Connecticut Home Inspection Blog

Rings are all around us and quite a few have some meaning. The most common and obvious is the wedding and for the ladies engagement rings. Then there's the mood ring (remember those), the decoder ring, the brass ring, Lord of the Rings and on...

Sometimes there's hidden meaning in a ring, but you have to know the code to hear what it has to say.

Take for example the rusty ring around the top of this water heater. Sure doesn't look all that mysterious. But it has a story to tell if you know how to read the ring.

What the ring tells is there are combustion gases that are meant to go up the chimney instead coming back out the flue and into the house. This is bad because those gases contain carbon monoxide. The combustion gases contain a small amount of slightly acidic water which is why the copper pipes patina, and the water heater jacket rusts.

What this ring says is DANGER, but only if you know it's meaning.

James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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That may seem like a rude title to some, but it does describe what goes on in a home naturally. Air moves in and out of a home constantly. The movement of air is driven by mechanical devices such as fans or furnaces or naturally occurring phenomenon such as thermal convection.

Some air infiltration into the home is a good thing, but as Newton said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So what comes in must push some thing out. You can't dispute physics.

What's undesirable is too much air infiltration. The air that makes its way into the home is unconditioned which then causes a more rapid cooling or warming of the interior. That of course triggers the heating or cooling system to operate more often and that means more money spent by the home owner to be comfortable.

The other side effect of excessive air infiltration is discomfort from drafts. Drafts are one of the most common complaints of home owners with regard to energy efficiency and over all comfort.

These two photos show what is in my experience extreme air ex-filtration into the attic of this home. Notice the dirt on the insulation around where the wires come through the wood framing in the first photo. In the second photo directly to right of where the pipe pops through the insulation a similar streak of dirt can be seen. Around the attic scuttle entry was many time worse.

I believe the reason for this much air being sucked into the attic was the unique design of the home. The home was a combination of old and new construction. The basement ceiling was un-insulated and a large part of one wall was an old wooden garage door. In the original living space above the exterior walls were not insulated while the new second floor was very well insulated.

So the upper floor retains heat extremely well while the lower areas cool fairly rapidly. All that warm second floor air is very attractive to the lower house cool air. The second floor air is pulling the lower house air up to the second floor and eventually into the attic through the holes in the ceiling.

Sealing the holes and gaps through out the house and then insulating the old walls and floors should alleviate this suction effect to the attic. Once done the home owners should see an appreciable savings in their utility bills.

The next time you hear someone say; "that house sucks," it may indeed be a correct observation.

James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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You know the old saying; what you don't know can't hurt you. That logic is completely ludicrous. History is full of unknowns that have sickened or killed countless people because of ignorance. The use of lead and asbestos in buildings is a good example. Using these materials was done out of a lack of knowledge for the eventual consequences. Nothing bad occurred to anyone right away, it often took many years for an illness to manifest itself in an individual.

Let me take this in a slightly different direction. As a home inspector one of the most common added structures I see to a home is a deck. They are by far one of the most incorrectly built structures I find. Why? Because I believe most everyone assumes it is an easy structure to build. That includes professionals as well as homeowners.

I recently found a deck, actually two decks, and an addition with several serious structural flaws. In the picture at right is a deck attached to an elevated addition or more accurately an enclosed deck.

The yellow arrow is showing where a joist hanger would be expected to be installed. Not one was found along the entire length of this ledger. The joists instead were toe nailed to the board. This method does not prevent lateral withdrawal and is not a strong attachment.

The pink arrows indicate missing brackets for the support pier. Piers must be attached to the structure in such a way as to prevent lateral and vertical movement. The pier next to this one was beginning to defect at the base toward the addition.

The ledger board for the deck was attached to the addition structure with nails only. Ledgers should be attached to a structure using large bolts. Nails will rust and eventually fail.

There were several other issues found with these two structures, but for the sake of brevity I will save those for another blog.

Whether these errors were made out of ignorance, cheapness, laziness or a combination of all three is impossible to say. In fact some of these "errors" may have been acceptable building practices at the time of construction. There are many variables as to why to be entertained.

The bottom line is these two structures are unsafely built and some are beginning to fail. They require repair now, not later.

As simple as decks seem, there is much more to building a safe and lasting structure than there appears on the surface. A resource for good deck building practices and information can be found on the Simpson Strong Tie web site.

So you see what I don't know can very certainly hurt you.

James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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The difference between these long cylindrical objects may appear to be a matter of semantics, but when it comes to electricity they are clearly defined.

A pipe is a tube, meaning it is hollow, used to transport liquid or gas. A rod would be solid and has many uses including an electrical ground.

Just to confuse things a pipe can be used for a main electric ground and they often were and still are today. Most everyone is familiar with the ground wire on the main water pipe from the street. But that can not be the only ground today. There should be a second ground on the system. In the case of a home with a well that pipe is often plastic. Plastic is not a conductor of electricity so an alternative is required.

In the photo the ground pipe pictured is for a home with a well. The electric service had been up dated fairly recently, but not the grounding. Or at least it looked as if a cursory attempt was made to "update" the ground.

On the exterior a rod is required, not a pipe. It must be driven into the ground eight feet (tell me how you check that!).  The yellow arrow is pointing to a rod right next to this pipe that would be a good candidate for a ground.

The red arrow is showing the ground wire that goes back to the main electric panel. This wire is supposed to be in direct contact with the rod. The problem here is the "electrician" used an electrical pipe clamp and the wire is not contacting the pipe.

Following the wire back to the main panel it was discovered the wire itself was significantly undersized. In addition there was only one ground wire. This newer system was render basically unsafe by the grounding being improperly and inadequately updated.

Fortunately this problem can be fixed fairly easily and inexpensively by a qualified electrician. So remember just because something looks newer doesn't necessarily mean it's right or safe.

James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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