“YOU JUST COST ME A LOT OF MONEY!”

Do you remember the telephone game? You’d get a bunch of kids in a circle, and the first kid would whisper a phrase in the next kids ear, and then that kid would whisper it to the next, and so on. Once the last person heard the message, they’d say aloud what they heard, and everyone would have a great laugh because the message was never even close to what the first person said.

While this is all great fun for kids, it’s frustrating when it happens in the real estate world… especially when it happens on purpose. If you read my blogs with any regularity, you already know that I’m passionate about my work and I stand behind my inspection reports. I welcome challenges to my calls, and I stand behind them… but sometimes I don’t get the chance.

Some time ago, I inspected a home with a 23 year old Trane furnace where I was able to remove the back panel to get a clear look at the heat exchanger. Many older Trane and GE furnaces have these removable panels which makes inspecting the heat exchanger a piece of cake. I found obvious cracks in every single port of the heat exchanger, so I told my client to replace the furnace, and I even included photos of the cracked heat exchanger in my report. This should have been a no-brainer furnace replacement, but it didn’t work out that way.

 

Two days later I received this voicemail – the choppy parts are where I removed the agent’s name, house address, and the name of the HVAC contractor:

Click here to hear the voicemail - You just cost me a lot of money

I think I had steam coming out of my ears after I listened to that message. Who told the owner to hire a heating contractor to “inspect my comments”? Certainly not me. Weren’t my photos of the cracked heat exchanger good enough? Above all, why would a contractor say the furnace was perfectly fine? I don’t know of any contractor that would use language like that about a 23 year old furnace. The best thing I’ve ever heard a heating contractor say about a 23 year old furnace is “I can’t find any problems with it.” This didn’t make any sense.

I had to get to the bottom of this, so I waited several hours until I was calm enough to speak in a civil manner, and I finally called the listing agent back. I got the name of the heating contractor and called him to chat about the furnace. The contractor sheepishly admitted that he wasn’t aware that this furnace had a removable back panel, so he never found the cracks.

I asked the contractor why he would have said that there were “no cracks at all” and that there was “nothing wrong with the furnace, at all”. Can you guess what he told me? He said he never said that. The contractor told the homeowner that the furnace was heavily rusted, 23 years old, and most likely did have a cracked heat exchanger, but he couldn’t find any cracks.

I called the listing agent back and told him what the contractor told me. The listing agent apologized and said he wasn’t even the person that talked to the contractor in the first place; he was just repeating what the owner told him. Huh. There’s the telephone game. I told the agent that I didn’t envy his job.

If you want the full story, sometimes you have to just go to the source. To this day, I’d still love to know exactly what that homeowner told his agent.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email- Minnesota Home Inspections

    

The Whipped Up Home Inspector

When I used to work in retail, I remember dealing with rude, crabby, demanding, and downright ridiculous customers.  It got frustrating at times, and it would usually happen on a daily basis, but it was pretty easy to just leave that stuff at work.  Once I'd punch out, whatever happened at work would quickly become a fading memory.  My work didn't define me; it was just work.

As a home inspector, it's completely different.  I never punch out.  My occupation and my sense of self have become tightly intertwined.  When I write an inspection report, I make an effort to word everything just right; I know it sounds tacky, but my report becomes a little extension of myself.

When someone questions my report or says I'm wrong, I can't help but take it personally.

As the home inspector, I typically don't ever hear about what happens after my inspections.  The negotiations after the home inspection are really none of my business, but I do like getting feedback.

<cue happy music>  
 The seller is going to replace the 40-year-old boiler?  Awesome!  
The seller is going to replace the leaking roof?  That's fantastic. 
The seller is taking $3000 off the price of the house so you can get a new furnace?  Sweet.   Spend a little extra and get a high efficiency model.  
The seller won't fix the furnace venting.   That's too bad.   
The seller won't fix the furnace venting because they said it's not a problem. 
<Insert sound effect of a record needle scratching, music stops>

Ok, that last one gets my attention.  While I realize that the seller is just defending their own home, I take this personally.  I can't help but hearing "the seller said you're wrong."  The most common version of this that I hear is that the installation was already inspected by the city, the installation passed the city inspection, the installation meets the city code, or some version of that.

