Garage Door Needs Replacing
Question: Our home is about 20 years old. Before buying it, we hired a home inspector and were pleased with the thorough disclosure he provided. But one of his recommendations has left us with a very expensive problem. The inspector pointed out that both garage-door openers lacked automatic reverse function for child safety.
When we asked if this repair would be costly, he said that “any fool with a screwdriver could do it.” We would have asked the sellers to pay for this repair, but decided not to bother them over an inexpensive adjustment. After closing escrow, we called a garage doorman. He discovered that the openers are not equipped to automatically reverse and urged that both fixtures be replaced. Our cost for two new openers is nearly $500. We feel totally stung. How could our inspector have made this kind of error?
Answer: Automatic reverse for garage-door openers is a vital lifesaving function, routinely checked in the course of a professional home inspection. Your inspector was right to test the openers and report them as defective, but the nature of his recommendation was ill-advised.
When openers fail to reverse, it is the responsibility of the inspector to identify the problem and to advise further evaluation and repair by an experienced and qualified technician.
The primary scope and purpose of a home inspection is to provide diagnosis and to recommend subsequent evaluation and repairs by appropriate specialists.
When inspectors venture into the realm of technical prognosis, advancing prescriptions for the repair of mechanical defects, and particularly recommending unqualified workmen, they stray beyond the defined boundaries of their profession and assume the risk of error and eventual liability.
When a door opener’s safety reverse function fails to operate, the problem may be improper adjustment, as presumed by your inspector, or it may be something more serious and costly.
To surmise that a faulty opener is out of adjustment requires a presumptive leap in logic and indicates a lack of adequate knowledge about the item being inspected. With some openers, auto-reverse mechanisms may need replacement, not merely readjustment.
With older door openers, many were never designed with automatic safety reverse. With these outdated fixtures, replacement of the entire unit is the safest recommendation.
Nearly New House Had Some Secrets
Q: When we bought our home, we were advised against having a home inspection because the house was only 2 years old. After closing escrow, we had recurrent plumbing problems and noticed a foul odor in portions of the house.
When we called a plumber, he found raw sewage and an open toilet drain in the crawl space. What’s more, it turned out that most of the drain piping was improperly installed. Had we hired a home inspector, would these problems have been found?
A: The plumbing problems you’ve encountered would have been routine discovery for a qualified home inspection. Whoever advised you against an inspection certainly did you a disservice. There is no such thing as a home that is too new or too well-built to benefit from a professional inspection.
In spite of numerous consumer-affairs articles published over the years, many people still make the mistake of buying a home without having it inspected, investing the better part of their life savings without knowing the property’s true condition.
Considering the high cost of real estate today, an inspection fee is a small price to pay. It can save thousands of dollars and years of regret.
Single-Family Homes Require Just One Door
Q: The home I just purchased has a hollow-core, front-entry door and no other doors to the exterior. I thought that front doors are supposed to be solid-core and that a back door is required. Our home inspector mentioned nothing about this. Do these conditions sound like building-code violations?
A: A single-family dwelling is required to have one exterior door only, as long as this door has a minimum width of 36 inches. Additional doors are only needed if the home is designed for occupancy by 10 or more people. If your home is intended for normal occupancy, then no back door is stipulated.
There is also no requirement that the door be solid-core. The use of solid doors has become typical for most homes to provide added security, but this is not a mandatory building code.
Spa May Have Been Improperly Installed
Q: The home inspector who checked my house reported a condition that I’ve often noticed but never regarded as a problem. Sometimes when I’m cooking, the spa heater will turn on at the patio, and suddenly the flames will become much smaller at the kitchen range burners. The inspector recommended that we call a plumber. Do you know what could be causing this problem?
A: Could it be that someone other than a licensed plumber or a spa technician installed your spa heater? If so, you’re in abundant company.
At least half of all backyard spas were set up without the benefit of professional knowledge and expertise, the results of which are an assortment of functional and safety problems.
Amateur spa installations may be acceptable with self-contained, all-electric systems, where all that’s needed is to plug in the power cord. But when unqualified people install gas piping and gas burning fixtures, code violations and other unsafe conditions typically ensue.
The problem you describe with your oven burner indicates that the total BTU demand in your home may exceed the capacity of your gas meter.
Most residential gas meters are designed to deliver between 175 and 250 cubic feet of natural gas per hour. This capacity is based upon the average fuel demand for most homes, assuming the presence of a range, oven, water heater and furnace. When a spa heater is added to the equation, the excess demand may require that a meter of higher capacity be installed.
I recommend that you contact the gas company to ensure that your meter is sufficient for its tasks. And if your spa heater was not professionally installed, I strongly advise that you have the system reviewed by a qualified technician.
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If you have questions or comments, contact Barry Stone through his Web site at https://www.housedetective.com. Distributed by Access Media Group.