Nebraska Inspections

What are you buying?

2011-11-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Part 1: Everything is not okay

There's a lot of things you don't get to know before signing a contract to purchase a house—as a buyer, you don't get much information about the electrical system (did the seller actually know what he was doing on that DIY work, or did he just grunt and claim to know?), the plumbing (are there roots in the sewer line, or is the sewer line broken?), the heating and air conditioning system (why is the carbon monoxide detector beeping?), or many of the other systems which make up a house

Simply put, a buyer cannot not sign a contract to purchase a house—a buyer can only sign a contract to purchase what he or she believes a house to be. If the buyer believes that all of the systems of a house are in good condition—and bids accordingly—then the buyer deserves to know if the house actually is what he or she believes it to be. There's a lot of money on the line.

That's not the same as “making sure that everything is okay.” Not even close. Making sure that everything is okay requires that everything is okay to begin with, and even then there's still a catch: the definition of “okay” varies from one person to another. A buyer's definition of “okay” is almost always higher than that of anyone else involved in a real estate transaction, and that's why inspections are an important part of real estate transactions. Whether everyone else in the transaction is honest, a crook, or simply ignorant of their merchandise, the satisfaction of the buyer should be the goal of every real estate transaction, and an inspection can go a long way towards ensuring that satisfaction.

Everything is not okay, but that's okay

2011-11-07T02:29:00.000-08:00

As a buyer in a real estate transaction, why is it important to have an inspection?

The answer is not “to make sure everything is okay.” In all of the homes I've looked at, not once has everything been okay. Not in the half-million dollar homes, not in the $50,000 homes.

In a perfect world, an inspector's job would be to confirm that everything is okay—that is, to confirm that the contractor of this new house installed everything properly, or to confirm that the seller of this old house maintained everything properly. I would like to live in that world.

But I don't.

Since this is the internet, let's start this discussion with a black-and-white example: would you bid $100,000 on a house that needs $10,000 in roof work that you don't know about? You would, but only because of what you don't know. If you knew that it needed $10,000 in roof work, wouldn't you bid $90,000? Would you even consider buying it at all?

In many cases, you don't get to know all about the roof's condition before signing a contract to purchase a house. The seller may tell you that the shingles were installed last year, but do you know if they were installed properly? Do you know if last month's hail storm did any damage? Do you know if there are any manufacture defects which could cause insursability issues?

And that's just the roof.

Part 2: What are you buying?

Then and now

2011-10-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy, so the blog slowed down. Time to get things going again with a short picture post, which shows part of why things have been busy.

10/6/2010:

10/9/2011:

Deep stuff. More later, inquiring minds!

Chimney removal

2011-09-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Steve Nordheus, the City of Norfolk's structural inspector, knows the road between his office and my house quite well. The fact that the two are only separated by five blocks doesn't hurt, but he's been here quite a few times.

The first time he came out, Steve commented on the chimney in my house. The house is a bungalow design—basically a square, prior to multiple additions. The chimney runs up through the center of that square, which determined the location of all of the walls—and, consequently, the doors—in the house. The wall which divides the bedrooms (north) from the living and dining rooms (south) is off-center because it was built next to the chimney. The wall which used to divide the living room (east) from the dining room (west) was built on the west side of the chimney, resulting in a slightly larger living room space.

However, the chimney was no longer in use. I was going to be installing electric appliances (heat pump, water heater, etc.), so there was no longer a need to have a way to evacuate exhaust from gas appliances. Even if I had decided to go with a gas furnace or water heater, there are high-efficiency units which exhaust via PVC piping directly through the walls or roof of a home, and I probably would have gone with those. So...what to do with that chimney?

You can probably guess where this is going.

Steve recommended something I've recommended to my clients in several cases--removing the chimney altogether. He's seen chimneys in older homes fall over due to houses settling unevenly over time and deteriorating bricks and mortar in the chimneys themselves, among other causes—so why keep the risk if the chimney isn't needed? So that's what my wife and I did—we took the chimney down, all the way to the basement floor.

The old chimney, as it sits today.

The chimney came down pretty easily--almost scarily easy. I didn't even have to use a hammer to separate the bricks above the roof. In the house, the mortar was crumbling in places. In other words...it was a good move to remove the chimney.

Truth in pictures

2011-09-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

It's true.

Rotted sill plates?

2011-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is one of the things I try to help people avoid—replacing rotted sill plates (the board with the nails is a temporary replacement). Not a fun job!

Don't like code requirements?

2011-09-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Part 1: Deal chippers

Part 2: Acceptable vs. wrong

Now for part 3. From Alan Pickrel, Building and Electrical Inspector for the City of Columbus Building and Development Department:

As far as the ice shield, we don't enforce it—the builder's association went before the city council and got it opted out. However it is a strong recommendation to [install] it from the building department. It's just that they took that part out of the code.

Fantastic—the builders are determining code now. Nothing new, but what's the point of setting regulations if those regulations can be modified by those whose actions are subject to the regulations? Let's try that with DUI laws and see what happens.

In the installation instructions for their shingles, Certainteed and Tamko call for the installation of ice and water barrier. GAF and Owens Corning highly recommend it—possibly because they manufacture their own ice and water barrier products, but certainly because it results in a superior roof system. Unfortunately, many roofers don't appear to care about producing superior results.

Acceptable vs. wrong: the difference and relevance

2011-08-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

The question: as an inspector who is looking at a new house, you encounter a roof which is installed in the following order: sheathing, tar paper, drip edge, shingles. (The correct order is sheathing, drip edge, tar paper, shingles). What do you say?

The real answer: why did the professional roofer not install ice and water barrier? And if a professional roofer wouldn't use ice and water barrier, then why would you want a professional roofer doing your roof inspections?

Anyone?

Ice and water barrier is a self-adhering underlayment which is required by the 2006 International Residential Code, which is used by the City of Columbus for defining code requirements. According to the 2006 IRC: In areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water (anywhere in Nebraska) an ice barrier that consists of at least two layers of underlayment cemented together or a self-adhering polymer modified bitumen sheet, shall be used in lieu of normal roof surfaces to a point 24 inches inside the exterior wall line of the building.

So now we're dealing with a new house that wasn't built to code specifications. I don't inspect for code, but I do inspect for proper installation. Proper installation—according to just about any shingle manufacturer nowadays—calls for the installation of ice and water barrier.

If the roofer had used ice and water barrier, then he wouldn't have had to rely on the drip edge to hold anything in place. Ice and water barrier has a pretty tenacious adhesive on it, which allows it to stick to wood, OSB, and—above all—metal drip edges. It doesn't blow off. When I was working on my roof last year, I installed ice and water barrier on a low-slope area of my home's roof and then went to Las Vegas for a week. According to my neighbor, we had some pretty exciting weather that week. When I got home, the ice and water barrier was still there.

To answer the question of why the roofer didn't install an ice and water barrier, there are a number of possible reasons. Maybe the roofer didn't know about ice and water barrier requirements. Maybe the roofer had never heard of the product. Maybe the roofer would brush off the question with a gruff “I know what I'm doing, I've always done it this way.” Since ice and water barrier costs more than tar paper, maybe the roofer thought he could save a few bucks by not using it—a reason which begs questions of the ethical variety. In any case, is anyone going to ask the roofer, or is it the inspector's fault for finding this?

