Every pirate movie ever made has a peg legged member of the scallywag crew. And who could forget Captain Ahab who lost his leg to the great white whale Moby Dick. Argh.
Yes sir the peg leg has been around a long time and has served its purpose well. Actually the peg leg is still around today in another duty. Not as a limb replacement for obsessed whale hunting seamen, but as an important part of gas piping.
Natural gas or propane is referred to often as the clean fuel and for the most part that is essentially true. When feeding gas through a network of pipes and holding devices some dirt is bound to find its way in the system.
Gas burners like the ones on a water heater have small orifices which can clog fairly easily. Because a miniscule amount of debris can be in those pipes a simple yet effective device must be added to the piping just before the water heater, the drip leg.
The drip leg is nothing more than a length of pipe fitted from the bottom of a pipe Tee. The gas comes in the top of the Tee and out through the middle into the water heater. The drip leg is the bottom pipe with a cap. Drip legs would also be found on gas furnaces and boilers.
Looking at the first photo you can see that this water heaters piping is missing its drip leg. The bottom photo is a nice example how a good install should look with the drip leg.
So next time you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean think to your self, does my water heater have a leg to stand on.
Snakes as well as many other creatures like to slither down a nice hidey hole, but if there is no entrance that ol' snake can't get in. Plumbing needs entrances too.
Every house with plumbing has two basic sets of pipes. One brings the water to where it needs to go, like the sinks, shower and laundry. This set of pipes is known as the supplies. The other set of pipes are there to take away the used water. These are known as drains or waste pipes.
Now plumbing may look easy to some folks, nothing more than some pipes stuck together going to and from the bathrooms and kitchen. But as with most everything there is always more to it than meets the eye. That's why plumbers go through schooling and long apprenticeships; there is a lot to know.
Getting back to those pipes, the drains are probably more important than the supplies. Taking away foul water is part of keeping the house clean and healthy.
I'm sure everyone has experienced a clogged drain. A backed up drain is nasty business. There is stuff floating around in there that you can't identify and it doesn't have a pleasant odor. Not to hard to fix, right? Get the drain opener, pour it in and wait. After a while the clog dissolves and whoosh, the nasty stuff goes away.
But what happens if all the drains in the house get blocked? I can tell you this; that drain opener isn't going to help one bit. Time to call the plumber.
The plumber will have his drain opening tool, the snake. Like our live and slithering friend the plumbers snake will need an entrance to get into the pipe to do its job. This entrance is known as a cleanout. (pretty clever name, huh)
Cleanouts are required on drains for good reason. Most homes will have several. The placement of these cleanouts is dictated by the plumbing code.
Looking at this set of waste pipes pictured you will see the pipe exiting the house through the foundation wall. What is missing is a Tee with a drain cleanout. All that is there is an elbow. In fact the entire house did not have one drain cleanout any where. The plumbing here was most assuredly not done by a licensed plumber.
So when Mr. Plumber comes to fix the clogged drains in this home, his snake will not have an entrance. And the home owners? They will have a much bigger bill.
You ever have to crawl under a car because you found a mysterious spot on the garage floor? Or had a funny odor in the house and you needed to go under the house. (like a home inspector)
Many homes in Connecticut have wells. Some towns do not have public water at all so right away I know I will have a well system to inspect. The most obvious sign of a well on the property is the well head poking out of the ground in the yard.
Wells fall in to basic categories, deep and shallow. Deep wells will have the pump down inside the well. It is mechanically easier to push the water up a long pipe. Shallow wells have the pump inside the house or some times in a pit. This system pulls the water up from the well. Not as efficient, but also easier to fix when the pump goes bad.
One big difference with the two systems is the need and placement for the pumps electrical wires. If the pumps in the well so then are the wires. Pumps not in the well, no wires.
Now check out this shiny new well cap and pipe. Very nice, makes me wonder all kinds of things. (yes I am the suspicious type, it's my job)
One thing I did wonder about is since I knew the well was shallow, no wires going down in there, was about the hole for those wires. You see this type of head is most often, but not always, found on wells where the pumps in the well.
So I decide to take a peek down under the cap and look what I see, a hole. What's the big deal? Nothing if you don't mind all sorts of vermin having a way into your water supply. One little mouse gets in there and you have all sorts of bacteria swimming in your water.
It may not always be a pleasure to take a peek down under, but it sure can be revealing.
Is what Robin the boy wonder said when Batman ripped his tights. Exposing certain objects to the world can have detrimental consequences and in some instances cause a little embarrassment.
Take for example electrical wires. Exposed wire is not very desirable or safe. The wires in our homes and buildings are covered with insulation not only to protect us from them, but to shield each wire from the others. Touching two live wires together can yield some spectacular fireworks, which is why for many, many years now wires have been insulated.
(A little aside, originally wires were not covered and fires were quite common.)
