QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK November 17 to win stuff you don't have to read!

Inspection Education Topics Inspection Question of the Week
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PLEASE TAKE NOTE!
There are now exciting new additions for WINNER prizes!
You may now choose what you want from the following list:

** $50.00 gift certificate from Inspector Outlet
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https://certifiedmasterinspector.org/video-contest
** Case of books "Now That You’ve had A Home Inspection"

**** Welcome to another round of Questions of The Week!

Please read the Introduction and requirements, changes may have been made.

A member of the Awards Committee will post questions, at a random day/time.

Eligible members may make one post per question thread to answer the questions, and the eligible member’s winning entry must have all parts of the questions answered completely in that one post. Editing your one answer post allowed will result in disqualification.

Any disregard to the above and divulging the correct answers or giving hints/references will cause a disqualification.

First correct answers (as judged by the Awards Committee or Poster of the Questions) wins.
The WINNER can now choose from any of the prizes listed above!
Request your choice by emailing fastreply@nachi.org and submit your Mailing address for shipping.

Good Luck and let’s go!! :crazy_face:

1. This is a multi-part question regarding the following HVAC equipment combination.
• Lennox heater/air handler Model # ML180UH090E60C-54
• Lennox Condenser unit Model # 14ACX-059-230-06
• ADP Evap Coil Model # LH49/62W9T

Question 1 – During an inspection this combination was encountered and a question was raised as to the claimed SEER rating for it. What respected and authoritative source has a WEB site that can provide that information as well as other useful information?

Question 2 – What is the WEB address for the site where you can look up that information?

Question 3 – The WEB site address for question 2 can be very easily found! Where can you quickly and easily find that WEB site?

2. The following pictures are of a new construction home. The original pictures have been cropped to help protect from identifying builder, owner, etc., and the additional image info from originals is not needed. The slab is a monolithic pour along with the front porch seen here. The foundation walls have been parged resulting in the color difference from dry in stage to final. A picture of the same front porch during construction has been provided to assist with your answer. This is a multi part question. Do not try to read into this as it is an easy issue identification.

Pic1

LeftSideOfPorch

RightSideOfPorch

StoneWallAtBackOfPorch

DuringConstruction

Question 1 – What is the issue that has been caused by this application of stone veneer on the wall and brick on the front porch walking surface?

Question 2 – Can this issue be easily corrected or possibly alleviated some what without major masonry work?

Question 3 – Provide the rational behind your answer to Question 2.

3. This is a multi-part question based on the following installations.

Rinnai V94iN tankless water heater. Installation is in the attic of a home. The water heater is vented straight up, through the attic, and through the roof at least 12’ high.

Rinnai RL75eN tankless water heater. Installation is in the attic of a home. The water heater is vented straight up, through the attic, and through the roof at least 12’ high.

Question 1 – How many liquid carrying lines are used for this installation of the V94iN tankless water heater?

Question 2 - How many liquid carrying lines are used for this installation of the RL75eN tankless water heater? There is a difference so do not use one’s requirements for the other.

4. This is an attic ventilation question. Roof is a simple gable roof. Attic ventilation was designed with soffit vents for input and high mounted passive vents for exhaust. Attic insulation is all loose fill (blown) type insulation. Exterior veneer is siding (take your pick of type). The house was built in 1970 and appeared to have been equipped with proper numbers of soffit and passive vents of the proper size to achieve proper net free area for ventilation. We’ve all seen what can happen in new construction as well as what happens over the years with repairs, additions, etc. So name at least five possible issues to watch out for that could have occurred during the installation or even over the years.

5. The following picture shows a walk path between the master bathroom and a master closet. What issue is being displayed here?

carpet

2 Likes
2

Very nice innovation, Manny! :grinning:

Thank you for the timed effort it takes to put something like this together…much appreciated!

3

We’ve got a lot of smart people here and this should be an easy win even for the new Inspectors!

4

Nice work Manny.