Regardless of the reason, this is just one example of an area where education is needed. People seem to have the idea that new homes are perfect because they are new—an idea which is guaranteed to bring disappointment. It's not a case of new+house=perfect, because "new" is generally based on a number and a house is an object. What's two plus tree equal? Go ahead and type that into your calculator if you can't do it in your head. I'll wait. What does your calculator say? If it could, it would tell you that the two are not directly related.

New homes are not perfect for a number of reasons, but—on a personal level—I think it those reasons can be summed up in one phrase: no one cares about your possessions as much as you do. If you were building your own home, wouldn't you want to make sure you did everything correctly? You would. There wouldn't be any rationalization of any improper installations, such as installing the drip edge over the tar paper because it keeps the tar paper from blowing off.

The job of the drip edge is to direct water away from the sheathing. Nowhere in the drip edge's job description is there any mention of holding tar paper in place. After all, what happens when water runs down the tar paper—the roof's last defense—when the drip edge is installed over the tar paper? It runs right under the drip edge, which likely means wet sheathing. Over time, wet sheathing equals rotten sheathing. So, on your house, you would install the drip edge under the tar paper. Except...you would use ice and water barrier. For the first two rows. Tar paper wouldn't be a factor, because this is your house, and your installation is based solely on propriety.

As an inspector, I don't get to inspect that kind of house. Even if I did, time has a way of messing up even the best homes. Either way, the homes I inspect—especially the news ones—were often built for one reason: business. Fluffy mission statements aside, the sincere goal of any business is to make money. I'm in business for that reason. But can you see where this is going?

Ignorance, convenience, and stubborn attitudes are often acceptable reasons for actions in a business—as long as (not “if”) those actions result in a better bottom line. Some places call it "office politics," others call it something else. It's not necessarily malicious, but the end result is always a less-than-perfect product.

If you want a perfect home, here's the easiest way to do that: hire a bad property inspector who says everything is great, believe him, live in the home for a few days, and then sell the home before any problems pop up. That's the only way. Even if the home is perfect, the passage of time will eventually bring about a day when you'll be staring a problem right in the face. And if the home wasn't built correctly, that day will simply arrive sooner.

Which brings us back to the answer to the original question: why didn't the roofer install ice and water barrier, which would have allowed him to (properly) install the drip edge under the underlayment? It doesn't matter. The end result is that he didn't use ice and water barrier. The end result is an improper installation—regardless of context, since that's not what we're addressing here. What we're addressing here is the use of contractors and tradesmen when it comes to home inspections. Want to know how everyone else does it, or hear one guy's version of what he considers to be “acceptable practice?” Or do you want an inspection which lays out the correct ways to install the many systems that make up a house? If the latter is what you're looking for, then hire an inspector. And if you want one who keeps it in context, then contact Nebraska Inspections today!

Dealing with deal chippers

2011-08-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I was visiting with the Realtors at Century 21 Realty in Columbus, NE. Valid questions were asked. Among them (paraphrased):

We had a case where a deal was broken by an inspector due to a roofing issue. The inspector said that the proper order for installing a roof should go sheathing, then drip edge, then tar paper/felt, and then shingles—point being, the drip edge should go under the tar paper.

I agree with his assessment.

The roofer of the house (which was a new house) in question had installed the roof with the drip edge over the tar paper—the order went sheathing, tar paper, drip edge, shingles. The inspector said that this was the wrong way to install the roof, but the roofer (accurately) said that all of the roofers in the area install it in this order because the wind would rip the tar paper off of the roof if the drip edge wasn't installed over the lower edge of the paper.

I understand what they are saying—we live in a windy state.

What would you do in that situation? (Translation: this is where you talk fast. Carefully.)

I would note the installation as being wrong because it is wrong. I would explain why it is wrong and what the risks are. And I would try to help the client keep those risks in context.

What is that context?

It doesn't matter if you're buying a new house or an old house, a cute house or an ugly house. What all houses have in common is that they are not perfect. If flaws are all that matter to a client, then I would point out to the client that I'm going to find something wrong with the next house, too. The same goes for the house after that, because anyone who presents any house as being perfect is wrong.

I've inspected half-million dollar homes and found the same problems I see in 100-year-old homes. In the end, the client is the one who has to make the decision, and I realize its my job as an inspector to not act like every problem is the end of the world. My job is to inspect and communicate—not just inspect—because an inspector who can't communicate won't be employed for long.

What follows was not part of our conversation, but is a question for anyone who prefers to use contractors and tradesmen for their inspections:

Anyone know what the big red flag was in the above situation?

Downspout extensions done right

2011-08-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

While out walking or riding my bike, my route often takes me past a house whose owner clearly understands drainage issues. Or perhaps its a home in which the wife repeatedly told the husband that he needs to fix the downspout extension, the husband overreacts to what he feels is nagging, and thinks to himself “I'll show her, ha ha ha...” as he installs a forty foot long extension. Ha ha ha indeed—now he has to mow around it.

In any case, after inspecting house after house where the downspouts either end right at the foundation, the downspout extensions are not connected, or (worse yet) there are no gutters, it's fun to see someone taking the issue to the less-popular extreme. The further the downspout extends from the foundation, the better!

Products to avoid: attic vent covers

2011-08-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of negative talk, but one product that I have seen at a few homes during inspections always gets a mention: attic vent covers. Don't use them.

Naughty!

The theory behind these products is that trapping even a small amount of heat in the unfinished attic space will help lower one's heating bill. That theory may prove to be correct, but the downside can be far more expensive to fix: keeping heat in the attic equal keeping moisture in the attic.

Moisture condenses on colder surfaces--such as roofing nails which penetrate the roof sheathing. The moisture freezes. Then the surface warms up, the ice thaws, and the water drips onto the surface below. Repeat this process for several years, and the consequences can range from moldy insulation to rotten attic structures. The expenses of fixing these issues will far outweigh any utility bill savings that were gained from using vent covers.

Leaving the attic vents open during the winter months helps to remove the moist air. Let them do their job.

From InterNachi: Evaluating Problems with Fasteners

2011-08-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

By Nick Gromicko and Kenton Shepard

The term "fasteners" typically refers to nails, screws, bolts, and sometimes anchors. Fasteners may directly join together two pieces of material, or the material may be held together by connectors that are, in turn, held in place by fasteners. A good deal of the difficulty in evaluating fasteners is the fact that most home inspectors inspect existing structures, as opposed to homes under construction, so, by the time the inspector sees a fastener, there’s usually not much visible except its head. Certain problems affecting fasteners, such as corrosion, may be visible, but other problems may be apparent only to inspectors who understand their properties and those of the materials they join. In addition to becoming aware of visible issues, inspectors should understand some of the basics about fasteners that will help them spot less obvious problems.

There are many different types of fasteners. Let’s examine the most common types, as well as the problems they are subject to.

FASTENER TYPES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

Anchors are receptacle devices installed in very soft or very hard materials that alone wouldn’t hold or accept nails, screws or bolts well.

This photo shows a metal connector called a joist hanger held in place by fasteners,

some of which are correct for this particular connector, and some of which are not.

In designing or specifying a fastener for a particular purpose, a designer has to take into consideration:

the types and extent of the force the fastener must resist;
the properties of the materials into which the fastener will be driven;
the various environmental elements that will act upon the fastener during its lifespan; and
the fastener’s lifespan requirements.

