House Detective

The House Detective, by Barry Stone, Certified Building Inspector

Dear Barry: I recently bought a 1944 home that needed many repairs. Before buying it, I hired a home inspector, but he missed many of the problems, including windows that won’t open. I’m planning to replace all the windows in the house and have three questions: 1) Shouldn’t my home inspector have reported the faulty windows? 2) Is a building permit required for window replacement? 3) Can they really deny my right to occupy the house until the window replacement is approved? According to the permit application form from the building department, a Certificate of Occupancy cannot be issued until the permit is signed off. Delbert

Dear Delbert: Here are three answers to your three questions:

1. Home inspectors typically test a random sample of windows to ensure that they function properly. When windows are not tested, it is usually because furniture or window coverings restrict access. Ensuring that windows are functional is particularly important in bedrooms and bathrooms. Bedroom windows must be openable and must meet minimum dimension requirements to enable emergency escape by occupants. Bathroom windows must be openable in order to provide ventilation, unless an operable exhaust fan in installed.
2. The building code does not specifically require a permit for window replacements, but it does require permits if you “alter” a building. Some building departments interpret this code to include window replacements, while others do not. However, when window replacements include changes in the wall framing, a permit is more likely to be required.
3. The requirement for a Certificate of Occupancy typically applies to buildings that are under construction, not homes where windows are being replaced.

Before commencing work on your home, check with the local building department for clarification of their requirements.

The House Detective by Barry Stone, Certified Building Inspector

Dear Barry: We built a new home and installed a ventless gas log fireplace. As we look back, this seems to have been a stupid mistake. Since using the fireplace, a film has been forming on our windows. Our suspicion is that it is caused by exhaust from the ventless fireplace. What must it be doing to the air we breathe? It is too late to add a vent? Deborah

Dear Deborah: Installing a ventless gas log fireplace may have been an “unfortunate mistake,” not a “stupid” one. Most homebuyers, having limited esoteric knowledge of gas fixtures, would have no reason to suspect that a fully approved gas fixture such as this could be problematic or potentially unsafe.

The film on your windows may in fact be a combustion byproduct, and this, as you suspect, could be unsafe to breathe. Until this can be evaluated by a licensed expert or by the gas company, use of the fixture should be suspended, and the pilot (if there is one) should be turned off.

Ventless gas fireplaces operate without a chimney to the exterior of the building. They are designed to produce combustion products that are safe to breathe and can thus be vented directly into the home. The guaranteed safety of these fireplaces has been a subject of ongoing debate between product manufacturers and other experts in the fireplace profession.

The general claim of manufacturers is that ventless gas fireplaces have been designed in such a way that they will automatically shut down in the event of any combustion or venting problem. The opposing view is that regardless of built-in safeguards, there is no such thing in the realm of human invention as a 100% failsafe device. Failure may be extremely unlikely, but it can never be deemed as impossible. When one considers the potential consequences of venting partially burned gas into a home (i.e. carbon monoxide), nothing less than “impossible” should suffice as an acceptable criterion.

Adding a vent to the existing ventless system is probably not possible. Therefore, replacement with a different type of system (such as a pellet stove) may be a prudent alternative.