designed to
hold up to snow, bitter cold, harsh sunlight, etc. I’ve
personally never seen a nesting animal in an AC unit,
and hail only comes with thunderstorms, which we don’t
have in the winter in Minnesota!
Some of the largest
manufacturers of air conditioners, such as
Rheem
and
Lennox,
specifically say their units shouldn’t be covered. The
covers can trap moisture, which can cause damage to the
unit. When the fan on an AC unit is running, air will
be sucked in on all sides of the unit, and this is when
most dirt and dust accumulates. When the unit is just
sitting dormant, outdoor contaminants don’t get sucked
in.
If you want to keep leaves
and other debris out of your air conditioner during the
fall, I suggest putting a piece of plywood on top of the
compressor. This will keep debris from falling in to
the top of the unit, but certainly won’t trap moisture.
If you want something that looks a little nicer, install
a very short cover.
Lead isn't something to be
afraid of, but rather something to be aware
of. When people call asking about lead testing in
Minneapolis or Saint Paul, I usually end up talking them
out of it. I tell my clients that if their house was
built before 1960, it's almost a guarantee that the
paint in the house has lead. If the house was built
before 1978, there's a 3-in-4 chance it has lead. Lead
stopped being used in paint in 1978.
Lead is primarily a concern
for fetuses and young children. Elevated blood lead
levels in children will lead to lower IQs, shorter
attention spans, and developmental delays, among other
things. Children are more prone to lead exposure
because they spend about half their waking hours with
their hands in their mouth (I have a 9 month old, and
consider this to be a very conservative estimate).
Toddlers touch everything and put everything in their
mouth, so a child playing on a floor with lead dust is
at high risk for lead poisoning. Window sills are also
a great place for children to chew while peering out the
window.
To keep children safe from
lead poisoning or elevated blood lead levels, here are
some tips:
-
Keep a clean house. This
is the most important one. Painted double-hung
windows rub on the track every time they open and
close, and this creates dust. The EPA recommends
using powdered dishwasher detergent (which has a high
phosphate content) in warm water to clean floors and
windows, which are the two most common places for lead
to accumulate. Ordinary multi-purpose cleaners are
not effective at removing lead dust.
-
Do not remove old paint
yourself; if you need old paint removed, have it
tested for lead, and professionally abated if needed.
-
Try to keep your children
from playing in dirt, and especially from eating it.
Dirt can get contaminated with lead from scraping old
paint on the outside of a house. If they must play
with dirt, wash their hands after being outside.
I think parents that call
me asking about having lead tested are the same parents
that will take the necessary steps to prevent their
children from getting lead poisoning. They are
concerned parents that will wash their children's hands,
keep them from eating dirt, and keep a clean house.
This is why I don't recommend testing for lead. To be
clear, I'm not telling anyone to not test for
lead, I just don't recommend it.
If I perform a lead test
and find that the paint contains lead, I would recommend
to the client the same things I just listed above. The
EPA recommends leaving lead paint alone, or having it
professionally removed, which can be quite costly; so
much so that it typically isn't done any more. If your
home was built before 1978, assume there is lead and
take the neccessary precations.
For more detailed
information from the EPA, follow these links below.
General Information
on Lead
Reducing Lead Hazards When Remodeling Your Home
[back to top]
A defect that home inspectors
find at 49 out
of 50 houses is a missing anti-tip bracket at the range.
An anti-tip bracket is a device that is installed at the
floor below the range or on the wall behind the range to
keep it from tipping over, should a child attempt to climb
on an open oven door. Anti-tip brackets have been used on
ranges since the late 1980s, and became mandatory in
1991. This is an important safety feature, especially for
homes where small children live or visit.
To check your range to see if
an anti-tip bracket has been properly installed, either
look behind the range to see if it's there, or carefully
tip the range forward to see if a bracket keeps it from
tipping forward more than about 2”. If you don’t have an
anti-tip bracket installed, then your bracket has probably
been thrown away – I happen to know that this happens most
of the time! To obtain a replacement bracket for your
range, contact the manufacturer. Click
here
for a list of phone numbers.