Part of older wire insulation was made from cloth. I still see cloth covered wires all the time. Problem with cloth and really most any material is it breaks down over time, especially outdoors. Since cloth covered wire is old to begin with, when I find it, the cloth covering is usually in bad condition.
Recently I found what has to be one of the worst instances of deteriorated wire insulation I have ever seen. The main service wires for the home were almost completely bare. Talk about exposure! Talk about dangerous!
You can see them in the picture. Notice the wires have insulation to the right and after the splice, nada. These wires were just inches away from each other and could easily touch with the help of a high wind.
This is a case of very bad exposure which requires immediate covering. What do you think Robin the Boy Wonder would say?
Have you ever made the wrong connection? You were putting something together and it didn't go together quite right. Dads know all about that at Christmas.
When a contractor or a licensed professional makes connections they should be made right, period. No extra or mystery pieces left over when the job is done. Everything in its place.
When non-professionals tackle a job some times wrong connections are made. These bad connections usually occur out of a lack of knowledge or laziness or both.
Take for instance this pretty yellow gas pipe with its nice matching new yellow valve. Looks sweet, don't cha think? This gas connection is for the dryer to the left. To the right is the water heater. The gas pipe the pretty yellow pipe is attached to is for the water heater. Not a problem to splice into the pipe and to give some gas to the dryer. Problem here is where the connection was made.
The bottom of the water heater black gas pipe is referred to as a drip leg. That is where the installer connected the elbow to begin plumbing his yellow valve and pipe to the dryer. You can not connect anything from that point. The purpose of the drip leg is to trap sediment from the gas line.
Remember what I said about a lack of knowledge and laziness. This was the easiest place to connect the dryer gas line. So there she be.
This wrong connection will now have to be redone to make the right connection. Should be an easy job for any qualified professional.
There is one thing about water that is a definite, if you chill it enough it will freeze. No ifs and or buts about it, you get ice. Ice is great to cool your drink or for skating, but not if it's inside the pipes in your house. If your pipes freeze you have problems, namely burst pipes and an unwanted indoor water feature.
While inspecting this little house not to far back, I discovered the water supply pipes going doooown into the floor and then up, up, up into the ceiling. Hmmmm, very curious and not too good.
Under the floor was a crawl space and that means no heat. Above was the attic, ditto, no heat.
Why would anyone plumb the house this way? Simply this little house was never meant to be a house but a summer cottage. Over the years it was added onto and then made into a year round residence. So you see the pipes originally would have been drained in the fall and filled back up when the vacationers came back next summer. Now there are no part time resident and that presents some what of a problem.
I could not access either of these areas to view if the pipes have been insulated or had pipe heaters. I would suspect that some sort of "protection" had been installed because someone had been living there for years and was now selling. None the less this is risky business running pipes through unconditioned areas and relying on mechanical devices to keep the water flowing.
The person buying this property has plans to re-plumb the home along with other renovations. This would be a first rate plan unless he wants a winter waterfall.
I had the opportunity to do a little spelunking not long ago. I must say it wasn't all that pleasant of an experience. It was extremely wet down in there and incredibly confined. You can see the water dripping from the top of the cave in the first photo.
It wasn't that large of a space, which made it hard to navigate my way through. The mud didn't help either.
The walls and ceiling were an eerie sort of yellow to green color that lent a weird glow to the place. The dripping water made tiny iridescent points through out the grotto.
It looked as if a small stream ran through here when it rained. There was a swath cut through the mud beginning at the entrance gently meandering its way through to a low point or pond.
The place was inhabited by various cave dwelling creatures. Large spiders were here there and every where. Multi-legged creepy crawlies scurried about the mud. I spied the occasional worm slithering through the muck. All in all not an unusual menagerie for this place.
Yes it was an experience all right. Especially since this grotto was actually a crawl space under a house. The stuff that looks like limestone is foam insulation. I hope you enjoyed the tour.
Have you ever been walking along minding your own business when suddenly there's a snake right in front of you? You might be wondering; "Where did he come from, and why is he sneaking up o me like this?" Or you might turn tail and run screaming not thinking much of anything.
Snakes make me think of plumbing because of the twists and turns of the pipes. But one plumbing defect really brings that snake into my head, the S trap.
If you look in the picture you can see an S trap sticking its snaky body through the insulation of the floor. An S trap is not allowed because the water in the trap will siphon off leaving no barrier between the house and the sewage system. In addition to smelling really bad, sewage gases are poisonous.
A P trap should always be installed, second picture, because they will not cause siphoning of the water barrier.
The plumber in who installed this S trap was a sneaky snake putting the trap in the basement. Fortunately for these buyers it was found or their kitchen may have had some very unappetizing odors.
Now who would "forget" to shower. It's just silly to think anyone could just forget. No question someone would surely remind you after a few days once you got your funk on.