STRUCTURAL FORCES

Fasteners are designed to resist two structural forces: withdrawal and shear.

Withdrawal

The withdrawal force is parallel to the shaft of the fastener, called the shank. If you were to grab the head of a screw or nail with a pair of pliers and try to pull it straight out, the fastener would resist withdrawal.

One method used to help improve fastener resistance to withdrawal is to deform the fastener shank. This improves withdrawal resistance by increasing the friction that has to be overcome in order to withdraw the fastener.

Shank deformation takes a number of different forms. Adding threads to a fastener shaft to form a screw is one good way to achieve resistance.

Drywall screws

#1 is a coarse-thread screw designed for use with wood studs.

#2 is a self-drilling, fine-thread screw designed for use with light-gauge steel studs.

#3 is a self-drilling, fine-thread screw designed for use with heavy-gauge steel studs.

Coarse-thread screws can be installed faster but have lower withdrawal resistance than fine-thread screws.

Screws are more resistant to withdrawal than nails, but this does not mean that they can be substituted for nails for use with structural metal connectors. Fasteners used with metal connectors must be designed for use with each specific connector and approved by the connector manufacturer because connectors have load limitations that relate to a particular fastener’s properties and limitations.

Simpson structural screw

Although there are structural screws on the market, most screws used with metal connectors are considered a defective installation. Structural screws are made from high-strength steel and heat-treated to further enhance their strength.

The SD wood screw is not approved for use with metal connectors. The structural screw is.

Head markings for Simpson screws

The structural screw in the diagram above is made by GRK. The CEE thread is designed to enlarge the hole in the uppermost of two pieces being joined so that they’ll be more tightly pulled together.

Ring-shank nail

Another method used to resist withdrawal is to roughen the nail shank by adding a series of rings. These are called ring-shank nails.

Roughened shank

Yet another method is to roughen the shank with coatings. In the photo above, compare the hot-dipped galvanized nail to the uncoated (bright) nail. Rough coatings are usually added to resist corrosion, but resistance to withdrawal is an additional advantage.

A spiral shank can also help resist withdrawal,
although it’s one of the less common types of fasteners used in building construction.

Head-shank connection

In addition to the properties of the fastener shank, the strength of the connection of the head to the shank and the thickness of the head are important in resisting withdrawal.

EXPERIMENTS

Inspectors should be aware of several experiments that have been conducted relative to withdrawal.

Gas & Wax

Before framing nails coated with vinyl became available in the mid-1970s, production framers working on large housing tracts in California found that uncoated nails took more of an effort to pound than they wanted to exert. So, to make nails easier to drive, they would toss a bar of paraffin wax onto an open 50-pound box of 16d nails, pour on a little gasoline, and touch it off with a match. The wax would melt down through the box, making the nails much easier to drive, but lowering their withdrawal resistance dramatically. It also made it easier for the framers to hold onto a wood-handled hammer in hot weather. Baby powder was occasionally poured into the open box of nails for the same purpose, but it didn’t work as well as a lubricant.

Shrunken, Roughened Shanks

In the early 1990s, in an attempt to save money, some framing contractors substituted a slightly smaller nail with a roughened shank for the industry-standard, 16d hand-driven framing nail. However, this can lead to unexpected nail pull-out during construction with disastrous and potentially dangerous results.

Both gas and wax and the smaller substitute nails were used on many homes in California and a number of other places during the ‘90s, so if you see structural failures related to nail withdrawal, including head parts that are merely glued in place to give the appearance of being nailed, one of these issues or something similar may be the source of the problem. But there are some things you just won’t be able to spot.

SHEAR

Shear force is exerted perpendicular to the shank of a fastener. Fasteners that fasten metal connectors to wood are primarily designed to resist shear, although, in many applications, there will also be some withdrawal force involved, too. That's why fasteners for connectors also have minimum length requirements. The properties important to resisting shear are the strength of the alloy from which the fastener is made, its diameter, and the strength of the connection between the fastener shank and its head.

A defective installation

The fasteners used to connect the hanger to the wall pictured above are defective because the gold deck screws used are designed to resist withdrawal when holding deck planking to floor joists. They have inadequate shear strength to support the structural roof load. Also, because the drywall does not support the shank of the screw as adequately as wood does, the shear force is increased. Imagine that instead of resting against drywall, a ½-inch gap was left between the hanger and the framing. That’s almost the case. The roof of the garage next to this one collapsed under a snow load.

A similar defect with roofing nails

SCREW FAILURE

Screws fail in one of four ways:

Failure occurs through the shank. An example of this occurs when driving screws into a hard material. Screws often snap off just below the head. Deck screws may appear to be securely in place when, in fact, the shank has snapped. Although it looks secure, the head is detached from the shank and the screw has no holding power. You might find this problem by pushing on the materials the screw is designed to join to see if they move separately.
Stripping of the screw thread is common with a hard material and soft screw. The photo above was taken with an electron microscope and shows partially stripped threads.
Stripping of the internally threaded material is common with hard screws and soft material. Consider the example depicting a screw going through a marshmallow (see below).
The driver may strip the head. Slotted and Phillips-head screws strip more easily than screws with square or star drive profiles.

Square drive

Star drive

Screws used for fastening trim have heads smaller in diameter.

FASTENER LIFESPAN

The lifespan of a fastener is related to its base material, which is usually carbon steel or one of a couple of different types of stainless steel. The type and thickness of the coating or plating will also affect the lifespan, with zinc being one of the most common coatings. The lifespan will also be affected by the properties of the materials that the fasteners are joining together and the environment in which the fastener is used.

MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Density

Dense materials provide a better anchoring substrate for resisting both withdrawal and shear.

To use an extreme example, oak holds fasteners more effectively than marshmallows.

Dense wood may need to have pilot holes pre-drilled to prevent it from splitting, especially near the ends. Dulling the end of a nail also helps prevent splitting, since the dull nail point crushes through wood fibers instead of wedging them apart as a sharp point does.

Some types of screws are designed to cut their own pilot holes.
This screw is designed to fasten wood to steel and will cut its own pilot hole through steel.

Some materials, such as plastic-based composites used for decking, vary in density according to temperature and moisture content, so fastening requirements can vary from day to day. Extreme expansion and contraction have also made fastening these materials a challenge. According to an article in the September 2007 issue of Building Products Digest magazine, there were about 750,000 decks built in 2006 using plastic composite planking.

A screw for fastening plastic-based composites

With as many as 80 manufacturers now offering composites of different formulations that are installed in widely differing climate zones, you may find decks with a large percentage of their fasteners that have spun out and have failed to hold the deck planking securely in place. Fastener manufacturers have been quick to provide solutions to these problems, and screws are now available for fastening composites used in a number of different environmental conditions.

In this illustration, you can see how the tips of various screw types are designed
to penetrate the materials that the screws were designed to fasten.

Thickness

Materials that allow a fastener to remain in contact along its full length will provide more effective anchoring than a thinner material through which most of the fastener has penetrated and is no longer in contact.

When thin materials, such as sheet metal, are joined together,
screws with fully threaded shafts are used.

When thicker materials, such as wood, are joined together, screws with a smooth section near the head allow the two pieces to be pulled tightly together.

