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May 2004
By: Arthur S. Lazerow
Ask Mr. Home Inspector
Unusual Inspection Findings
Question: Clarence
R. from Frederick writes: ÒI enjoyed your articles the last
two months explaining the scope and limitations of home inspections. You
must see some pretty unusual conditions in the home you inspect. Could
you recount some of these for me?Ó
Answer: Clarence, grab a cup of coffee and
wind me up; IÕll spout off for hours describing the strange
things I have observed during ten years of home inspecting. After
5,000 homes, I have at least 10 chapters of my memoirs ready
for publication! Here
are some of my favorite stories. Perhaps
you will understand that the rule of unintended consequences is
alive and well in peopleÕs homes.
Get
Ready for Inspection. The
seller of a townhouse in Damascus forgot to tell her six
year old son to go play outside, so he though it would be
really neat to follow my client and me around during the
inspection. But
when reality finally sunk in that he would be moving elsewhere
and my client would be purchasing his house, he climbed into
his pet dogÕs metal crate, hugged his dog tightly and whimpered
away until we left.
Vent
the Clothes Dryer. Original
construction of a lovely home in Bethesda had the gas boiler
flue pipe installed into the masonry chimney in the basement
with the gas-fired water heater flue inserted properly above
the boiler flue. The
homeowner needed to do something with his clothes dryer vent
pipe. Since
the chimney vents up and out, he cut a third opening in the
chimney above the water heater flue pipe and cemented in
the dryer vent pipe securely. Seemed
like a good idea a the time, until I explained that depositing
all of the moisture from drying clothes in the chimney, in
combination with the hydrocarbons that are combustion products,
turns the moisture into acid. The
acid then deteriorates the inners of the chimney, which then
requires a $2,500 flue liner. Oops!
High
Efficiency Gas Furnaces. Wonderful
appliances those 90% plus efficient gas furnaces. They
extract so much heat from the combustion process that the
remaining flue gases are relatively cool. So
cool, in fact, that the moisture condenses out, combines
with the hydrocarbons and becomes acidic. The
required flue, therefore, is PVC piping to control the acid. No
problem, but when the old gas furnace was abandoned, out
came the flue pipe from the masonry chimney, leaving only
the gas water heater flue. Now comes winter operation and, with less heat due to no furnace
gases, the masonry chimney does not warm adequately. This causes condensation to form on the inner walls of the
masonry chimney. Again,
with the hydrocarbons floating around, acid forms and eats
away the inner structure of the masonry chimney. Another
$2,500 flue liner is needed.
Water,
Water Everywhere. Best
place to build a home in Libertytown Maryland is on top of
a spring. That
way the water bubbles up into the basement. Solution:
take a concrete saw, cut a trench into the concrete slab
and let the water run continuously overland to an open storm
drain pipe in the basement at the other end. The
owners should not have been surprised that the high humidity
levels in that basement supported both mold and termite activity.
Bulging
Exterior Walls. Same
house in Libertytown, which is a civil war era beauty with
magnificent stone exterior walls. The problem was that the stone walls were bulging and at risk
of collapse. Someone
in the chain of ownership decided that an appropriate repair
was to insert iron straps through the exterior wall, securing
one end to the stonework outside and the other end to the
flooring inside. Unfortunately,
the carpenters screwed the interior ends into the finish
floor, so as the wall continued to move, it pulled the floorboards
with them. At
this point, my clients were overwhelmed and bolted.
Water
and Electricity Do Not Mix Well. This
was not my inspection, but I have a picture of an old-time
main electric fuse box inside a basement shower enclosure. That
way granny can take her shower and change the fuses at the
same time. I
did find in Frederick, Maryland, however, an electric panel
box directly over the bathroom lavatory. This
is considered too close to water.
One
moreÉWater Runs Down Hill, Including Toilet Water. I
am the official home inspector for a local jurisdictionÕs
housing department and perform final inspections of homes
they renovate and sell to moderate-income local citizens. About
a year ago, in a dirt cellar, something looked amiss. When
I put my level on the sewer pipe running horizontally toward
the house drainpipe to exit the home, the level showed that
the sewer pipe was pitched away from the exit pipe, not towards
it. WorldÕs
largest waste trap, six feet of sewage storage inside. I
took a picture of that one!
Well
Clarence, enough for today? There
is never a dull moment as a home inspector. I
see deficiencies such as reversed polarity, deterioration due
to galvanic action from two dissimilar metals touching, leaking
pipes, electric switch and outlet boxes with no covers, double
tapped breakers in electric panel boxes, reverse grades outside,
brick veneer walls with no weep holes and inoperable ground
fault circuit breakers almost everyday. As
a homeowner, you should take an hour, walk around your home
and perform a self-home-inspection. Thanks
for your interesting question.
Tip of the Month: Air Conditioning season
is here! If
you have not changed your air handler filter recently,
the change of season should remind you to do so. The
one-inch thick paper filters should be changed monthly. More
expensive filters can be changed quarterly. Change
your filters regularly and you will do less dusting. Also, the coil stays cleaner, which promotes efficiency and
saves on cost of operation.
Have a question relating to a housing problem? Email it to
aslaz@erols.com. Each question will be answered and some will
be included in this column.
Arthur Lazerow, president of Alban Home Inspection Service,
Inc., was a homebuilder for 25 years and is now a nationally
certified ASHI home inspector, having performed more than 5,000
inspections during the past 10 years. He can be heard every
Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. as co-host of Real Estate Today
on WMET 1160 AM.
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