Why Snow Can Help Evaluate Your Attic Ventilation

Snow is fun the first time it falls during the winter months, but after the novelty of the season wears off it's just a big pain in the butt. The endless shoveling/salting, slower commutes, and wet shoes have never made anyone happy. But for all the pain that snow can be, I have one more useful thing that snow can do and that is help you evaluate the adequacy of your attic ventilation. OK, you still may not find this a good enough reason to have endless snow like we seem to be experiencing right now in 2021, but lets continue anyway.

How Does Attic Ventilation Work?

Attic ventilation is a key component to the health of any home. Having poor attic ventilation can cause mold growth, moisture retention, and ice damning. Unfortunately, attic ventilation is also hard to truly evaluate unless you do some expensive testing. The reason behind this is because the ventilation requires several components to be successful and keep your attic space healthy. The main three components that are key for good attic ventilation are lower vent, top vents, and insulation. All three of these need to be properly sized and installed for the system to work.

Your attic ventilation works on the basic premise that hot air rises. Your ventilation system wants to remove the hot (or warmest air) from the attic so it can remove air that is too humid and keep the temperature in the attic space around the same temperature of the outside air. As you can see below, a common ventilation design has a vent right at the top of the roof called a ridge vent where the warm air rises and exits the attic space. Just as important are the lower vents at the soffits in this picture as they pull fresh cooler air into space by what is called the stack effect. Without these lower vents, space would not vent as fast. If you have ever shotgunned a beer, it is kind of the same principle. If you don’t have a dedicated vent to allow air to flow into space, you create a vacuum for a second that slows the flow of the beer or the flow of the warm air out.

Example of the Stack Effect and How it works to Ventilate your Attic

The last important component of the ventilation system is the attic insulation. While it does not affect how fast the air is replaced in the attic space, it does effect the overall conditions of the space and makes it harder for the vents to keep the space cooler. During the winter, if you don’t have good insulation and are heating your house you will be heating up your attic space as well which is not ideal. The ventilation system will still do its job to remove the hot air, but it will have to work harder and may not be able to keep up.

How Ice Damns are Formed

How Snow Can Help You Evaluate

So back to snow, and why it can help determine the adequacy of your ventilation system. When there is good snow (several inches) and it is followed by temperatures that are below freezing, your roof should for the most part retain the snow that has accumulated on it. This is because a well-ventilated attic will keep the roof service temperature about the same as outside. If your attic is not properly ventilated, it will be noticeably warmer than outside and begin to melt the snow through its contact with the roof that is now warmer than outside. If you notice that the snow on your roof melted while your neighbors still have theirs, then that is a sign that your attic ventilation is insufficient and you should have a professional evaluation.

You may also notice ice damning (see above picture) around your roof and that is the cause of the snow melting due to improper ventilation. Ice Damning will eventually damage your roofing substrate. During the summer months, you may also have issues with mold growth as enough hot humid air is not able to be properly vented from the attic space.

What to Do if You Have Poor Ventilation

In this case, it is usually best to call in a professional as there are calculations involved when it comes to ensuring adequate vents are installed. Several items that may need to be fixed are:

  1. You don’t have adequate vents at the top of your roof.
  2. The lower soffit vents are blocked, not enough, or missing in general.
  3. You need to add more attic insulation
  4. There are air leakage points into your attic
  5. A combination of the above.

Consult with a professional and get several quotes and opinions. It might not be a cheap fix, but it will be cheaper than the repairs that will be required due to neglect.

Five Considerations Prior to Canceling a Contract Due to an Inspection

I know that feeling, that ache at the pit of your stomach. A couple of days ago you were high on life, winning a multiple offer situation on what you thought was your dream home. Then came the inspection and it did not go as planned. There were a myriad of problems with the home you didn’t expect. Your initial inclination is to back out of the contract as you don’t want to buy a lemon and live like Tom Hanks was living in “Money Pit”. I understand that feeling and have been there before having bought multiple properties. Yes, even home inspectors get confused about how to proceed on whether to buy a home or not as there is always uncertainty in any transaction.

I am writing this post because before you decide to terminate the contract, I wanted to give you some things to do and consider prior to terminating the contract too quickly. I hope my experience as not only a home inspector but also a homeowner, can guide you through the process of making the right decision for you and your family.

1) Remember Why You Like the Place

Most likely, you didn’t just decide to place an offer worth several hundred thousand dollars or even much more for the place on a whim. There were probably several key reasons you felt strongly about this property in the first place. You liked the location and size of the yard and those two may be hard to find again in that combination. The real estate transaction process is like riding a very up and down emotional rollercoaster, so when you are down it is important to remind yourself of the high points and find some sort of middle ground.

It's important to remember you may not find another place like this property if you do walk away. Even if you found it your very first day of seeing properties, it does not guarantee finding the next place will be as easy. Review your list of must-haves again and see where this property checks those boxes or doesn’t. Doing this will get you a little more grounded and not just focused on everything wrong with the property.

2) Make Sure You Really Understand the Items in Question

You are thinking about backing out most likely because there are several items in the inspection report you are concerned about. Sometimes an inspector will explain them on-site but when you see them in the report you get freaked out. It's a tall ask for any inspector to write a couple of sentences on an issue and really properly explain the problem to a home buyer. If you have a concern about an issue, the first thing I would do is call your inspector to ask for more information about his findings and recommendations. A good home inspector will appreciate the call and wants you to understand the issues fully. I honestly wish we would get more calls from clients, because we really want to make sure they are making the best decision for themselves.