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  1. Question 1: Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute.
    Question 2: https://www.ahridirectory.org/
    Question 3: www.ahri.org and there is a link at the top.
  2. Question 1: The installation of the brick is preventing a weep screed to be installed.
    Question 2: No.
    Question 3: The installation of a weep screed needs to be behind the water resistive barrier and the metal lathe. Removal of the stone veneer will be needed to properly install the stone to typical manufacturer instructions.
  3. Question 1: The V94iN needs a hot, cold, and condensate line, all liquid carrying. 3 lines.
    Question 2: The RL75eN also has a hot, cold, and condensate line. 3 lines.
  4. Answer 1: Check for installation of baffles
    Answer 2: Check for free flow throughout the attic, some spots of the attic may be blocked as additions are constructed over original construction.
    Answer 3: Blocking of passive vents during roof material replacement.
    Answer 4: Gable end vents left over from original construction or added during remodeling.
    Answer 5: Soffit vents are not opened up, installed over a plywood soffit without opening up for airflow.
  5. Missing a transition strip or bull nose tile. Edge could cause injury.

Hopefully I’m close, good questions. Thanks!

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Welcome Darrin!

It is good to have fresh faces on the forum, especially in “Questions of the Week”.

I’m up in Traverse City area, out near the Interlochen National Music Camp and Center for the Arts.

Where are you?

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Thanks, I used to visit often but haven’t been on in a while. I’m down south between GR and Lansing. I spent a lot of time up near Interlochen growing up, my grandparents had a cabin up that way for a few years!

8

Cool! It is beautiful up here. But growing too fast.

Don’t be a stranger here on the forum. :smile:

1 Like
9

Aww rats no winner this week! Great try Darrin! Here are the answers for this weeks questions. Watch out for tomorrow there is another week of questions upcoming!!

1. This is a multi-part question regarding the following HVAC equipment combination.
• Lennox heater/air handler Model # ML180UH090E60C-54
• Lennox Condenser unit Model # 14ACX-059-230-06
• ADP Evap Coil Model # LH49/62W9T

Question 1 – During an inspection this combination was encountered and a question was raised as to the claimed SEER rating for it. What respected and authoritative source has a WEB site that can provide that information as well as other useful information?

Question 2 – What is the WEB address for the site where you can look up that information?

Question 3 – The WEB site address for question 2 can be very easily found! Where can you quickly and easily find that WEB site?

Answer:

Question 1 – The Air-Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute has a cross reference function to find the information. The AHRI main site is http://www.ahrinet.org . However this is not the site where the look up tool is found.

Question 2 – The AHRI look up tool can be found at https://www.ahridirectory.org/Search/SearchHome

Question 3 – To find the AHRI look up tool all you have to do is read the fine print on the Lennox Model 14ACX product brochure, Page 2. It pays to read the fine print on product brochures.

2. The following pictures are of a new construction home. The original pictures have been cropped to help protect from identifying builder, owner, etc., and the additional image info from originals is not needed. The slab is a monolithic pour along with the front porch seen here. The foundation walls have been parged resulting in the color difference from dry in stage to final. A picture of the same front porch during construction has been provided to assist with your answer. This is a multi part question. Do not try to read into this as it is an easy issue identification.

Pic1

LeftSideOfPorch

RightSideOfPorch

StoneWallAtBackOfPorch

DuringConstruction

Question 1 – What is the issue that has been caused by this application of stone veneer on the wall and brick on the front porch walking surface?

Question 2 – Can this issue be easily corrected or possibly alleviated some what without major masonry work?

Question 3 – Provide the rational behind your answer to Question 2.

Answer:

Question 1 - Weepholes should be located at the bottom of the stone veneer. As can be seen in the pictures a brick ledge was not provided for the stone to rest on and instead it rests directly on the porch poured concrete surface. The addition of the brick on the porch surface has blocked the proper weephole locations at the bottom of the stone which can cause water to sit at a 2”+ height (height of the brick) behind the stone and not properly drain as required.

Question 2 – Yes there is a possibility this can be corrected.

Question 3 – There is a required 1” air gap between the stone veneer and DRYline sheathing. As long as there is no mortar slop on the porch concrete surface behind the veneer then weepholes can possibly be bored on both sides of the porch providing at least some drainage of water that might occur behind the veneer.