[back to top]
I received a phone call
from a home seller last week complaining I killed the
deal on his house. I
inspected his home for the new buyers, and they decided
not to buy it after I inspected it because there were so
many issues identified at the inspection. The owner
called me and said that I went overboard with my
comments, and wanted to make sure I knew that it was my
fault that the buyers backed out of the deal. That call
drove me nuts.
The angry homeowner told me
that one of the items I called out was not a
problem because the building official had signed off on
the home when it was built. I actually felt my ears get
hot when he told me that – if you’ve read my blog on
New Construction
Inspections, you know that a ton of stuff gets
missed during new construction, and it’s always a good
idea to have new houses privately inspected. Even if
the home had been properly built 11 years ago,
it’s my job to tell the new buyer that houses aren’t
built this way any more because problems can occur. I
told the angry homeowner in a passionate, yet
professional manner, that just because a building
official signed off on something 11 years ago doesn’t
make it ok with me. I should have ended the call
instead of getting dragged in to a conversation about my
inspection, but I couldn’t help myself – I’m proud of my
work, and I stand behind it.
 Before
ending the call, the angry homeowner wanted to know if I
would have bought the home. That’s a loaded question
that I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. I told the
homeowner that I don’t know what his home is selling
for, what the terms of the purchase agreement are, or
what the property is appraised at. Without carefully
going over all of those things, I wouldn’t know if a
property was a good buy or not. A home inspection is
never a pass / fail, and I never give advice on whether
or not to buy a house. My job is to make sure the buyer
is making an informed decision.
The U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission estimates that in 1998, there were 15,600
fires related to clothes dryers. These fires caused 20
deaths and 370 injuries. Dryer vents are one of the items
that I most commonly find problems with when I inspect
homes, but keeping your dryer safe is usually an easy thing
to do. The two problems I find are improper installations
and lack of maintenance.
Improper installations on dryer
vents are
 rampant.
The most obvious, and possibly most common defect, is
plastic dryer vents. Plastic is not allowed for dryer
vents because lint can easily accumulate in the duct when it
sags, and plastic will not contain a fire. The flexible
foil vents are allowed, but these are little better than
plastic. Any plastic dryer vents should be considered a
potential fire hazard, and should be replaced with rigid
metal. If flexible material must be used, a maximum of
eight feet is allowed, and I recommend using flexible metal,
like the kind pictured below.
Another common installation
defect is the length of the venting. The Minnesota State
Mechanical Code states that dryer vents may be no longer
than 25 feet, and for each 90 degree turn, you subtract 5
feet. Most dryer vents make a 90 degree turn as soon as the
vent comes out of the dryer, run up to the ceiling about 8
feet, and then make another 90 degree turn at the ceiling.
This adds up to 18 feet, and the vent hasn’t even run
horizontally yet! Some dryers are designed for longer
vents, and the code allows a longer run if the dryer is made
for it, but you'll need to check your installation manual.
I find most problems with the
length of dryer vents at condos and townhouses, but I have
also come across a few interesting solutions recently. At a
condo in Saint Louis Park, the placard pictured below was
attached to the wall – I was very impressed! At a condo
building in Saint Paul, an inline pressure-activated fan had
been installed in the dryer vent to allow the vent to be
much longer than 25 feet.
 
The last common problem I’ll
discuss is blocked or clogged ducts. This is typically
caused by ducts made of improper material or ducts that are
too long getting clogged with lint, but can be prevented
with regular maintenance. If there is a screen cover at the
dryer exhaust (such as the one pictured below), remove it –
these are unnecessary on dryers, and they are not allowed.
I once inspected a dryer exhaust at a 20 year old townhouse
because the homeowner complained that their clothes got very
hot in the dryer, but never dried. I found about three
inches of lint packed at the exhaust because a screen was
clogging it! Clean the lint filter between each load, and
clean your dryer vent
periodically, or have the vent cleaned professionally.