If a seller won't fix something, great.  It's none of my business.   When a seller tells a buyer they won't fix something because it meets code, I take it personally.  While a home inspection is not a code inspection, if I say something was installed wrong, I'm also saying that the installation doesn't meet code.  When a seller says the installation meets code, they're saying I'm wrong, and the integrity of my report comes in to question.

I received a call from a home buyer the other day with just such a situation, where the seller said they wouldn't fix the furnace venting because it met the city's code.  Sorry, wrong, no.  If the city approved the installation, it means they didn't catch any problems with the installation.  It doesn't mean the installation was done right, or even that it meets code.
 
For most requests about information, I tell people I'll send 'em an email as soon as I get home or as soon as I get in front of a computer.  I was driving to an inspection when I received this particular phone call.  I pulled in to a parking lot, got on my laptop, and quickly sent the buyer and the buyer's agent an email defending my stance - it included a link to my blog titled "...But The City Approved It!".  I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on much else until I did.

If you want to get a home inspector whipped up, just tell 'em the seller won't fix something because it passed the city inspection.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspections
                    

Why Are Home Inspectors So Inconsistent?

Have you ever wondered how different home inspectors can look at the same issue, yet have completely different ways of describing the situation and different calls to action?

I’ve realized that I’m not even consistent about my own recommendations.  I’ve given a lot of thought to why this is, and I think it comes down to two factors: cost effectiveness and risk management.  I think those two factors affect just about every recommendation that I make during my home inspections.

Cost Effectiveness

Sometimes I’ll identify an issue with a house and I’ll tell my client what the problem is, but I’ll say it doesn’t make much sense to fix it.  For example, insulation on a one-and-one-half story house.  These houses usually have very little insulation at the upper level, but it’s not cost effective to gut the entire upper level to re-insulate.  The amount of money you’ll spend gutting the upper level will far outweigh any potential savings in heating and cooling costs, so I usually say “This is what you’ve got.  Live with it.”

Risk Management

Anyone buying property assumes some risk.  We home inspectors help buyers by reporting issues, and making recommendations for repair based on how much risk is involved, along with the cost effectiveness of the repair. Think about any defect with a house, and think about what a home inspector would recommend; hopefully, it makes sense.  I’ll give a few examples of how I make recommendations:


A missing handrail at a stairway: This is a potential fall hazard with a very low repair cost, so I always recommend repair.


A missing cover plate at an outlet: This is a potential shock or electrocution hazard, and it has a very low repair cost, so I always recommend repair.


Missing house wrap behind vinyl siding: This has a moderate potential for moisture damage to the house, but the cost to fix missing house wrap would be huge, so I never recommend repair of this condition.  I do let my clients know that they are assuming some risk.


An improperly attached deck that’s one foot off the ground: This has a moderate potential for failure / collapse, but if it’s only a foot off the ground, there's a very low risk of injury.  The cost to fix this would probably be just as much as it would cost to repair the deck if it collapsed, so I don’t recommend repair of this condition. I do let my clients know that they are assuming some risk.


An improperly attached second story deck: Again, this has a moderate potential for failure / collapse, but people could be seriously hurt or killed by a second story deck collapse.  While the fix might be expensive, I recommend repair every time.

The next time you’re involved in a home inspection, whether you’re an inspector, a real estate agent, or a home buyer, think about cost effectiveness and risk management.  I've realized this is something I do subconsciously during every inspection... well, at least I used to.  Now I consciously do it.



Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Home Inspections



    

HRVs, Part 3 of 3: Installation Defects

For the last two entries I've blogged about HRVs. In part one, I covered what HRVs are for and how they operate. For part two, I covered HRV maintenance and operation. Today I'll discuss installation defects.
The most common defect I find with HRVs is that they were never balanced. When HRVs are installed, a technician needs to balance the system to make sure the air getting exhausted is equal to the air coming in. If more air comes in than what goes out, you'll have a pressurized house... and vice versa. Neither of these conditions are good for the home.