This is a gold deck screw designed for fastening deck planking to joists.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS

Metal fasteners can lose their load-bearing capacity when exposed to corrosive environments and materials. These include:

preservative-treated wood;
ocean salt air;
fire-retardants;
fertilizers;
fumes; and
acid rain.

Part of learning the inspection profession is learning not just about common conditions that can affect fasteners, but about conditions unique to the local region where you work that may affect fasteners.

Preservative-Treated Wood

Several types of water-borne preservatives were used in the past to increase wood’s resistance to attack by wood-destroying insects and decay fungi. Each type included chemicals that corrode some metals. Chemical formulas vary by manufacturer and region, and those formulas may change without warning. The level of retention of preservatives can vary by wood species and by the method used to treat the wood. Complicating the issue even further is that the industry is still evolving. So, although fastener manufacturers make recommendations about compatibility with their products, choosing the correct fastener or confirming that the right fastener has been used can be difficult, especially if all you can see is the fastener head in the spot of a flashlight in a dark basement or crawlspace.

Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) was used for many years, but its use has declined due to the inclusion of substantial amounts of arsenic as one of the treatment chemicals. U.S. EPA regulations in place since 2004 call for pressure-treatment chemicals to be arsenic-free. Generally, hot-dipped galvanized and stainless steel are the recommended fasteners for CCA.

The next generation of wood preservatives commonly used in buildings includes alkaline copper quat (ACQ), copper azole (Types A and B), as well as SBX/DOT (sodium borate) and zinc borate (for wood composites). The formulations for these products also vary. Although they don’t contain arsenic, some types contain chemicals that are more corrosive to fasteners than CCA.

The recommended fasteners for these include hot-dipped galvanized, stainless steel, or triple-coated zinc polymer materials. Carbon steel and aluminum fasteners should be avoided. Aluminum nails are not common in building and, in general, their use is limited to fastening aluminum flashing, so watch for bright nails used with treated lumber, and comment on this if you find them.

A nail approved for used with treated lumber

Most stainless-steel fasteners are acceptable for use with pressure-treated wood. Testing has shown that Types 304 and 316 stainless steel perform well with CCA-C, ACQ-C, ACQ-D carbonate, CBA-A, and CA-B treated woods.

The large number of variables that affect the rate of corrosion of fasteners in contact with pressure-treated wood makes it impossible to provide an accurate, estimated long-term service life for these fasteners.

PROTECTIVE COATINGS

There are two basic types of corrosion-protection methods used to protect steel-based fasteners. Barrier coatings bond to the steel and serve as a shield between the steel and the corrosive elements in the environment. Sacrificial coatings often serve as a barrier coating. Additionally, because they’re lower on the anodic chart, they will corrode before steel so that even if the protective coating is damaged, exposing the steel, the sacrificial coating will corrode first, protecting the steel base metal.

Bright

Steel fasteners with no protective coating are called bright fasteners. Bright fasteners should be used in low-corrosive environments only. Even humid air will cause any exposed portions to eventually rust.

A hot-dipped galvanized hanger nail above a bright hanger nail

Galvanization

Fastener galvanization is the approved coating process most commonly used with pressure-treated lumber. Galvanization is the process of coating fasteners with zinc. The zinc coating acts as both a barrier coating, preventing corrosive agents from reaching the underlying steel base metal, and as a sacrificial coating, because zinc, as the more cathodic metal, will corrode before steel. There are several types of galvanization processes, including hot-dipped, electroplated and mechanically galvanized. The thicker the galvanized coating, the longer the expected long-term service life of the steel fastener.

Hot-dipped galvanized fasteners are used in regions where a maximum amount of protection is desired. To hot-dip galvanize steel fasteners, the steel is first cleaned, pickled, fluxed, and then dipped in a molten bath of zinc. The fasteners are allowed to cool prior to inspection and shipping. Some concrete anchors and metal connectors can also be hot-dip galvanized. Hot-dipped fasteners are manufactured to ASTM 153 standards.

Electro-galvanized fasteners are used in mild-weather conditions and in areas with low humidity. Electro-galvanization plates the nail in a zinc coating by using an electrical charge. The nails are submerged into an electrolytic solution and an electrical current coats them with a thin layer of zinc. However, after prolonged exposure to the elements, the thin layer of zinc oxidizes, leaving the fastener subject to normal rusting and staining.

A hot-dipped roofing nail is shown on the left, and an electroplated roofing nail is shown on the right.

Mechanical galvanizing is a process of providing a protective zinc coating over bare steel. The bare steel is cleaned and loaded into a tumbler containing non-metallic impact beads and zinc powder. As the tumbler is spun, the zinc powder mechanically adheres to the parts. The coating of mechanically coated nails is porous and brittle compared to electroplated and hot-dipped fasteners and is prone to flaking off.

Two zinc-coated screws

Zinc-based coatings are one of the most common. Gold deck screws are simply zinc-plated screws dyed yellow to make them look like cadmium. Cadmium screws were used in the past because of their strength, but due to cadmium's toxicity, it’s no longer used in fasteners that are typically used for building.

Vinyl-Coated Nails

A 16d vinyl-coated checker-head sinker, which is the industry standard

Framing nails manufactured today are coated with vinyl, which acts as a lubricant when the fastener is being driven. It also provides a small amount of barrier protection against corrosion. It’s a common coating on hand-driven framing nails, such as 8d and 16d sinkers.

Resin-Coated Nails

Some nails are coated with a resin that acts as a lubricant for easier driving, and also as an adhesive. Driving the nail raises the temperature of the fastener enough to liquefy the resin. Once in place, the resin hardens and acts as an adhesive, bonding the shank to the wood fibers.

Phosphate-Coated Nails

Adding a thin coat of phosphate helps resist withdrawal and also provides a small measure of resistance to corrosion.

Galvanic Corrosion

Galvanic corrosion occurs when certain dissimilar metals come into contact with each other. Two conditions must exist for galvanic corrosion to take place:

There must be two dissimilar metals present.
There must be an electrically conductive path between the two metals, such as water.

This means that fasteners used with metal connectors or flashing should be made of the same metal as the connector. For instance, using stainless steel fasteners with galvanized steel connectors will likely lead to corrosion.

Cathodic Protection

A third type of basic protection from corrosion is called cathodic protection and consists of metals highly resistant to corrosion. Stainless steel Type 304 and especially Type 316 are the industry standards for fasteners used in building construction. Type 316 is recommended for salt environments, but you won’t be able to tell just by looking.

The photos above and below show stainless steel fasteners.

Copper nails resist corrosion well and are often used with copper trim and to attach slate roof tiles.

Moisture Cycles

Many commonly used construction materials, such as wood, expand and contract with changes in moisture content. This process is called moisture cycling. Over the long term, moisture cycling causes the holes around fasteners to enlarge, and when the fasteners used are nails, they eventually loosen in their holes and increasingly protrude as moist wood expands, gripping the nails and forcing them up and out of their holes slightly. As the wood dries, the holes enlarge, and the wood shrinks away from the nails.

As this cycle is repeated, nails can be raised above the wood surface significantly. Protruding nails are a common problem on decks with wood planking. This condition is also common on metal roofs with exposed fasteners, including screws.

FASTENER SIZES

Screws are sized by number. This is a self-tapping, hex-head #10 zinc-plated screw.

Nails are sized by the “penny” shown as a “d.”
This photo shows a 16d or 16-penny vinyl-coated checker-head sinker.

