It is my understanding that the 18" above garage floor standard applies to both gas and electric water heaters. My narrative reads as follows: “Water heaters are commonly considered an ignition source. Gas fumes can settle near the floor, possibly igniting due to pilot lights or heating elements in the water heater. An exception would be if the water heater is rated for floor installation. Such a determination is beyond the scope of this inspection.”
My answer to this question would be no, not all gas heaters need to be raised, but to recommend further evaluation by a qualified plumber. Under the title home inspector we are not code inspectors, builders, electricians, plumbers, roofers, hvac, or what have you. As a home inspector code doesn’t dictate our inspection, what the code says is not a reason to flag something. This should be flagged as a material defect for safety reasons, further evaluation by a qualified plumber recommended. The plumber can worry about the local code. Where I live we have basements, the water heater is on the floor of the basement with extremely rare exception(apts). An hour southeast they mainly have crawl spaces with the water heater in the kitchen or bathroom closest, on the floor. The only time I have seen a raised water heater was in my uncles garage in CA. I do recommend knowing local codes for many items and keeping current so you don’t get made to look ignorant, but because several comments on here were based on local code it made the commenter look ignorant to me as a home inspector in training. There are safety reasons behind local codes but as a home inspector the code is not important, the reason for the code is why we are there, safety and function. Is the comment about replacing the copper gas line something with local code as well? Copper is what is still primarily used in my area. Any further insight would be appreciated as I am still extremely ignorant!
thread is indeed old, but still the information here is quite useful!
regards,
T.