3. This is a multi-part question based on the following installations.

Rinnai V94iN tankless water heater. Installation is in the attic of a home. The water heater is vented straight up, through the attic, and through the roof at least 12’ high.

Rinnai RL75eN tankless water heater. Installation is in the attic of a home. The water heater is vented straight up, through the attic, and through the roof at least 12’ high.

Question 1 – How many liquid carrying lines are used for this installation of the V94iN tankless water heater?

Question 2 - How many liquid carrying lines are used for this installation of the RL75eN tankless water heater? There is a difference so do not use one’s requirements for the other.

Answer -

Question 1 – There are a total of 5 liquid carrying lines; cold water input, hot water output, the condensate drain line, the Pressure Relief Valve discharge line, and the required drain pan line. You can read about the installation requirementsHERE.

Question 2 – This is an irrelevant question since the Rinnai RL75eN tankless water heater SHOULD NOT be installed indoors and IS NOT configured for indoor use!

4. This is an attic ventilation question. Roof is a simple gable roof. Attic ventilation was designed with soffit vents for input and high mounted passive vents for exhaust. Attic insulation is all loose fill (blown) type insulation. Exterior veneer is siding (take your pick of type). The house was built in 1970 and appeared to have been equipped with proper numbers of soffit and passive vents of the proper size to achieve proper net free area for ventilation. We’ve all seen what can happen in new construction as well as what happens over the years with repairs, additions, etc. So name at least five possible issues to watch out for that could have occurred during the installation or even over the years.

Answer: These are not all possible issues.
• Insulation shields were never in use at the original build and as a result loose fill insulation was blown into the soffits and blocked the air flow.
• Soffit vents were intermittently placed and insulation shields were used however they were not placed at the locations of the soffit vents resulting in insulation being blown over soffit vent openings.
• Insulation shields were not of the right size or properly installed to completely protect the rafter bay opening resulting in insulation being blown into the soffit area and blocking vents.
• Insulation shields were properly placed but loose fill insulation was blown on the tops of them.
• Soffit material was not fully cut out the size of the vent opening thereby reducing the amount of net free opening area.
• Vent screens have been blocked by years of paint, dust, insect nesting, etc., causing restricted air flow.
• Other vents have been improperly routed to the soffit area in an attempt to use the soffit input vents as exhaust points thereby blocking them and reducing the net free area.
• Passive vents near the ridge were not properly installed with one or more conditions obstructing their openings and reducing the net free area of the vent.
• Other vents have been improperly routed up and to the passive vents to use them as exit points from the attic instead of routing the other vents directly to the exterior.
• Subsequent siding replacements also included the addition of high mounted gable end vents and/or gable end fans without consideration to the existence of passive vents (soffit and ridge/near ridge vents). This condition can result in a short circuiting of the air flow and impede proper ventilation.
• Subsequent roof covering replacements included the addition of power ventilators without consideration to the existence of passive vents at/near the ridge. This condition can result in a short circuiting of the air flow and impede proper ventilation.
• Subsequent roof covering replacements included the addition of ridge vents without consideration to the existence of passive vents. This condition can result in a short circuiting of the air flow and impede proper ventilation.

5. The following picture shows a walk path between the master bathroom and a master closet. What issue is being displayed here?

carpet

Answer:

This is one of those items that exceed any SOP but is a significant foot safety hazard and deserves to be called out! A proper transition method between the carpet and tile has not been employed which is exposing the sharp edge of the tile. This is a foot laceration hazard that will only become worse as heavy foot traffic wears the carpet pile. The Carpet and Rug Institute CRI-105 Standard For Installation Of Residential Carpet is the standard used by many/most all carpet manufacturers for the installation requirement for their carpets and it can be found here https://carpet-rug.org/resources/installation-standards/ . The requirements for transitions are in section 5.4. CRI defines the “total carpet thickness” as measured from the very bottom or base of the backer material to the top of the fibers you walk on. Even though this installation may not require a transition method, as the fibers wear the total thickness will decrease and further expose the tile surface edge. Also due to the compressible nature of this carpet fiber (as seen here) the sharp tile edge is still exposed when the carpet is new.

1 Like