To make sure an HRV is balanced, I look for a balancing sticker and I check to make sure that the balancing damper controls have been screwed in place. If they're not screwed in place, a balancing sticker means nothing. If I don't see a balancing sticker, I don't make a big deal about it, but I'll often make a note in my report that it's missing. If there are no balancing screws, I recommend having the HRV professionally balanced.


Most HRVs are installed hanging from straps or chains and springs to minimize the transfer of any annoying vibration from the fans. If an HRV gets mounted to the wall, I check the installation manual to make sure that this is an acceptable installation, and I listen on the other side of the wall to see how loud it is. When they're mounted incorrectly, they can be very noisy!

As a rule of thumb, the intake and exhaust locations at the exterior of the home should be located at least six feet away from each other. I've never seen an installation manual that allowed anything less. It's also important to make sure the intake is at least ten feet away from any sidewall vented gas appliances, such as a powervent water heater or furnace. The intake should also be located at least ten feet away from anything smelly, such as where the garbage containers get kept.


The ductwork that feeds the intake from the exterior and exhaust to the exterior needs to be properly insulated. If it's not properly insulated, you'll feel an obvious cold draft.


If the HRV ducts are only attached to the furnace's return air, they must be at least three feet away from each other, and the furnace's blower fan must turn on with the HRV to prevent the air getting added to the house from short-circuiting and getting pulled back out of the house. Every manufacturer recommends connecting the furnace's blower fan to the HRV for optimal performance, but it's not always a requirement.

Every HRV needs to be plugged in to an outlet. If the HRV is running off an extension cord, this is an improper, unacceptable installation. Repair requires the installation of an outlet.


That's about all of the HRV installation defects that I can think of, and that concludes this mini-series on HRVs. As always, please email or post any comments or questions!

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspections

HRVs, Part 2 of 3: Maintenance & Operation

Last time I blogged about why houses need HRVs.  This time I'll write about maintenance and operation of HRVs, and I'll try to cover the stuff you should know if you own one.  The information in this blog is general - every manufacturer will have their own set of instructions and their own maintenance schedule.

Maintenance

• Every three to six months the filters should be cleaned by vacuuming to remove as much dust as possible, then washed with warm water and mild soap.  Some filters can also be washed in the top tray of a dishwasher, but this may tarnish the aluminum finish.  The filter below should have been cleaned a long, long time ago, and this is what I find at almost every home inspection - way more than dirty furnace filters!

• Every three to six months Clean the condensation tray with damp cloth.  The condensation tray is the area where water will collect in the bottom. The condensate drain should be checked, and replaced if needed.  The drain tube usually consists of clear plastic tubing with a little loop that creates a trap to prevent odors from the floor drain or wherever else from getting sucked in to the HRV.

• Every three to six months Check the intake grill at the exterior of the home to make sure it's clean.  These get very dirty, as there is a fan constantly pulling air in.

• Every six to twelve months the core should be cleaned by removing it and letting it soak in a mixture of lukewarm water and mild soap.  Rinse the core thoroughly when done.  If you own a summer core, don't get it wet, as you'll cause permanent damage to it.  Summer cores can be cleaned by vacuuming with a brush attachment.

• Every one to three years the fans should be cleaned.  This typically requires removal of the fan assembly.  Check the owner's manual for specific instructions, or hire a professional to do this.

Operation

Operating an HRV is usually quite simple.  If the HRV has a switch located on the unit itself, it will typically have a couple of the following settings, but not all:  On, High, Low, Off, or Remote.  If your HRV has a "Remote" setting, you'll probably want to use that one. This will allow the HRV remote controller, usually mounted on the wall next to the thermostat,  to turn the HRV on and off.  This remote will also typically have a dehumidistat, which controls how much moisture is in the air.

