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13 Ways To
Date A Home
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Here are
some interesting ways to date a house
— just in case you don’t know when it
was built.
1. Toilet
Tank Check. A
toilet tank or lid
sometimes has a date stamp. A
toilet without a date stamp means that
it was probably manufactured after
1990.
2. Sink Investigation. By
checking the underside of
bath, kitchen, and laundry
sinks you can find raised numbers
on iron fixtures that indicate the
date or they may have white-stenciled numbers
on their bottoms that indicate the date.
3. Gas Shut-off Valves. Look
for the gas shut-off
valves of water heaters and furnaces for
the original municipal inspection tag. If
it’s still there, it should have a date, often handwritten,
with the approval date for gas
meter installation.
4. Breaker Box Look
for dates on labels of the
electric breaker box. If the UL symbol is on
this tag, immediately below it is the month
and year of UL’s approval, usually a date
within 5 years prior to installation.
5. Water Heater. Most
water heater labels note
the date of manufacture. Some water heaters,
however, note when its warranty expires.
Remember, yellow energy efficiency stickers
first for the SRV or TPR valve became
mandatory about 1970.
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6.
Heating and Cooling Units. Most
furnace and
air-conditioning units’ manufacture date is
on an attached label.
7. Sliding Glass Doors. A
home was built prior to
1960 if sliding glass doors are not tempered
glass.
8. Rafter Reference. Manufactured
trusses became popular in
the late 1960’s. Rafters with center-to-center measurements
that exceed 24 inches suggest a
home was built before
1960. Full 2 x 4 rafters, also known as rough-hewn, often
exceed 24- inch centers and were common prior to 1945.
9. Firebrick Space Spalling. Usually
indicates 40 plus years. No
damper usually indicates
the fireplace was built prior to 1940.
continued on page 2...
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Alban is proud to offer FREE Continuing
Education Courses in Real Estate Offices!Call Melissa For
Information and to Schedule at 301-404-8104 or
301-607-8114. | |
From the desk of . . .
Arthur S.
Lazerow
Radio Host!
I am
having more fun this year than anyone is entitled.
My inspection schedule has been busy, on track
to perform 500 to 600 inspections of all types during
2004, plus 50-60 continuing ed. courses for Realtors.
Beginning a year ago, I began writing a monthly
column for the Frederick County Association
of Realtors newsletter on home inspection
topics. And I can now count on my fingers
the number of months until I celebrate my 60th
birthday.
My responsibilities with the American Society of Home
Inspectors (ASHI) are growing. I am on the Board
of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC-ASHI)
and on the ASHI national Public Relations Committee.
Co-Host on WMET 1160 AM Intelligent Radio Real Estate
Today! Saturdays 10 to 11 AM
The good folks at WMET 1160 AM invited me to develop
a real estate related hour-long show for Saturday mornings,
a perfect time for listeners who are planning
their weekend household activities, thinking about
house hunting or on the way to a home center.
Donna Evers, Broker of Evers and Company in
Chevy Chase, graciously agreed to Co-Host the show,
Real Estate Today.
We are a month into live broadcasts
and the WMET signal is scheduled to soon
increase to 50,000 watts, making it only one of four
radio stations in our area with an AM signal that
can reach from Richmond to Baltimore. The show
is fast paced and packed with real estate/home inspection
information. Listen each Saturday as I publicly
crash and burn and have fun doing so.
Gazette Newspaper Column.
Finally, the weekly Gazette newspapers asked me to author
a monthly article focused on home inspection, home
maintenance, and current environmental issues.
Read Ask Mr. Home Inspector in
the Real Estate section the last
two weeks of each month, depending on
locality.
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