Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Old Codes vs New Codes

A home inspector seldom specifies something as a code issue. There are legal reasons for this. However, that does not mean that an inspector does not know a number of codes and is looking out for violations, especially with safety issues. Unless a major renovation is underway, codes are not retroactive. In other words, even a municipal code inspector in your house to approve a furnace, is not likely to condemn a plumbing code violation from 25 years before. With some major safety issues, an inspector should call out a concern, regardless of when the work was done. For example, if I see a 15 foot high deck with a guardrail that has 12" between spindles, I am going to state that a child could fall through and suggest 4" spindles be put in place. That applies even if the deck was built before anyone ever thought of guardrails.

A good example of another code change has to do with the party-wall or the firewall in the attic of a shared residence -- such as a duplex, zero lot line or even a multi-unit condo. Today a firewall is required in most jurisdictions to slow down any fire that might start in the attic. The photo below is from a multi-unit condo, built about 30 years ago. They never heard of such a thing as a firewall. I was on the right side,  taking the photo, and the dark void to the left is the start of the roof structure to yet another unit. Basically, the attic was one big space over several units. Another potential problem with this configuration, especially in residential duplexes, is there might be an attic hatch in each half. In that case, a less than honest tenant might loot the other side by going across the attic.

Lack of a party-wall I mention on the report, but point out that this was standard design for construction of a certain era. Generally, nobody expects anything much to be done to modify this design.