Why are people scared of
fuses? Many people think that fuses are unsafe, but this
couldn’t be further from the truth. A properly installed
fuse is just as safe as a circuit breaker, but there are
many reasons why fused homes can have problems, and I’ll
discuss a few of the most common problems.
To start, how can I say that a
properly installed fuse is as safe as a circuit breaker? A
fuse will only handle the amount of amperage that it is
rated for. If a fuse is rated for 15 amps and more than 15
amps passes through the fuse, a thin strip of carefully
calibrated metal will vaporize, which opens the circuit (in
other words, kills the power). A fuse will never allow more
current to pass through than what it is rated for. Circuit
breakers are designed to trip when too much current passes
through for too long a period of time. Circuit breakers can
be reset after they trip, which is a huge advantage over
fuses, but they don’t add any level of safety.
Today, circuit breakers are
used in homes instead of fuses. The main reason is that a
circuit breaker can be re-used. Once a fuse blows, it has
to be replaced. Old electric services will have fuses, and
old electric services can have problems. This is why people
get scared of fuses. A typical 60 amp fuse box might have
one 240 volt circuit for an air conditioner or electric
range, plus four more fuses for the rest of the wiring in
the home. Compared to the minimum number of circuits
required today, this is totally insufficient.
In a new home, a kitchen will
typically have one circuit for the dishwasher, one for the
disposer, two for the countertop outlets, one for the
lights, and another for the microwave and fridge. This is a
minimal installation, and many electricians will also put
the fridge on its own circuit, and have another 240 volt
circuit for an electric range. This adds up to nine spaces
in an electric panel. The example I gave for an old 60 amp
panel only has six spaces available for the entire house!
With today’s demand for
electricity, old services are usually inadequate. To make
up for this, occupants will often use fuses that are too
large for the wires, which will keep fuses from blowing, but
also creates a fire hazard. The photo below shows a wire
that is only rated for 15 amps connected to a 30 amp fuse.
Many times, people will add
several wires on to one fuse, but each fuse is supposed to
have one wire. This is often referred to double tapping, or
double lugging. This is a very common defect for both fuse
panels and breaker panels, but the repair is usually quite
simple at a breaker panel; not so for an overloaded fuse
panel. The diagram below illustrates this.
A typical service upgrade from
a fuse panel to a breaker panel will cost about $1500.00.
The price will continue to go up if new circuits are added
to the home. A good home inspection will identify immediate
defects or hazards with a fused electric service, but will
not determine whether the service is adequate for the new
owners needs. The bottom line is that there is nothing
inherently wrong with fuses, but we do find problems with
the wiring in most fused services.
[back to top]
Carbon monoxide alarms have
been required in new homes in Minnesota since January
2007, and will be required in existing single family
homes beginning August 1st, 2008. The alarms
will need to be installed within ten feet of every room
lawfully used for sleeping purposes. "Installed” means
hardwired, plugged in to an outlet, or attached to the
wall if battery operated.
This will be enforced much
the same way that smoke detector requirements are
enforced today in Minnesota. If work is being done at a
home with a permit, the building official will make sure
that carbon monoxide alarms have been installed where
required. As of the date of this posting, the city of
South Saint Paul is the only city that enforces carbon
monoxide alarms as part of their
Truth-in-Housing program, but I expect other cities
to start enforcing this soon. This city of Minneapolis
will only require evaluators to comment on the presence
or absence of carbon monoxide alarms – this will not be
a repair item if missing.
To keep current with
today’s requirements and to keep your home safe, I
recommend upgrading to today’s standards. I just
installed two carbon monoxide alarms in my home this
weekend, and it was quite easy. I have hardwired,
interconnected smoke detectors throughout my home, so I
replaced two of the hardwired smoke detectors with
combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Of all
the ways to install a carbon monoxide alarm, this is the
most difficult, but it only takes about 15 minutes.
Update to Minneapolis Truth-in-Housing Guidelines, as
of 9/17/08: Minneapolis will require smoke alarms
as part of their program beginning 9/22/08.
Missing CO alarms will be a repair item.
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