Cleaning your oil furnace and or water heater is no different. If you forget it will let you know after a while. No it won't become stinky; it will start to act temperamental. Shutting off secretly in the middle of the night and when you wake up in the morning, no heat!
The water heater will play the same nasty tricks on you. When you go into take your morning shower the water will be icy cold. That'll wake you up faster than a cup of strong coffee.
Oil fired appliances require yearly cleanings, but gas fire appliances also benefit from yearly tune ups. Not cleaning an oil fired appliance however will surely result in a unit that will not work properly. The unit will sputter and shut down constantly. No heat or hot water is no fun.
The service companies put stickers or hang tags on the unit to record when and what was done last. Inspectors love these tags, it can tell you quite a bit about the appliance. It can also tell the homeowner when it's time to call the service man.
It seems to me many homeowners aren't paying attention to those little reminders. The picture above shows that in this house the units had not been serviced in 6 years! Which would explain why the water heater and furnace would not run when I tested them both.
You would never forget to shower, but have you forgotten to clean your furnace?
Home inspectors quite often find various creatures in our explorations of the house. Pets are generally fine, as long as Fido doesn't bite or Fluffy scratch, we're good.
But how about those wild creatures that are unexpectedly encountered. Hopefully they're dead, trapped or other wise incapacitated whilst I beat a hasty retreat.
Fellow Rainer Charles Buell found one of those wild critters and was kind enough to share his near death encounter. The poor little vermin was already dead, fried like a sausage on a hot skillet.
This reminded me of an unusual and interesting find a while back during one of my home inspections.
Inspecting the furnace in the basement I removed the front cover to find this guy. That's a bat who's a little worse for wear.
How it got inside the furnace is kind of a mystery. But I would guess he must've flown down the chimney into the furnace flue pipe and meandered his way through the unit ending up trapped inside the bottom where I found him.
Since he made his way all the way into the bottom of the furnace it is very possible he could have found his way into the ducts. Can you imagine relaxing one night watching TV and suddenely this creature bursts forth from a heating register into the living room.
That'll liven up the evening!
One thing about bats, they carry diseases, especially the droppings. It's a good idea to not get too close (like any one would).
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Yes sir the peg leg has been around a long time and has served its purpose well. Actually the peg leg is still around today in another duty. Not as a limb replacement for obsessed whale hunting seamen, but as an important part of gas piping.
The drip leg is nothing more than a length of pipe fitted from the bottom of a pipe Tee. The gas comes in the top of the Tee and out through the middle into the water heater. The drip leg is the bottom pipe with a cap. Drip legs would also be found on gas furnaces and boilers.
The plumber will have his drain opening tool, the snake. Like our live and slithering friend the plumbers snake will need an entrance to get into the pipe to do its job. This entrance is known as a cleanout. (pretty clever name, huh)
Many homes in Connecticut have wells. Some towns do not have public water at all so right away I know I will have a well system to inspect. The most obvious sign of a well on the property is the well head poking out of the ground in the yard.
So I decide to take a peek down under the cap and look what I see, a hole. What's the big deal? Nothing if you don't mind all sorts of vermin having a way into your water supply. One little mouse gets in there and you have all sorts of bacteria swimming in your water.
Part of older wire insulation was made from cloth. I still see cloth covered wires all the time. Problem with cloth and really most any material is it breaks down over time, especially outdoors. Since cloth covered wire is old to begin with, when I find it, the cloth covering is usually in bad condition.
Take for instance this pretty yellow gas pipe with its nice matching new yellow valve. Looks sweet, don't cha think? This gas connection is for the dryer to the left. To the right is the water heater. The gas pipe the pretty yellow pipe is attached to is for the water heater. Not a problem to splice into the pipe and to give some gas to the dryer. Problem here is where the connection was made.
There is one thing about water that is a definite, if you chill it enough it will freeze. No ifs and or buts about it, you get ice. Ice is great to cool your drink or for skating, but not if it's inside the pipes in your house. If your pipes freeze you have problems, namely burst pipes and an unwanted indoor water feature.
see the pipes originally would have been drained in the fall and filled back up when the vacationers came back next summer. Now there are no part time resident and that presents some what of a problem.
I had the opportunity to do a little spelunking not long ago. I must say it wasn't all that pleasant of an experience. It was extremely wet down in there and incredibly confined. You can see the water dripping from the top of the cave in the first photo.
Have you ever been walking along minding your own business when suddenly there's a snake right in front of you? You might be wondering; "Where did he come from, and why is he sneaking up o me like this?" Or you might turn tail and run screaming not thinking much of anything.
A P trap should always be installed, second picture, because they will not cause siphoning of the water barrier.
The water heater will play the same nasty tricks on you. When you go into take your morning shower the water will be icy cold. That'll wake you up faster than a cup of strong coffee.
Inspecting the furnace in the basement I removed the front cover to find this guy. That's a bat who's a little worse for wear.
;)
;)