MASONRY ANCHORS

Mechanical Anchors

Masonry wedge anchor

Wedge-type masonry anchors in sizes 3/8-inch, ½-inch and 5/8-inch, like those shown in the photo above, have a code stamped into the end that’s left exposed after the anchor is installed. Anchors 1½ inches are labeled A, 2-inch anchors are labeled B, 2½-inch anchors are labeled C, and so forth, with subsequent letters that correspond to length increasing by half-inch increments, as shown in the chart below.

A wedge anchor code mark

The code table

Although you may see other fasteners with codes stamped into their heads like this stainless steel screw, codes are not standardized, so don’t assume you can tell the length by using the same chart that’s used for wedge anchors.

Anchoring in cracked concrete has been a problem in the past,
but a new type of wedge anchor is available for this use.
It’s the anchor on the left in the photo above.

Other Types of Concrete Anchors

Hammer drive

T-anchor

Bear in mind that concrete anchors don’t work well in concrete masonry units (CMUs), commonly called concrete blocks, unless the cells are filled.

Testing Anchor Connections

Manufacturers of masonry anchors recommend confirming that the anchors are properly installed by testing them to the proper torque using a torque wrench. They do not recommend tapping anchor heads with hammers or tightening them with a socket wrench.

Adhesive Anchors

Adhesive anchors are usually threaded steel bar (commonly called all-thread) or re-bar that’s inserted into pre-drilled holes and held in place with an adhesive. The manufacturer’s instructions should be carefully followed for the anchors to attain their full strength. Holes should be drilled to the correct depth and diameter and then brushed and blown clean with compressed air.

Adhesive formulations can vary, resulting in widely differing performance characteristics among products with similar chemistry, including temperature-related performance. One problem with adhesive systems is known as “creep.” Some types of adhesives are designed to resist short-term loads only, such wind and seismic loads. When subjected to long-term loads, anchors will slowly pull loose.

In Boston in 2006, a portion of a suspended concrete ceiling system in a tunnel collapsed, killing one person. The adhesive anchors holding the ceiling in place, which were subjected to a long-term gravity load, pulled loose, resulting in the collapse. If you inspect structures that may have adhesive anchors under long-term loads of some type, look carefully for signs of failure. One location where you might expect to see this in residential construction is where a concrete patio or porch has been retrofit to connect to a masonry foundation. Poor soil consolidation beneath the porch or patio slab that has resulted in settling may create a load on the anchors.

Concrete anchors have two test standards for creep, including the CC-ES AC 58, with the optional creep test. The other test is ICC-ES AC 308, which requires two sample tests taken at different temperatures.

DRYWALL ANCHORS

Different types of devices are available for anchoring screws into drywall. Some of the more common ones are shown below.

BOLTS

A typical zinc-plated, hex-head bolt

Two standards exist for grading bolts: the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard is for bolt strength. The International Standards Organization (ISO) standard is for both tensile and yield strength of the bolt.

A bolt graded by the ANSI standards is identified by
the number of lines arranged around the head of the bolt.

0 lines = Grade 2 tensile strength
3 lines = Grade 5
5 lines = Grade 7
6 lines = Grade 8

A bolt graded by the ISO standard, shown in the photo below, uses two numbers on the head of the bolt. The first number indicates the tensile strength; the second number signifies the yield strength.

Most bolts used in residential building are Grade 5. Applications such as for steel wind frames may call for Grade 8 bolts, but, as an inspector, you’d need to see documentation showing that requirement. Seeking such confirmation exceeds InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice.

This is a carriage bolt. The square section beneath the head

is designed to prevent the head from spinning as the nut is tightened.

This photo shows the difference in appearance between
the head of a stainless-steel carriage bolt and a zinc carriage bolt.

This photo shows a plastic-lined lock-nut compared with a conventional hex-head nut.

LAG SCREWS

Lag screws are like heavy screws with hex heads.

FASTENER IDENTIFICATION

Nails

This is a cut nail. As an older style, they’re not used much anymore,
but you will see them used in older homes.

The photo above compares a galvanized finish nail above a stainless-steel siding nail.

Below are three views of nails commonly used for fastening metal connectors.

A masonry nail

This photo shows a TimberLok® screw designed for use
with log and timber-framed homes.

The photos above and below show structural and wood screws manufactured by GRK.

Screws designed for use in masonry are often colored blue.

NAIL GUNS & NAILS

The concern with fasteners installed with nail guns is over-driving the nails that are used to fasten structural floor, wall and roof panels made of materials such as plywood. In these cases, it’s important that the nails not be over-driven.

Over-driving nails (or driving them at an angle) reduces
the effective thickness of the panel by breaking through its veneer.

Driver-Depth Adjustment Devices

Many newer guns have driver-depth adjustment devices built into the trigger mechanism. On nail guns that lack this device, the depth of the driver may be regulated by adjusting the air pressure at the compressor. This is less accurate, since the density of wood will vary.

A newer gun with a driver-depth adjustment device

An older gun whose driver depth is regulated by air pressure

Gun Nails

Framing nails for guns typically come in strips. Here are a few examples.

Galvanized 12d

Bright, ring-shank 8d

Hot-dipped galvanized 6d

Staples

A typical staple used in framing: 16-gauge galvanized 1½ x 7/16-inch

Home inspectors should be aware that fastener manufacturers do not give lifespans for their products because they vary too much based on where the fasteners are installed in a home, the materials in which they're installed, and the local climate and environment. However, inspectors can use the information presented here to make educated judgments about the materials they inspect.

Proper fasteners for treated lumber

2011-08-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Building a deck? It's not as simple as going to the hardware store and buying a box of regular nails anymore. If you're using ACQ or AC2 treated lumber, the use of bright or uncoated fasteners can have disastrous consequences.

The copper used in the aforementioned wood treatments corrodes standard fasteners—how fast the corrosion occurs is not a given, but there is no question as to whether the treatment is corrosive.

To illustrate this, consider the following pictures. Click on each image to enlarge!

This is a 10d common nail after two weeks in untreated lumber. It looks just like it did when it came out of the box. Shiny. Pretty. What's not to like?

This is a 10d common nail after two weeks in AC2 treated lumber. Notice the corrosion on the surface. Also note that this nail wasn't driven into freshly treated lumber—which usually has an extremely high moisture content—but rather that it was driven into a dry piece of treated lumber which had been sitting outside for a year. And while we're making notes, also note that his nail wasn't left out in the rain in order to make the picture more impressive—that type of rust is more orange in color.

Multiply the corrosion over months or years, and what is the result? More corrosion, less nail, and a deck or porch that may well end up on the ground.

To sum up:

The top nail is a 10d common nail. The middle nail is a 10d common nail after two weeks in AC2 treated lumber. The bottom nail? He's your friend—a 10d hot dipped galvanized nail. He won't mind if you use him, and you'll be glad you did. Of course, stainless nails are also a good option.

Installing a wood stove: anchoring the hearth structure

2011-08-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

For the structure of my hearth, I chose what is becoming a more common material: metal studs. They're easy to work with, provide a non-combustible base and backbone for the hearth, and are pretty cheap.

To hold the studs to the walls, I located as many of the metal studs over the actual studs inside the walls. You can use a stud finder to find the studs on your walls if you need to. Unless you're sizing your hearth based on the studs in your walls, though, you won't be able to screw all of your metal studs directly to the studs inside your walls.

