Inspected a “condo” unit yesterday - pretty sure it was an old apartment building converted to condos… at the water heater, of course, there’s flexible pipe for the TPR extension, but it connects to copper, and then to a “T” fitting, where it meets a “standpipe” which runs up, through the ceiling. I asked the maintenance guy, who said the upstairs unit’s (2 stories) TPR connects to this pipe, which runs down through the slab foundation, and drains “somewhere”.
I see the “old apartment” and condo TPR drain line goofiness all the time.
Back during the condo conversion craziness (mid 2000’s or so) Orange County made all of these older buildings trench new drain line for this exact problem.
No matter what you write up, no one is going to alter the design or fix it, it’s part of the entire building’s design. So just write it as you would, and hopefully someone will read it.
I would write them all up for lack of a catch pans that drain to the exterior and TPR drains that do not terminate in a visible location next to the water heater. It will be pretty obvious how the installs should have been done (diagram below) with the pan connected to the common drain. I doubt they will do it, but lack of a catch pan and non-visible TPR drain are both significant liabilities that you need to warn them about.
1: Kink in the TPRV tube discharge piping reducing inner circumference.
2: All TPRV discharge tubing must be sloped to allow gravity to move bulk water downstream.
3: Missing safety pan not plumbed to a floor drain or DWV receptor.
Recommend a licensed plumbing contractor make the necessary changes.
Act upon any recommendations therein.
I do a lot of condos here in Maui and see a lot of goofy stuff and @ddagostino is right on that it’s not likely to change so just write it up and move on.
As for the catch-pans, etc., I’ve become a lot more aggressive about writing that stuff up. Post-fire here the insurance companies are going through buildings and requiring things in order to renew the policies. Pans under washing machines and water heaters, sometimes replacing any galvanized supply… things like that. It’s obviously outside our scope but I try to educate the buyers (and prevent angry calls or worse) as to what could be coming. I also strongly encourage them in the preface to the report to investigate the AOAO/HOA… basically, don’t call me when you get a 40K assessment six months after moving in.
Matt - we’ve been dealing with insurance stuff here for quite a few years, and I always give them a head-up about those things I know will cause a problem. I always call out the lack of a pan under the water heater and the washing machine, just because those are easy, common-sense things IMO. But the last few years a lot of buyers and their agents care less about issues found and more about if it will affect their ability to insure thee place.
So true… it’s funny how this board is filled with HIs looking for a code section to reference for absolutely no reason. The only ones that can really “require” things are insurance companies. And even they can’t require it… just if one wants to have insurance