If the bathrooms in the house have funny little wall buttons instead of bathroom exhaust fan switches, it typically means that the HRV system has had ductwork installed in the bathrooms.  This is an acceptable alternative to bathroom exhaust fans.  When the wall button is pushed, this will turn on the HRV for somewhere between 15 - 60 minutes, or will kick the HRV in to high gear for 15 - 60 minutes.

Every HRV should also have a defrost cycle, and the HRV should go in to the defrost cycle automatically when it gets too cold.  The defrost cycle is actually quite simple; the exhaust fan just runs for about five minutes, which forces a bunch of warm indoor air through the core without bringing in any cold air.

If you plan to operate your HRV during the summer, check your owner's manual to see what the manufacturer has to say about it.  If your HRV is designed to run during the summer, you'll probably need to remove the standard winter core and install a summer core.  The difference is that the summer core is designed to remove moisture from the air coming IN to the house, rather than the air leaving.  If there is no mention in your owners manual about running your HRV during the summer, you probably shouldn't.

That's about all for maintenance - for any more specific instructions, you'll need to check your owner's manual.  Next time I'll talk about installation defects.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Home Inspections

HRVs, Part 1 of 3: Why Houses Need Them & What They Do

Many months ago I wrote a blog about how houses can often havemoisture problems when old furnaces are replaced with high efficiency furnaces. The fix that I mentioned at the end of the blog was to install a Heat Recovery Ventilator, or HRV.  The character in that blog finally got around to installing an HRV in his house, and solved all his moisture problems! For the first time since he installed his high efficiency furnace, he no longer has condensation on his windows during the winter, and he couldn't be happier about it.

Today I'll share some basic information about how HRVs operate and why they're needed in today's newer, tighter houses.

New Houses Don't Breathe As most people know, new houses are constructed much tighter than they used to be - they don't leak air all over the place.  I've heard a lot of old-school home inspectors and building contractors complain about this, and you probably have too.  The rant goes something like this: "We build houses so damn tight that they don't breathe, and they end up rotting from the inside out!  Things were a lot better when we didn't have all these stupid house wraps."

These cranky doom sayers are only partially right - yes, we build houses tighter today, but we've also figured out how to prevent mold and moisture problems, and how to improve indoor air quality.  This is where HRVs come in.

HRVs Provide Fresh Air An HRV works by constantly bringing fresh air in to a house and exhausting stale air.    The air that gets brought in to the house gets passed through a screen at the exterior, then through a filter inside the unit, then through the HRV core, which is actually a heat exchanger.  The heat exchanger allows the fresh outdoor air to get warmed by stale indoor air right before the indoor air gets exhausted to the exterior.  This allows about 60 - 80% of the heat in the air to be re-captured.  The diagram below illustrates this principal.

To understand how an HRV works, interlock your fingers together and picture warm air flowing through fingers in one hand, and cold air flowing through the fingers in the other hand.

HRVs Remove Moisture Besides providing fresh air, HRVs also remove a lot of moisture from the air.  Old, drafty houses get dry in the winter because they're leaky, and the moist indoor air is always getting replaced with dry outdoor air.  Not so with newer houses - they stay humid during the winter, and HRVs are often needed just to get rid of all the excess humidity.  As the warm, moist air passes by the cold air, the moisture will condense.  This is why HRVs have a drain running out the bottom.

 

HRVs Lower Radon Levels Because HRVs constantly change out the air in a house, an HRV will reduce radon levels when working properly.  During a recent Eden Prairie home inspection that I also performed aradon test at, I had the HRV running during the majority of the radon test, but I tripped the GFCI outlet for the last hour of the radon test during my inspection.  Look at the jump in radon levels at the house from NOT having the HRV running!  Any time a radon test is performed, if there is an HRV present at the house, it should be up and running throughout the duration of the radon test.

HRVs Have Many Names If you hear any of these terms, someone is probably talking about an HRV:

• Air-to-air heat exchanger
• Air exchanger
• Whole house ventilator
• Big square thingy in the furnace room
• VanEE system (brand name)
• ERV

The last one, ERV, stands for Energy Recovery Ventilator.  These are similar to HRVs, but ERVs are pretty rare here in Minnesota - I think I've seen two of them, ever.  They're designed for more humid, southern climates.

