While perfoming an inspection matthews home inspector Preston Sandlin found a dent in the tilled shower which was really odd because backer board would not allow a dent like this. Well it turns out that this tile was actually mounted on drywall instead of boakboard whick is a big no no. All of this tile in this walk in shower will have to be pulled down. Backer board will have to be installed and then it will need to be retiled.
If you need home inspection information or you are in need of a great home inspector in the Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Belmont Concord, Fort Mill or Rock Hill areas contact Home Inspection Carolina http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com . The have performed over 23,432 home inspection and will not let you buy the money pit. We have over 100 years of combined home inspection and construction experience. Please give us a call (704) 542-6575

Preston Sandlin
Home Inspection Carolina

Have you ever been told there is no such thing as a hot water heater? I must have heard this a thousand times growing up. The water is not hot before it goes into the water heater. The people who told us this were actually right but I would make me so mad when they would say this because I think they just wanted to be a smart alec. You can call it a hot water heater and I want give you a hard time.
There are basically two types of water heaters or hot water heaters if you prefer. There is gas and electric. You can tell which type you have by looking at the top and bottom of the unit. A gas unit will have a metal flue and possibly a draft hood. The gas unit will also have a gas line with a cut off (hopefully) at the bottom with a burner. Also if the gas unit is in the garage it should be “18 off of the floor for safety reasons. If you have an electric unit it doesn’t have to be off of the floor. The electric unit will not have gas line or a flue but it will have a 220 line in a conduit going into the top of it.
When inspecting an electric water heater one of the first things you want to check is the water temperature. Most manufacturers have the temps preset to 100-150 degrees F. You have to keep in mind that if the water is over 120 degrees F it can scold a small child. We usually write it up if it over 120. You check the temperature of the water by using a digital meat thermometer in the hot water as it is coming out a faucet preferably close to the water heater. The next thing you want to check for is a reverse water-line installation. You can tell whether the installation is reversed by touching the pipe and comparing it the hot outlet fitting at the top of the tank. If it’s cold where it says hot and hot where cold it’s reversed. A reversed connection results in inefficient operation of the heater. When the inlet-outlet is connection is reversed, the cold water enters the tank at the top and mixes with the hot water as it settles to the bottom near the outlet fitting. So for the same thermostat setting the temperature of the hot water is lower than it otherwise would have been. The next thing you need to check is the element and the thermostat. There are checker for these that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot. I think it is important to note here that you must turn the electricity off to do this. Another thing that you should know is that if you turn on a water heater with no water in it you will burn out the element. This is something you definitely want to keep in mind if you are dealing with a foreclosure in which the power and the water have been off for awhile.
An internal part of the water heater that you can’t see is the anode rod. It is usually made out magnesium and attracts any corrosives or oxidizers in the water. This saves the tank from oxidation. It is hard to see or inspect this rod without taking the water heater apart to do so. The way you test for this is to run the hot water and smell it for a sulfur smell. You obviously check for leaks and pay particular attention to the joints in the pipes. If two dissimilar metals are touching each other without some sort of dielectric connection, electrolysis will occur resulting in corrosion and then a leak. There is a drain at the bottom of the water heater that you periodically want to drain out settlement. Near the top of the water heater you should see a temperature relief valve or TPR valve. What this does is let off steam if the unit malfunctions and continues to heat the water. The spring in the relief valve will depress and release the pressure to keep the unit from exploding. There are set for certain temperature and a certain pressure which is stamped on the side of the valve. Sometimes after a couple of years the spring goes bad and this will leak. These are relatively inexpensive to replace.
For a gas water heater everything is pretty much the same except that instead of a heating element you have a burner at the bottom of the tank that should be checked for corrosion and rust flaking. The gas line should be checked for leaks. This can be done is a gas leak detector or bubbly water. The draft should be checked for CO with a detector. Also the flue should not be in direct contact with wood or drywall (or any o the flammable material for that matter. I hope this gives you a better understanding of how to check water heaters. I will talk extensively about thankless water heaters in another writing. The next time someone correct with the old “no such thing as a hot water heater” You can ask them something like what does an anode rod do on a water heater. For more info on water heaters check out the audio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-charlotte-home-inspector or http://www.charlottenchomeinspector.com .

Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina recently used a Rigid See Snake to find out where a plumbing leak was in the ceiling od a Charlotte home. The advantage of this is that we did not have to tear out the whole ceiling to find out where the leak was. The new RIDGID® SeeSnake® micro™ Inspection Camera allows you to perform detailed visual inspection in hard to reach areas. Its comfortable pistol grip design and forward facing controls make it easy to detect and diagnose the unreachable. Available with a 17mm camera head for general use or a 9.5mm camera head for up-close visual inspections in tight spaces, the SeeSnake micro Inspection Camera provides solutions whenever and wherever you need them. http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com

http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com During a recent home inspection in Waxhaw NC, a Charlotte inspector found a drain on a tub that had been added where the p trap was not visible. The problem on the home inspection is that there is no p trap visible. You could not find it without tearing up the floors. The builder says it was there but this was not good enough for the buyer. What is the best option? Charlotte Inspector Preston Sandlin brought a see snake which is a flexible light camera extension that puts what is seeing on an LCD Screen. He put that dow the drain and ran it about 3 feet and sure enough he saw water which indicates that a p trap is present. Why is a p trap important? The P Trap was developed as part of the drainage system for the plumbing in your home or business. The P trap will also stop sewer odors from coming back up the drain and into your bathroom. This trap has been used all of the world for many years and will continue to be.

The p-trap is found in the bathroom, the kitchen, the basement, the bar and many other places in your home.Many P-traps can also be found in many commercial places of business. P-Traps can be found in fast food places, supermarkets, schools,hospitals, zoos, office buildings, outdoor showers at the beach and pretty much every where you can find a fixture drain.

The P-trap can be found under most fixtures. Common places you will be able to see the p-trap are under both your kitchen and bathroom sink. If you have an laundry tub/sink you will be able to see the p-trap under that as well. Your shower and bathtub also use a p trap but you will or will not be able to see the actual trap. This will depend if you have a basement, crawl space or even live on a slab.

If your bathroom is built on a slap you will not be able to see your p trap because it will be inside of the slab, which is under the bathtub or the shower pan. If you have a bathroom that is built on the first floor and you have a crawl space or a basement you will be able to see your p-trap if you go into one of those areas. The only problem you may run into is if your basement is finished, you may have to remove some Sheetrock from the basement ceiling before you can access the p-trap and the bathtub trip lever or shower pan drain. http://www.askthecharlotteinspector.com

Charlotte home inspector Preston Sandlin recently inspected a house that had two different types of plumbing pipes in use. Fortunatuately the Charlotte homeowner did not have them connected directy to each other or he would have had a dielectric connection. What is a dielectric connection and how do you avoid it? If you put two metals together in water, one of them corrodes to protect the other. This is known as electrolysis. The action of a sacrificial anode rod, and that of a battery, are both examples of beneficial electrolysis. However, usually in plumbing, electrolysis is something you want to avoid, especially in connections, since it means that the corroding part is eventually going to leak.

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Most people don’t realize it, but it is not washing dishes or taking a shower that uses the most water during the day. It is actually the act of flushing a toilet. Older, less efficient toilets operate by passing over three gallons of water through the plumbing system with each flush. As water resources become more scarce, ways to cut down on some of the water that is literally being “flushed away” are being sought.