But that's okay, because 3M makes Command strips. Ha ha ha ha.

Mind you, the walls in this house are special: they have 1/4" OSB behind the drywall, which makes it easier to hang things without fear of having anchors pull out of the walls. Either way, though, there are several products out there which remove much of the difficulty of attaching even relatively heavy objects to a hollow wall.

To attach the metal studs which weren't located over a wall stud, I used two different types of wall anchors. First, I tried using EZ Ancor Toggle Lock anchors.

My attempts to use these were met mostly with frustration, though--the theory with these anchors is that the screw will hit a slanted metal tab on the toggle, which causes the toggle to turn so that it is perpendicular to the body of the anchor. For whatever reason, the screws kept bending the metal tabs instead of moving the toggle. Here's how that looked:

For reference, with the screw in place:

Frustrating, especially given that I'd had success with these anchors before.

Since that wasn't working, I went back to regular old toggle bolts. These standbys did the trick: drill a hole, insert the anchor screw through the metal stud you're attaching to the wall (an important step!), thread the toggle onto the screw, shove the anchor into the wall until the toggle pops out, and tighten.

Yup, the toggle is on there backwards.

When all was said and done, the metal studs provided a nice, solid platform for the wall Durock to mount to:

Click to enlarge: the metal studs with silver screws are

held in place by toggle bolts. The studs with the black
screws are attached to the wall studs.

Installing a wood stove: location in the home

2011-08-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

If you've ever subscribed to a handyman magazine only to realize after the third month of your five year subscription that every single article is going to sadistically skip over every single detail that matters to you and your situation, then this series of write ups (I'm guessing there will be four or five parts) on one specific installation of a hearth and wood stove is for you. It's already a given that you want to install hearth and wood stove, because wood stoves are awesome. Wait, did I already skip over something? Ha ha ha.

Before we go any further, I'll point out again that I'm going to be detailed about one specific installation--not all installations. Gotta manage expectations. But the details (found more in the following posts than in this one) can be applied to other installations, and it is my hope that yours is one of them.

First things first. There's one thing I really can't help you do, and that's picking your stove. What I can tell you is that my wood stove--a U.S. Stove Co. "King" 1851--cost $200 at the local Bomgaars, has served our house well for the past two years, appears to have many years left in it, and is a very easy-to-use stove. Whether you buy it online, in a store, or you're just going to follow along in your mind, your job is to pick your stove. Ready? Good.

Now that you've got your stove, the next step is to find a good place to install it. Since this installation is going to involve concrete (or your material of choice--use the comments section for questions), screws through the walls and floor, and cutting a massive hole in either the wall or ceiling and roof, it would be good to get the location right the first time. Moving an ill-placed stove is a possibility, sure--but let's walk through a few placement issues in an effort to avoid having to do so.

Most wood stoves are installed either along a wall or in a corner, and both have their ups and downs. And If you're bold enough to want a parlor stove style (middle of the room) installation, then I commend the boldness of your boldness. We'll work that into the discussion as well.

When my wife and I were deciding between the south wall in our living/dining room and the southeast corner of the living room, most of our concerns were aesthetic--that's where we'll start. Among the upsides to placing the stove along the south wall: it would be more centered in the room (and therefore the house), which (1) would help to distribute heat...wait, that's not aesthetic. Anyway, the stove would (2) provide a visual break/barrier between the dining and living portions of the room, as there isn't a wall to separate the two. And having the stove centered in the room would also (3) make the stove a more visual player in our home's personality, which we kind of liked.

But the downside to giving more weight to the stove's visual impact concerned us for resale reasons--most people, for various reasons, (1) aren't as excited about wood stoves as my wife and I are. And placing the stove in the middle of the wall meant we would be (2) restricted in terms of placement of both the living room furniture and the dining room furniture. In our case, the location of the chandelier over our dining room table was already a restriction, as we'd chosen to place it directly over the exact spot where we wanted to place our dining room table--a spot which would put the table far too close to the stove. So...resale and furniture placement nixed the wall location in our case. ~~Pub?~~ Corner?

Corner, indeed. Upsides: (1) the stove would be more out of the way, as tucking the stove into the corner of the room meant leaving the rest of the room completely open. Since the "open concept" was what we were going for when we removed the partition which separated the living room from the dining room, it made sense to leave the room as open as possible. Also, since the southeast corner of the living room happens to be the southeast corner of our house, that means that (2) the wood stove would be facing just about anything that happens in the house--and that the fire, visible through the glass window in the stove's door, would be visible from most of the house. It doesn't even have to be warm for the sight of a flame to make you feel warmer. It was for these reasons that we went with the corner location, which wasn't without downsides--but we'll get to those in a bit.

As for a truly middle-of-the-room location? Gutsy. The upside would be...appearance? The downside is that, in our house, a parlor stove style installation would have meant giving up the living room or the dining room, or it would have meant making both the living and dining rooms smaller (by placing it in the floor between the two--literally in the center of the room). Neither of these downsides seemed to be worth what I would consider to be a questionable benefit anyway, but if that's your thing, then chop away.

The downside of a corner location in our house was mainly a structural issue: our house has a hip roof. What does a hip roof have at each corner? A hip. Needless to say, I didn't want to be putting to stove pipe through the hip--too much work, too many water intrusion risks with a pipe exiting through the hip, and (what I thought would be) a funny appearance from the outside. I mean, it's a big silver rocket ship exiting the roof through one of the hips. Stupid.

The solution to this issue was a wall exit. Not good for draft reasons, but it seemed like the lesser evil at the time and has proven to work pretty well since. Conveniently, I was able to position the stove so that the pipe exited exactly between two studs. What, that doesn't work for everyone? It really doesn't have to, but it sure helps if it does. It's beneficial to the point that--if at all possible--the stove should be moved so that the pipe can go out between the studs. Otherwise, you're left installing something like the mini-headers seen in the next picture, but you'll be doing so within the confines of an enclosed wall:

Without the junction box, yes. How to? Next blog. In the meantime, pick your place, put your stove there, and enjoy some warm thoughts!

Defining highlights

2011-08-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Initially, I'm sure the near-universal reaction to our house on the selling date would have been “what a piece of ….” Some would likely use a stronger last word than others, but most would have been fairly accurate. The house was a piece.

But—like any house I've inspected—it wasn't without highlights.

The wood floors were pretty in places. Or maybe they were only pretty in one place—I remember that the floor in the southwest corner of the dining room was pretty. But it's notable that the value of the floors shouldn't have been seen as a foregone conclusion, as they are made of longleaf pine. Pine is soft. And the wood that made up the flooring throughout much of the house was pretty beat up when we purchased the house.

The floors did end up being valuable, but they were highlights regardless of their end value because highlights in real estate transactions are based on the present: when you buy a house, you buy the house in it's present shape. You're not buying some mythical future version of the house in which the old (but presently working) air conditioner fails and therefore the previous owner can be presently held responsible. If the air conditioner works, then enjoy it, live in the moment, and move on when the time comes—but not a moment sooner.

How not to dig a 48” deep trench

2011-07-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

My backyard, July 2007.