If you don't have an HRV at your house and you think you need one, you could always just turn on an exhaust fan and leave it running.  This will be very inefficient, but it will change out the air in your house.  I call this the Poor Man's HRV.

Next week I'll talk about the maintenance needs of HRVs, and the week after that I'll discuss installation defects.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Eden Prairie Home Inspections

Insulation vs. Air Leakage (Attic Bypasses)

With winter officially here, I’m on a big insulation kick.  This is the time of year when I can really tell which houses have attic problems, oftentimes just from looking at the house on the outside!  Today I’ll talk about a few things I look for when inspecting an attic when it comes to air leakage, insulation, and ventilation.

When I inspect houses in the winter, the first thing I look at is the roof.  I do this out of habit, and I can usually identify a house with attic problems without even going in the house.  The most obvious things to look for on the outside are ice dams, icicles, and patches of unevenly melted snow or frost.  These are all signs of heat loss from the house to the attic space.

If I find a Minnesota house with obvious problems on the outside, I look for two conditions in the attic which cause heat loss; lack of insulation and attic bypasses.  Most people readily understand what lack of insulation is, but attic bypasses are generally less understood, and much more time consuming to correct.  An attic bypass is a passageway for heated air to rise in to the attic – insulation won’t fix this.

To understand how attic bypasses work and why insulation doesn’t help, think about wearing a knitted sweater on a cold windy day; the wind will cut right through the sweater, but if you wore a thin windbreaker over the sweater you would be much warmer.  The same principal applies to attics – warm household air will pass right through a foot of fiberglass insulation, but if the air is stopped by a physical barrier (such as the drywall at your ceiling), it won’t pass through the insulation.  According to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, attic bypasses can reduce the overall effectiveness of insulation by as much as 70 percent!  This is why it’s critical to fix attic bypasses before adding more insulation to an attic space.

When I evaluate the insulation in attics, I focus on areas with missing or minimal amounts of insulation.  Any gaps can drastically reduce the overall effectiveness in the attic.  Attics in new homes should have insulation that provides an insulating value of at least R-38, which equals out to about a foot of fiberglass rolls, or a foot of loose-fill cellulose, or about eighteen inches of loose-fill fiberglass.  If I can see the bottom chords of trusses in an attic, this is an obvious sign that the attic needs more insulation.  While I don’t have any hard and fast rules for my recommendations, I generally say that an insulation level over R-38 is good, between R-19 and R-38 is marginal, and less than R-19 needs correction.

Attic bypasses are much more difficult to identify because they are usually covered by insulation.  While national home inspection standards don’t require inspectors to move insulation, I always make a point of doing this anyways because this is typically the only way to identify them, and they’re important to know about! While bypasses are major sources of heat loss, they can also allow moist household air in to the attic space, which will often condense on the roof boards, creating a frost covered attic space.

   

In the summer there is never frost in the attic, but a dead giveaway that frost accumulates in the winter is small black stains around the roofing nails. The frost in attics will form the heaviest around nail heads because they’re the coldest components.  Possibly the worst bypass that I frequently find is a bath fan exhausting in to the attic – these pump warm moist air in to the attic at a ridiculous rate.  Another common place to find bypasses is around the furnace or water heater vent.  I frequently find gaps around the vents that are several feet wide, and these areas are always covered with insulation.  The Minnesota Department of Commerce puts out an excellent brochure on finding bypasses in the attic and how to fix them, which you can download here.

The last thing I look for in an attic space is ventilation.  Attic spaces are almost always unconditioned spaces, so they need to be ventilated to the exterior.  Attic ventilation helps to keep the roof cooler throughout the year, which will help to minimize ice dams in the winter and help prolong the life of the roof in the summer.  While the traditional reason for ventilating an attic space was to prevent condensation in the attic, I’ve read a number of studies lately that say that this may not be as important as we once thought.  I always verify that proper ventilation is in place, and I make suggestions on how to improve ventilation when necessary.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Home Inspections