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Getting ready to list the house. Occupied new in 2011, came with hard-wired smoke only detectors (no CO). Google says 2008 code says CO is required whether or not there's any gas in the house if there's a fireplace. Is this something that my builder(s), city, county, and private inspectors all misssed?
And if I really don't need the CO, should I replace all of them anyway because they're ten years old?
Also, the garage to house door has the self-closing hinges that have never worked that I can recall. Should I be concerned about this, or bank on the next inspector being lazy like the last guy and just seeing that they're there?
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What was code when the house was built, in your county, city, etc.?
The self closing hinges should be adjustable, last 2 homes we owned they were.
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(03-14-2021, 04:10 PM)MT Woodworker Wrote: What was code when the house was built, in your county, city, etc.?
The self closing hinges should be adjustable, last 2 homes we owned they were.
Going by the google, it says 'permit issued after 2008'. Mine may well have been issued prior to that, but wasn't completed. I have five detectors. Replacing them it doubles the cost from smoke only to smoke and CO. It's only $60... so in the grand scheme of things, I guess I oughta just do it.
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Check with the county records
But yea, in the big picture not much to spend
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(03-14-2021, 04:28 PM)KC Wrote: Going by the google, it says 'permit issued after 2008'. Mine may well have been issued prior to that, but wasn't completed. I have five detectors. Replacing them it doubles the cost from smoke only to smoke and CO. It's only $60... so in the grand scheme of things, I guess I oughta just do it.
$60 is better now than having someone point out the need later
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Maybe you need to have a couple "easy" things for a home inspector to find? They need to put something on their report, why not make it easy for both of you?
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(03-14-2021, 08:37 PM)toolmiser Wrote: Maybe you need to have a couple "easy" things for a home inspector to find? They need to put something on their report, why not make it easy for both of you?
It's never a problem finding things to put in a report. I've done over 800 now and have never seen a perfect house. The closest I came was 1 defect in a brand new house. One loose kitchen cabinet door.
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Smoke and CO detectors (in most states) on every floor and in every bedroom became fire code in 2018. A ot of these states require them to be hardwired and have 10 year, non replaceable batteries. That being said, we don't usually check for or care if they're hardwired but it's easy to tell. They all go off when one is set off if they're hardwired.
Also, a home inspector is not a code inspector. We look for defects, inoperable stuff, safety hazards and "best practices". If a garage door opener is working but it held up by a coat hanger, that is a safety hazard and not a "best practice" . If we see missing smoke/Co detectors, we don't care when the house was built. It gets listed in the report as a Fire Safety Hazard. No different than a missing handrail in a stair case. It doesn't matter what the code was when the house was built, it's still listed as a safety hazard.
There is usually a small pin hole in the self closing hinges. The pin connects the interior spring to the hinge. The pins fall out and they quit working. Locate the pin hole and see if there's a pin in it. They are all different but you can usually find a suitable pin in the hardware drawers at Ace. Some have an Allen slot on the top or the Bottom of the hinge pin. Use an Allen wrench to tighten the spring and insert the pin.
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03-15-2021, 09:38 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-15-2021, 09:39 AM by TDKPE.)
(03-14-2021, 03:49 PM)KC Wrote: Getting ready to list the house. Occupied new in 2011, came with hard-wired smoke only detectors (no CO). Google says 2008 code says CO is required whether or not there's any gas in the house if there's a fireplace. Is this something that my builder(s), city, county, and private inspectors all misssed?
And if I really don't need the CO, should I replace all of them anyway because they're ten years old?
I'm curious to see what you do here with the smokes. I've got exactly 10 of them, that I hardwired when I built my basement office because the inspector (permitted work) wanted them hardwired, but couldn't legally force me to. Battery powered units would have been the legal minimum, but I liked the idea of them being interconnected. This was before the days of radio interconnection.
But what I installed are all old now, and I really should replace them all. So I'm interested to see what you do with yours.
Tom
“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
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03-15-2021, 10:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-15-2021, 10:30 AM by rschissler.)
I don't understand how the combo ones can work, since a CO detector is supposed to be installed low to the floor? I would buy a separate CO detector, either batter operated or one that plugs into an outlet.
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