I'll never forget it. Not because I don't want to, but because I won't be allowed to. When it came time to have the new electrical service (cables/conductors) installed between the power pole and our house, my wife and I decided to bury the line rather than have it strung overhead. There was even a time when we were going to help our neighbors to the north and south have their lines buried as well, but that fell by the wayside when the electrical company told us that the house to the north would need to be changed from a 60 to a 200 amp service.

Anyway, back to the trench for our electrical service. NPPD requires that any underground service be run through a conduit (if you click, just skip to page 20), and that the conduit be installed 48” below grade. So our trench was 30 feet long, 4 feet deep, and was entirely dug by hand. We can laugh about it now, though—we're alright.

It's really not that funny. This movie, on the other hand, is.

If my memory serves me...I have no idea how long it took to dig the trench. I remember it took mere minutes to glue the PVC conduit sections together and drop them into the trench. I remember coming back to the house the next day and seeing that NPPD had approved the installation. Basically everything moved pretty quickly except for the digging of the trench.

For the most part, I've learned my lesson—rent the right tool, don't just try to make do—but sometimes I still fall back into my “it's cheaper this way” mentality. Like last summer, when my wife and I spent two days mixing 55 bags of concrete rather than having a concrete truck back up to our house. Do it right, do it once, and move on—and if that means spending more or paying someone to do something even though you think you can do yourself, do it. Don't just try to make do.

Inspector's note: it's often the “cheaper” solutions that result in deficient marks during a property inspection—usually it's a case where someone installs the wrong product, picks the right product but installs it improperly, or tries to stretch something beyond its useful lifespan in order to save even just a few bucks. What's a few bucks when the house takes seven months to sell when it comes time to move?

To this day, I still hear about my decision to dig the trench by hand. It was dumb—a trenching machine could have done the same job in hours, made less of a mess, and really wouldn't have added that much to the cost of the project. If you find yourself looking at a similar decision, take this opportunity to learn from my mistakes—after all, it's too expensive if you have to learn from your own!

Starting in the bathroom...

2011-07-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today is July 7 and the fireworks tents are coming down, but the mood at the house is far different in 2011 than it was in 2007. In July of 2007, my wife and I were still tearing out walls, wiring, and plumbing. And no, we didn't actually start in the bathroom, but sometimes you just have to go there.

The floor was rotted out under the gray pipe.

One of the most apparent problems with the house was the bathroom floor. An old plumbing vent—a pipe which, in this case, ran up through the wall which separated the bathroom from the linen closet and exited through the roof—had been disconnected from where it would have attached to the sink plumbing. How long it had been disconnected, I don't know for sure—but it had been enough time that the water (rain, melting snow, etc.), which came in through the vent, had rotted out the subfloor and joists at the base of the aforementioned wall.

Inspector's note: if I were to inspect my house today--in the condition it was in when we purchased it--I would have noted the rotten floor and the open vent pipe as the likely cause. Surprises have their places, but real estate transactions aren't one of them.

My plans were to somehow sister all of the joists which supported the bathroom floor, neatly replace the subfloor, and magically move onto the next project without making much of a mess.

My father-in-law's far more realistic plan involved a chainsaw.

Guess which plan we used?

We ended up removing every piece of wood from the floor—the subfloor, the joists, and anything touching either. The end result was a nice new floor in a lot less time, the latter of which being very important—after all, it wasn't until August of 2009 that we moved in!

Are you handy?

2011-05-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

Kathie Means, ftw. That line still gets tossed around. Four years later, I'll go ahead and say it: I'm handy. Really handy.

I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, though. I just took what I knew, applied it to what I didn't know, and hoped for the best. And while the best may be the result—the jury's still out on that one—it seems to be working out so far.

It doesn't look like this anymore.

It seemed like an awesome idea to me at the time: buy a junk house, fix it up, live there a while, sell the house, and...sell the house, and then...move to ~~Huntsville, Texas~~ ~~Cheyenne, Wyoming~~ let's face it, those last few steps are going to have to wait. It seemed like it would make a fun-to-live story, but as it turns out, the story is really more a set of individual stories strung together—stories which, looking back, aren't all that much fun to relive, and were often flat-out miserable while they were being made. Yet somehow they all end well. Kind of like getting lapped in a 400 meter dash while having your dad film the whole thing and then learning afterward that all of the other runners used steroids and that you're actually the winner. The medal is great, even though the memory isn't.

With an asking price of $15k and a sale price south of that, Kathie must have really made a killing on our house. Representing both the seller and the buyer? Boom. Take the rest of the month off. She's in three of the pictures in our “pre-purchase pictures” folder, and her expression in two of those pictures looks like a combination of concern and “I'm cold.” I remember that day. I was cold, too.

But I also knew that I had a limited income at the time. I knew that I had construction experience and that my mind would make up for what I hadn't yet done. I knew that I was about to become a husband and—hopefully, at some point—a father. And the only way I could see leveraging a limited income into a responsible way of providing for a family was to use and develop the heck out of my skills until I'd turned a junk house into something useful.

What follows in the coming weeks and/or months will be the telling of that story. It's actually pretty entertaining. Follow along as a bungalow built in 1910 becomes new again!

Risk or danger?

2011-03-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

A risk is a risk. Within the context of a property inspection, a risk is not a danger. A risk is something that has the possibility of hazard or loss. A danger is more immediate and should be treated as such.

The difference is that a risk requires action to become a danger. A house without occupants can be full of risks without being dangerous. But houses are generally built so that people can live in them. People bring action. Action converts risk to danger.

An example of a risk would be a circuit in which a 30 amp breaker is supplying a 14 gauge cable (which can safely carry 15 amps). In and of itself, that's not a dangerous thing, but it is a risk because the oversize circuit breaker is no longer protecting the wiring from carrying more amperage than the wiring can safely carry.

This risk becomes a danger when a homeowner manages to plug every appliance in his house into the circuit, thereby causing the wiring to carry more current than it can safely handle. Homes can and do burn as a result of the actions that turned this risk into a danger, which is why property inspectors “make a big deal” about such situations.

The ability to communicate the difference is what makes an effective property inspector. Property inspection is not merely a matter of finding problems. It is a matter of communicating every possible aspect of a property to the client.

Thermal fuses: Often the symptoms, rarely the problems

2011-03-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

* I would tell you not to try this at home, but that's pretty much the only place you can try it. So I will tell you to turn the power off at your circuit breaker panel if you decide to try this at home.

** Turn the power off at your circuit break panel if you decide to do this at home. If you don't, then you might as well consider this to be a manual on how to possibly kill yourself.

*** I really didn't set out to create that kind of manual, so turn the power off at your circuit breaker panel if you decide to do this.

Late last fall, I noticed that the air coming out of our heat registers was not overly heated when the auxiliary heat strip—the heat element located inside the furnace—was called for by the thermostat. When the day came that it took the furnace more than three hours to bring the house up to 70 degrees from 62, I decided it was time to figure out what was going on.

Being an inspector, my first action was to measure the air temperature as it came out of the heat registers, and to compare that reading to the temperature at the cold air return register. With the house temperature at 70, the cold air return measured right around 70. That makes sense. Unfortunately, the air gently coming out of the heat registers was only a few degrees warmer. When the heat strip was working properly, that air had previously been around 120 degrees. Obviously something was amiss.

So I went up to the attic with a few screwdrivers and wrenches. The first step was to remove the service panel cover on the furnace/air handler unit.

Six screws later, it was out of the way.

