High Efficiency Combustion Air Intake

High efficiency furnaces can take combustion air from inside the house. Providing the room is large enough and the home is not hermetically sealed (or too tight). New construction home here in the Chicagoland area require blower door tests to ensure the home is air tight, but not too air tight. We have to have fresh air/oxygen so we don’t get sick. The opening on this intake does not have an elbow on it. If you open any furnace installation manual, you will find the acceptable installation method so you can take combustion air from the inside of the home.

The phot below shows the proper installation method. The elbow helps prevent inadvertent blockage such as resting clothes, towels, books, or boxes on the hole. Blocking this opening should stop the furnace from starting but should it start, the oxygen will be limited and high levels of carbon monoxide will be created.

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A Dirty Dryer Vent

A home inspection in Lake View found a clogged dryer vent. Keeping these clean is important.

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One Year Warranty Inspection

A Northbrook Home Inspection (New Construction), we found a missing mortar joint.

It may not seem like much, until the stone comes loose and needs to be repaired.

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How Long Will It Last?

A Home Inspection in Rogers Park – Chicago found this water heater.

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Worst Humidifier Condition?

During a home inspection in Lincoln Square -Chicago we opened this humidifier and found the winner. Can anyone top this?

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Should This Be Reported

During a Home Inspection in Barrington we found a snake skin.

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Fire Separations in Attached Garages

If a fire starts in a garage, you do not want it to spread to the attached house. Additionally, if you start up your vehicle in the garage, you do not want carbon monoxide entering your home.

Homeowners (me included) have a tendency to store an assortment of flammable materials in garages.   Gas, diesel fuel, paint thinners and removers, cleaning solvents, propane cylinders, swimming pool chemicals, and other compressed gasses such as welding gas.

I have also been on many calls as a fireman where the car was started inside the garage so it can warm up.  This allows carbon monoxide (CO) and other gas accumulation within the garage.

Fire separations are required between residences and attached garages and their attics. We find, and document, this issue often during our home inspections.

Here is the wording from the IRC 302.5
Openings and penetrations through the walls or ceilings separating the dwelling from the garage shall be in accordance with Sections R302.5.1 through R302.5.3.

R302.5.1 Opening Protection

Openings from a private garage directly into a room used for sleeping purposes shall not be permitted. Other openings between the garage and residence shall be equipped with solid wood doors not less than 13/8 inches (35 mm) in thickness, solid or honeycomb-core steel doors not less than 13/8 inches (35 mm) thick, or 20-minute fire-rated doors, equipped with a self-closing or automatic closing device.

(Many communities have amended the self-closing  or automatic closing device to read self-latching hardware).  I haven’t memorized every community’s code (also every year of every code) about this reference.  I treat the above reference by looking for a self closing device and if it is present, then it should work.

R302.5.2 Duct Penetration

Ducts in the garage and ducts penetrating the walls or ceilings separating the dwelling from the garage shall be constructed of a minimum No. 26 gage (0.48 mm) sheet steel or other approved material and shall not have openings into the garage.

I just recently did a home inspection in Chicago that had the dryer vent running through the garage and exited the structure through the garage wall.  This is not acceptable and I consider this a breach in the fire separation.

R302.5.3 Other Penetrations

Penetrations through the separation required in Section R302.6 (see below) shall be protected as required by Section R302.11, Item 4. (At openings around vents, pipes, ducts, cables and wires at ceiling and floor level, with an approved material to resist the free passage of flame and products of combustion. The material filling this annular space shall not be required to meet the ASTM E 136 requirements.) This means that fire rated sealant is not required.  Typically drywall mud is installed here and that is acceptable.

R302.6 Dwelling-Garage Fire Separation

The garage shall be separated as required by Table R302.6. Openings in garage walls shall comply with Section R302.5. Attachment of gypsum board shall comply with Table R702.3.5. The wall separation provisions of Table R302.6 shall not apply to garage walls that are perpendicular to the adjacent dwelling unit wall. (This means that if there is not a living space on the opposite side of the garage wall, then the drywall is not required.)

TABLE R302.6 DWELLING-GARAGE SEPARATION

SEPARATION MATERIAL
From the residence and attics Not less than 1/2-inch gypsum board or equivalent applied to the
garage side
From habitable rooms above the garage Not less than 5/8-inch Type X gypsum board or equivalent
Structure(s) supporting floor/ceiling assemblies used for separation
required by this section		 Not less than 1/2-inch gypsum board or equivalent
Garages located less than 3 feet from a dwelling unit on the same lot Not less than 1/2-inch gypsum board or equivalent applied to the
interior side of exterior walls that are within this area

Attic Pull-Down Stair Units

One obvious example of a ceiling fire separation breach is the near an attic pull-down stair unit. Many of the pull down stairs that I see are not designed for this installation.  They do make pull down stairs that are rated for this type of installation, but those commonly are not found at the home repair stores.  The photo to the left is a ladder that is designed for garage penetrations.  The door of the ladder fully closes and seals when the ladder is in the up position.

