Sending Out A Signal

Inspecting homes can be like looking for a person who has become lost in the woods, you have to keep a sharp eye out for a distress signal.

During a recent home inspection on a snowy morning here in Connecticut, while looking over the exterior of the guest - pool house I noticed a sign. I didn’t know at the time it was important or that what I was seeing was anything more than it appeared to be, a vent through the roof. In this instance it was a vent for the heating system.

Vents through the roofs of homes are not only common, but wholly expected. If I were to observe a home without vents through the roof, that would be a sign as well, a red flag. What this almost periscope like signal told me was that the heating system is located in the attic. Since I had glimpsed the basement, saw that it was often wet, this was a good sign to see.

After completing the outside inspection, I moved inside straight up stairs to find the attic and the “vessel” attached to that periscope. Ascending the stairway, which had a nautical motif by the way, I noticed above me the return air vent in the ceiling. This vent corresponded to about the place on the exterior where I had first observed sign of the heating system. At the top of the stairs I went left into the bedroom and to the closet at the end of the room. Opening the door I was surprised to see, nothing?

Not actually “nothing”, the something I was looking for was the hatch in the ceiling that would take me to the attic and ultimately the signaling furnace. I went out of the closet, gazing at the ceiling as I walked towards the only other room up here, the bathroom.

Again nothing, nada, zilch, zip, no attic hatch. I looked in the pint sized linen closet, I looked again in the stairway and back in the first closet. This was a problem, and a fairly significant one at that.

Having access to a heating system in an attic not only makes just plain good sense for numerous reasons, it is also required by the building codes.

Come to find out the access had been in the ceiling of the bedroom. Basically the story went, it was aesthetically unappealing and the homeowner had it seal off and finished to match the ceiling. Another instance where form trumps function and the furnace had been sending out an SOS ever since.

Finally someone came by who heard the call.

James Quarello
Connecticut Home Inspector
Former SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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