Thread: How would you have handled this??

I found this on the townhouse next door to the one I was inspecting.

If I see something next-door that really looks like it could affect the property I'm inspecting, I make a note of it in the report. How, or if, it gets resolved is not in my control.

With something like that I would have most likely knocked on the neighbors door and told them what I found while I was inspecting the house next door. Most likely they have no idea of what is going on.

I agree with you Scott, it may take a little time and effort, but unless I was in a really rough neighborhood, I would have trouble not addressing it, that looks dangerous.
Now if I could just stop inspecting roofs as I drive by, I may be able to break this inspection addiction thing.
Jim

Besides the other issues, is that from a water heater or a furnace? (In case the house you were at had a similar, but different, set-up.

I ask, because if that is from a furnace, it is very unlikely that both the furnace and the a/c will be on at the same time (unless that is a heat pump with back up / emergency gas furnace).

However, that looks liked close to the window up there ... (among other things)

My other thought was on that basement window. Hope that isn't being used for an EERO. Looks a little small to me.

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

With something like that I would have most likely knocked on the neighbors door and told them what I found while I was inspecting the house next door. Most likely they have no idea of what is going on.

Agreed.

I would do the same.

There were no gas appliances, the house was total electric. I thought it could be a pellett stove vent . The owners were not home to talk during the inspection. The agent lives in the same community and was going to call the county inspector if the owner did not respond favorably.

This is L vent for a pellet stove. They have a vertical termination where it should elbow out with a horizontal termination. However, since the fly ash particles carry an opposite charge from the vinyl, this side of the house will be a mess regardless until they extend the vent up above the roofline.

I would knock on the door and tell them why you were next door and you were pointhing this out as a courtesy. Often, homeowners don't get around the side of their houses for months on end. I would say that you think they might want to talk with their installer about extending this vent up above the roof and asking them to clean the siding. They should have been aware of the hazard and warned the homeowner before they bought. If it is a cash & carry self installation, oh, well.

How do you distinguish from pictures if it is "L" vent Or "b" vent. Is it shaped different in some manner? Just curious.

You can't read those lablels? Man, you need your eyes checked!

Seriously, they are made identically except the L vent has a stainless steel inner liner and fiberglass rope packing in the female end. Can't see those either?

Alright, I'll come clean: It was an educated guess based upon the size of the vent (pellet vents are 3" & 4"), the tripod bracket is unique to pellet vents because they often run vertically up the side of the house and need that vertical support, L-vents usually carry a 3" clearance as seen here while B-vent is 1", the firestop looks like the pellet vent firestops I know as does the termination, the height of the vent is consistent with a pellet vent, a pellet vent coming out of a basement is a typical application whereas you usually don't see that with gas or oil, although L vent was developed for oil venting and is listed to UL641 you just don't see oil appliances taking vents less than 5", and those stains on the plastic siding are consistent with pellet stove fly ash. The ash and the plastic are opposite charges so they stick. The heat from a pellet vent is not always enough to melt plastic siding while an oil appliance would be. Oil soot would be running down the siding. If from a gas appliance, the soot would not have skipped the vertical support of the cap. See the gap in the soot to right of center? That's because the pellet vent is under positive pressure so the vertical supports for the cap, as seen on the front of the cap act to block fly ash from impacting directly behind it. Gas soot tends to swirl and coat more evenly. Gas vent soot trails tend to run higher and narrower while the positive pressure from the pellet vent forces it outward in a broad truncated inverted cone.

Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

Is that romex cable from the disconnect to the AC?


Darren

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