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Preparing For Your Home Inspection

Congratulations, you accepted an offer on your home. The next step is the home inspection. Since a professional inspector is going to look at many items in your home, you want to make sure that your home will send a specific message. That message should be, “I took good care of this home so your family can enjoy its future”. An all-to-common occurrence happens in the home buying process; the buyers get remorse when they see an item that was not perfectly maintained. So please let them have the peace of mind they are looking for and get all the maintenance items up to date. There are a few simple things that you can do to make sure they feel they made a smart home buying decision by choosing your home.

Priority 1 – Clean and Update Maintenance Items

  • Clean all bathrooms
    • Remove all signs of mold in showers.
    • Make sure toilets are secure to the floor, clean and flush.
    • Make sure all drains flow easily, clean if they don’t.
  • Clean the kitchen
    • Empty the dishwasher, oven, and any other appliances you don’t normally use. They will be operated.
    • Empty the countertops and sinks.
    • Check for odors from the refrigerator and clean the seals if there is any mold present.
  • Clean the carpets
    • We use black lights to find pet stains. If you have pets, please have the carpets professionally cleaned so our test comes up negative.
  • Operate all windows
    • Open, close and tilt all windows to check for operation.
  • Operate all doors
    • Entry doors should have operating locks with keys.
    • Bedroom and bathroom doors should have operating locks without keys.
    • Check doors for opening, closing, and locking. These should all work freely and easily.
  • Furnace, humidifier and air conditioner
    • Put a brand new air filter in your furnace(s) and wipe down the cabinet interior.
    • Change the cartridge for the humidifier and wipe down the inside.
    • GENTLY, hose off the Air Conditioner and make sure the air flow is not blocked.
  • Above are some of the items where I have seen time and time again the disappointment and fear in my clients faces when they become aware that proper maintenance was not performed. 

Prepare your home for the inspector.

It’s everyone’s desire that the seller prepare their home for the inspector so that the inspection can proceed smoothly. If personal belongings are blocking access points, we have been asked to come back after the belongings have been moved. There is an extra charge of $250 and up. This makes the transaction very contentious, very quickly. So please check the following list to make sure everything goes smoothy on the first trip.

  1. Free access to the crawl-space.
  2. Free access to the attic above the house and/or the garage.
  3. Free access to the main water shut off valve.
  4. Free access to the water heater.
  5. Free access to the furnace.
  6. Free access to the electric panel and sub-panels.
  7. Free access to the outdoor A/C condenser unit.
  8. All doors and windows in the home are unobstructed.
  9. All sinks, showers, and tubs are unobstructed.
  10. The plumbing below the sinks is unobstructed;
  11. The garage is unobstructed. If possible, move all stored items to the center of the garage so the walls are
  12. exposed.
  13. The basement is unobstructed. If possible, move all stored items to the center of the basement so the walls are exposed.
  14. The fireplace is unobstructed. Please do not have a fire the day of inspection.
  15. The dishwasher, oven, and microwave are free of any dishes so they may be tested.
  16. Make sure any animals or pets are caged or gone during the inspection.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Recessed Lighting Basics

Recessed lighting goes by a few different names. Other than Recessed light, there is down-light, can-light, canister-light, and pot-light. Although pot-light is used by our north of the border neighbors in Canada and not-so-much here in the United States.

There are two different types of recessed lighting.

  1. Insulation Contact (IC) rated
  2. Non-IC rated

IC rated housings must be installed wherever insulation will be in direct contact with the housing. There is an exception to this. The IC-rated lights are not designed to have spray foam insulation in contact. There are special covers that go over the lights to still maintain the air-tight seal that you would get from spray foam insulation but not create a fire hazard for the lights. It is not so easy to inspect these lights to see if they have the proper cover or not.

Non-IC rated lights require that there is no contact with insulation for at least 3 in from insulation. These housings are typically rated up to 150 watts. Recessed lights are usually white in color which makes it easy for us to spot when we are crawling through an attic. They also have big bright warning labels on them as well.
Installing these above areas that require insulation is not a good idea. Your options are to put the insulation snugly around the recessed light and take a chance of catching the home on fire, or leaving a space like what is shown in this photo and have heat loss in that area. The heat loss in this area might not sound so bad, but that heat loss has a pretty good chance of causing moisture to move and the moisture will eventually cause mold to grow in the attic. That will create other problems that nobody wants to deal with either.

Both IC rated and non-IC rated lights come designed for new construction or remodeling applications.

Many of the newer recessed lights have a self-resetting thermal switch for safety. So if you have recessed lights that are turning off and on all the time, either you have the wrong type of recessed fixture installed in insulation, the wrong type/size of a lightbulb, or a combination of the two. In any case, if the thermal switch is activating, something is terribly wrong and you should get this checked by a professional.

Something that is relatively new to Chicagoland is having the return chases in heating ducts sealed tight with regards to recessed lights. This means that any recessed lights installed in those areas also need to be air-tight. This requirement is known as “Chicago Plenum” which requires the housing to be airtight in addition to requiring all wiring to be sealed off and gasketed from the plenum air space. This housing rating must be used on all recessed luminaires installed in air plenums in the City of Chicago as well as nearby municipalities which have adopted the Chicago amendments to the NEC.
When our inspectors are up in the attic, we look for bumps in the insulation where can lights might have been installed. Usually, we can see the type of can light in the attic. We also keep the recessed lights on for a while during the inspection. This helps to see if the thermal switch is activating.

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