Sooner Or Later We Will All Step In It
From Jay Markanich House Inspector. It never ceases to amaze me at the shoddy workmanship of some contractors and home builders... This mistake should have been caught, or perhaps they did see it and didn't care, as it would have involved too much time and money to correct it...
As we go through life, certainly, sooner or later we will all step in it.
BUT WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT IN OUR KITCHEN!
On a recent pre-drywall inspection I noticed something, looked to see why, and then explained it to my client.
She had been through the house many times, even with her parents. I noticed about 10 things that caused me pause, and would be chicken bones in the throat of the buyer.
This is one of those things.
On the left is where a hole had been prepared in the floor to house the HVAC register.
To the left is the kitchen pantry, and family room on the right.
However, with the floor joists running from where I am standing toward the door, those cavities can be used for many things.
In this case that particular cavity was used to house the dryer vent tubing, which was installed prior to the HVAC duct work.
Since there is not room for the dryer vent and HVAC duct, the duct was moved to the right.
What's my problem with that?
IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR!
That floor register will be metal, or wood or plastic or whatever. Sooner or later it will be stepped on and bent or broken. And if the door is open even a little when either the heat or AC turns on, it will whoosh right out the door.
Does anyone doubt that?
So, it is what it is. By far the better position for the floor register would have been to the left where the door is stationary. The guy installing the dryer vent tubing saw the hole in the floor, knew what it was for, and apparently didn't care. The supervisor didn't catch it and now they are left with this option. At this point the work has advanced such with plumbing and wiring it would be difficult to change it back and reroute everything else.
My recommendation: this is the kind of thing that should have been caught earlier by the supervisor on the site. It is never a good idea to have a floor register right where people work or stand. This is not a code issue and will never be. The builder says they will "only fix" what are code violations. That's myopic at best. I have seen floor registers in front of the kitchen sink, in front of the master bathroom toilet, and in the wall of a small hall linen closet, blowing INTO the closet! And I am seeing these things long after they have been completed and after someone along the way either did not notice or did not care. It's always best to have a pre-drywall inspection!
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia
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