FYI – SOME TIDBITS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

Things always seem like they keep changing, and it doesn’t always seem like it is for the good. In fact, things do keep changing and keeping up with that change can be a difficult task and confusing to sort out whether the change is actually good or bad. Take the recent controversy over increased awareness and enforcement of obtaining a building permit to install a water heater in Tuolumne County. Contractors and homeowners are not happy with the necessity and $110 cost of a permit to install or replace a water heater (The cost for a permit is actually more for a Contractor). However, the head Building Official of Tuolumne County says the $110 permit fee doesn’t even cover the cost to the County to perform the inspection. The Contractors feel that there is no necessity of the permit as installing a water heater is an easy job. I agree that installing a water heater is, for the most part, a pretty easy, basic job. Yet, time after time, deficiencies involving water heater installation and/or lack of water heater safety equipment are things I find during a Home Inspection and what find their way into my report. Obviously, many installers (whether it be a homeowner or Contractor) don’t know the proper safe water heater installation requirements, or they choose to ignore them for whatever reason.

A water heater that ‘runs away’ with it self and over heats the water can actually turn into a dangerous bomb and/or missile due to the steam build up in the tank. Improperly installed water heaters can cause bodily injury in several different ways as well as property damage, which is the reason the Building Departments want the opportunity to inspect the final installation. That really is the basic reasons for building permits in the first place – to have a knowledgeable person/entity have oversight of the construction and repair of the structures that we live and work in to make sure that they are safe. The Building Departments Inspectors make sure that the construction, materials, repairs or methods used meet building ‘code’ standards, which is a minimum level requirement of materials and methods employed. I always have to shake my head in somewhat amused disbelief when a Contractor or handyman says that he/she performs their work to ‘code’ level, like that is a really great accomplishment. What that really means is that they are performing their work to the bare bones minimum level of acceptability, and anything what so ever less would be unacceptable and would not pass code or be safe!

Another furor that has swept through the Construction Industry is the newly adopted requirement that new homes be equipped with a fire sprinkler system. Installation of these systems is expensive and causes the cost of a new home to increase considerably to the purchaser. Not only that, but the current systems available need periodic maintenance, which has to be performed by specialists in the fire sprinkler business and adds additional costs to owning the home. In fact, I’ve heard, but can’t verify for sure, that it was the fire sprinkler industry that was behind and pushed hard to get this shoved into the new home construction requirements. The reason used to make fire sprinkler systems necessary is supposedly to give people time to safely exit a burning home, not necessarily to extinguish the fire. This regulation needs to be repealed and re-thought out. The controversy over required fire sprinkler systems will continue, for sure!