3) Get Quotes and Second Opinions on the Issue

You will see the word “recommend further evaluation by a licensed contractor” probably several times within a report. While an inspector is usually at a site several hours or even more for bigger homes it's important to remember that inspectors have a lot of items to inspect and can’t do a deep dive on every item found. Additionally, while home inspectors are experts in knowing about every system of the home, our expertise for a certain system is not that of someone who specializes in that system. An example of this is an electrician is going to be better at diagnosing an electrical issue and what needs to be fixed.

Your inspector will find a symptom of a problem, but like your primary care physician, we will refer you to a specialist who can further evaluate the issue more effectively. This is why it is so important to get quotes and second opinions from license contractors after an inspection. They may be able to find a simpler solution to fix the issue and ultimately ease your concerns about what the issue would cost. Also, there is peace in having a little more certainty for what needs to be done next, it will make the decision clearer to you.

4) Listen to Your Fears and Discover What You Actually Want

Like I said, any real estate transaction is an emotionally charged one. It is important to understand that it is natural to have emotions. You need to identify the fear you are having that is causing you to want to back out of the contract so you can truly understand what you really desire. Sometimes that fear is not exactly what we think it is. I had a very intense negotiation period when I was purchasing my current home. I demanded several things in my attorney letter to be credited for or fixed. The home was 30 years old and had never been updated, so I expected some issues to pop up, but there were things I knew as a home inspector that were things that should be rectified to prevent future issues. The seller didn’t see things that way.

At first, I thought my fear was that I was going to be spending a lot to repair the items I really wanted to be fixed to prevent bigger issues. With further reflection, I realized my bigger fear is what would people think of me as a home inspector buying a home with issues like this. Once I identified that fear, I was able to see that I wanted the house despite these issues as it was truly a place I could see my wife and I raising our family and creating lasting memories. That is why it is important to identify the root of the fear as it can greatly change your perspective in a moments time.

5) Take Responsibility for the Decision

When a decision this large looms over someone, people tend to look at outside sources for guidance but also in cases want other people to tell them what they should do. Your realtor, inspector, lawyer, family, friends, or the guy at the McDonald’s drive thru can’t and shouldn’t make this decision for you. Taking full ownership of the decision as stupid as that sounds will empower you to make a decision. Listen to your heart and make a call. If you do still decide to walk away, it is important to understand why you made that decision.

I have a feeling that a lot of time people walkaway from a deal cause they realize that the home was not really the one for them. It happens as sometimes you see a house for 15 minutes and then need to win a multiple offer situation and you get wrapped up in winning something you kind of liked, but were not in love with. Take responsibility for that and tell your realtor so you can have an honest conversation. It will help filter your lens for the next time you place an offer on a property.

Summing it All Up

Deciding whether or not to buy a home is a daunting task for anyone, so I hope this advice helps guide you into understanding yourself a little better and what you really want from the situation. For a decision this big, you really need to listen to both your heart and your head and figure out what is really going on. At the end of the day, you need to trust yourself and what you want for your life. Just like anything in life, there is no perfect right or wrong answer. You will still have ups and downs in your property and dealing with homeownership issues when you move in, but that is true for anything in life. Your dream job still will require you to do somethings you don’t like doing, and the same for your dream home. My last bit of advice is to embrace that fact and it will make homeownership something that brings joy to your life.

Why Dielectric Unions Are Common Failure Points in Water Heaters

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One of the most common places to find rust and corrosion in any home is right above a water tank where the dielectric unions should be installed. A dielectric union is a plumbing fitting that is meant to join two dissimilar metal pipes so they don’t experience a galvanic reaction and begin to rust. This is especially true for copper and galvanized steel piping which is usually the case when a copper supply water piping line meets the galvanized steel pipe hookups of a hot water tank. If your supply lines are galvanized to match with your water heater tank then there is no need for a special union, however, you may wish to check out our article on galvanized supply piping in your home.

Picture of Two Corroded Dielectric Unions

As you can see from the picture above, while these unions have a great intent to keep the water heater connection lines from rusting, that is not always the case. We find many dielectric unions that have started to rust which will eventually lead to a water leak if not remedied. So why does this happen and what do you need to know to keep your line from springing a leak?

Breakdown of Dielectric Union Components

Installation

Obviously, the most important part in preventing a union from corroding is installation. If the union is not installed correctly, then it won’t protect against galvanic corrosion. Looking at the picture above, the copper supply line is soldered to the brass insert. The Union Nut and Pipe Adaptor encase the insert and form a tight seal with the gasket. Notice that both the gasket and sleeve have isolation listed in their name. This is because their other job is to keep the copper/brass coming in contact with the steel components. Often the issue is that these fittings are not perfectly installed and some small contact is made. Additionally, if you use a union with a short sleeve, then that can be an issue as well. It is good to be able to visibly see the sleeve above the union nut at the end of the installation.

How to Repair

The great thing about unions is they are designed to be taken out and replaced fairly easily. One problem you will have is the connection between the copper piping and the brass insert is usually soldered, you will have to cut that portion out to extract the old union nut. It’s for this reason that you should probably hire a licensed plumber to make the repair, as they will have to cut the line and solder a new connection as well as extend the pipe below so that they properly mate. For that reason, you may wish to hold out and wait until you buy a new hot water tank to replace them if there are only early signs of rust and your tank is at or after the 10 year expected life cycle.