After checking a couple of connections and making sure that there was electricity where it should be, I turned off the circuit breakers in the furnace itself and in the circuit breaker panel—the breakers on the furnace are basically glorified light switches under most circumstances, and I didn't want power coming to the furnace at all. So after turning the circuit breakers off at the breaker panel, I removed the breakers in the furnace and then removed the heat strip unit.

Initially, I looked at the heater elements themselves in order to make sure they weren't broken or grounding out on anything. Somewhat disappointed to see that they were fine—as it was my theory that the heater elements might have been the problem—I then looked at the thermal fuses that are mounted at the base of each heater element. Bingo—two of the three had melted, leaving only one of the three heater elements functional.

You can see in this picture that the bottom one is still connected, whereas the top two have gaps.

Thermal fuses, like their electrical counterparts, shouldn't be replaced without figuring out the cause of their failure. They fail for a reason, and “they got tired” is almost never that reason. So while replacing the links would have given me my heat strip back, it would have been only a matter of time before I would be repeating their replacement. So it was time to investigate further: what caused the thermal links to fail?

To understand the investigation, the function of thermal fuses needs to be understood. And in order to understand that, one must understand the relationship between an electric heater element and the air it heats. The heater element heats the air as the air passes over it. What does the air do to the heater element? It cools the heater element by absorbing its heat. So what would happen if there weren't enough air passing over the heater element? Trouble—that's what would happen. The coils would keep getting hotter until they either melt and break, melt the structure that supports them, or possibly—and worse—start a fire.

Thermal fuses are a safeguard against such circumstances. Thermal fuses melt when they are subject to a temperature above a certain point—and by melting, they sever the connection between the heater coils and their supply of electricity. So if it should ever be that the amount of air moving across the heater coils is not enough to keep the from overheating, the thermal fuses melt in order to keep the heater coils from achieving potentially destructive temperatures.

So, back to me sitting in the attic, staring that the furnace. Why did the thermal fuses melt? I'm thinking it's the result of an insufficient supply of air, but what would cause that? I check the filter, which is about two months into its six-month life. The filter is pretty clean, so it goes from suspect to potential witness in my mind.

Next comes the motor in the furnace. For some reason, I glance at the sticker on the service panel cover. What a mess of numbers. Hmmm...why did the manufacturer make that chart?

I look closer. I see a column titled “HEATER KIT MODEL USED.” This looks promising. Then I notice another column, which is titled “M.S.S.” This is initially cryptic and worthless. So I dig out the installation manual for the furnace and look for anything that could shed light on the sticker's meaning. In 65 pages of text, I find one sentence which vaguely mentions different heat strip kits requiring different fan motor speed settings. Suddenly the “M.S.S.” column comes to mind—motor speed setting? Sure enough, the column under these letters contain either the letters “L” or “H.” So I look back to the manual to find out if the motor has multiple speeds.

Sure enough, it does: low, medium, and high. I find my heater kit (HKR-15C) on the chart on the service panel cover and see that it requires that the blower motor be set to “H.” Unfortunately, the furnace comes from the factory with the blower motor set to its lowest speed. Well, that's handy to know. So I find the three wires that determine the motor's speed, read in the manual that the black wire needs to supply the motor when the highest output is desired, and plug it in where the blue wire (lowest speed) once was.

Months later, the results speak for themselves. No more melted thermal fuses, the air coming from the heat registers is around 120 degrees, and all is well. So if you've got an electric furnace or a heat pump with a heat strip, and if you notice that the air isn't as warm as it once was when the heat strip is engaged, this may or may not be your problem—but if you're feeling up to the task (turning the power off at the breaker panel makes you infinitely more “up to the task”) (seriously, turn the power off at the breaker panel), it's a great place to start your investigation. After you check your filter, of course!

A good night

2011-03-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

Some nights are just good nights. A good night in my mind involves a 650 degree stove top temperature and a 720 degree stack temperature. Those numbers are usually closer to 600 and 900, respectively—not near as good in terms of heat output. 50 degrees can make an extraordinary difference on the top—like, for example, the difference between a 72 degree house and a 76 degree house on an eight degree night.

Blankets are for many things in this house: folding, putting away, pushing off, and looking at. I prefer to look at them. Looking at them implies they weren't needed in the first place, and are already folded and sitting in their proper place. Folding, putting away, and pushing off all suggest that blanket use was necessary in the first place, which begs the question: why? Is the user sick? Would 80 feel better?

One time I'm told the place got up to 90. But I wouldn't know because I was asleep at the time, and you know how these stories grow—in reality, it may have been a far more reasonable 88. Anyway, this night happened during our first year of using our wood stove—back when we would turn the act of loading the stove into a 3D version of Tetris, packing every possible inch of the stove's firebox with wood. A fun game, and winning meant getting an overnight burn and waking up to a warm house in the morning. But this was not a terribly efficient way to burn the stove, as it required choking the stove's intake to the point that the chimney would smoke and the glass in the stove's door would turn black—creosote-building time...

Nowadays we're much more conservative in our stove-loading technique. Three pieces is the magic number—the stove runs much more open, the smoke is almost non-existent between reloads, and the glass stays nice and clean. All is well, and every now and then, the efforts are rewarded with a 650+ stove top temperature. Some nights are just good nights!

Website of the week!

2011-02-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

It's good to be recognized. The International Association of Certified Home Inspectors—or interNachi, for short—has recognized www.nebraskainspections.com as the association's website of the week winner for the current week. Selection is the association's way of highlighting inspection websites that offer accessible information in a unique, easy-to-use layout, and the association's selection of Nebraska Inspection's website is an affirmation of these attributes.

Nebraskaispections.com can be found at the top of interNachi's website list here. It will be on the list indefinitely, but will only be on top as long as it is the website of the week. So go over and bask in website of the week glory while you can!

Coal in your stocking?

2011-01-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

There was a day when you would have wished for such a gift.

It was this week back in 1912 that Nebraska experienced its lowest temperature on record: 39 degrees below zero. A thought for those of you who live in old houses—like those built around the turn of the century—imagine what that had to be like. No insulation in the walls, single-pane windows, and likely plenty of fresh air via the multiple air leaks that were inherent to the building process of the day. It's enough to make me want to blow up an air mattress and sleep next to my wood stove tonight.

What was it like the night of that record low? Let's do some oversimplified math to stay warm and paint the picture.

The house is a 800 sq. ft. bungalow with the nine foot ceilings that were common back then. Each exterior wall is 28.3-ish feet long, so the total exterior area of the walls is 28.3*9*4=1,018.8 sq. ft. The area of the ceiling (28.3*28.3) is roughly 800 sq. ft., as is the floor. So the total exterior area of the house (walls+ceilings+floors) is basically 2,618 sq. ft.

We'll be generous and say that the uninsulated walls, ceilings and floors have r-values of 3.

And we'll say that the inside of the house is 50 degrees while the outside is -39 degrees, meaning that there is a temperature differential of 89 degrees from one inside of the wall to the outside.

To figure out how many btu's it would take to maintain this temperature differential, you multiply the total square footage of the outside surfaces of the house by the temperature differential, and then you divided that by the r-value. So...(2,618*89)/3=77,667 btu's. Just to keep the house at 50 degrees. To keep it at 68 degrees would require 93,375 btu's.

Either way, good luck finding that many btu's in 1912. It was a cold, cold night!