Minneapolis Home Inspections - Reuben Saltzman

Whenever I get around to building my dream home and money is no object, I won't be using a furnace for heat. I'll be using a boiler. Gas fired forced air furnaces are the standard for homes in Minnesota, but boilers have definite advantages over furnaces, with comfort and silence being the two biggest.

Boilers provide hydronic radiant heat by heating water that is circulated through copper or PEX tubing. The tubing can be fed through large old radiators, modern baseboard heaters, or hidden in walls, ceilings, or floors. Wall and ceiling heat is rare - I've only inspected two homes with in-wall or in-ceiling heat, and there wasn't much I could look at. It took me a while to figure out how these systems worked! In-floor heat is the best. The most common way of installing in-floor heat is by laying PEX tubing on the floor and pouring concrete over it. If you're not a fan of shoveling snow, you can even run the tubing under your driveway and walkways.

Boilers provide more comfortable heat than furnaces because the heat is even - especially if it's installed in the floor. Floor heat allows everything in the room to be warm, including your toes. Even if a home is heated with baseboard heaters, the heat is more comfortable than forced air. Radiant heat is a much more comfortable heat than forced air.

The other big advantage that boilers have over furnaces is that they're silent. While newer homes with properly designed furnaces can have variable speed blower motors that cut down on noise, boilers are always silent. If I inspect a home with a boiler and I hear gurgling or bubbling in the pipes, I know there's a problem with the system and I tell my clients to have it fixed. It's usually a matter of air in the lines.

A couple other advantages worth noting are cleanliness and zone control. Because boilers don't blow air (and dust, and alergens...) all over the house, you'll have less alergens in the air, you'll never need to hire someone to clean your ducts, and you won't need to worry about your two-year-old putting Cherios in the vents. Boilers are also much easier to conrol by zone - most forced air systems don't have zone controls, and the ones that do typically don't have more that two zones. I've never seen more than three.

If boilers are so great, why aren't they the standard? No one wants to spend the money. Boilers cost much more than furnaces and they don't provide a way of cooling a home. To cool a home with hydronic radiant heat, a completely separate forced air system needs to be installed, which dramatically adds to the installation costs. In older homes without ductwork installed for a furnace, it's an expensive project to add central air.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Home Inspections Saint Paul

The city of Saint Paul is now giving online access to Truth-In-Sale of Housing reports! Like Minneapolis has been doing for the last two years, Saint Paul is now providing easy access to TISH reports online. While the reports won't be 'created' online the way that Minneapolis reports are, they will still be available as pdf files.

To look up reports, go to www.StPaulOneStop.com . Click on "Property info and Permits by Address". Now type in the address that you want to look up. For example, try 2117 Highland. Now click "Submit". Under the "List of Activity" on the next page, you'll see that the most recent activity for this property was a Truth In Sale of Housing Inspection, and there is a link to this report at the bottom of the box. That's all there is to it.

There are some limitations - only new reports will be available online. Reports filed before May 1st generally won't be available online, but there will still be a record of it. You'll need to call the evaluator to get the report if it isn't online. Also, not all reports will be available. Saint Paul is allowing evaluators that are stuck in the dark ages to continue mailing or faxing their reports in, and these reports won't be available online. This shouldn't last long though - the old school evaluators will soon be required to submit reports electronically like everyone else.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Saint Paul Home Inspector

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It’s estimated that one out of three homes in Minnesota has elevated levels of radon gas. Because of these high numbers, the Minnesota State Building Code has adopted Apendix F of the International Residential Code, Radon Control Methods. This means that all new homes in Minnesota must now be built with a passive radon control system. A passive radon control system is similar to a standard radon mitigation system, but there are a few key differences.

A standard radon mitigation system consists of a 3″ plastic vent pipe that starts under the slab in a basement and ends above the roof, much like a plumbing vent. A fan is connected to this pipe, usually in the attic, so the air and gases under the slab are constantly pulled out, creating a negative pressure zone in the area under the basement slab. This prevents most radon from entering in to the home. If drain tile is present, the pipe can be tied in to the drain tile, as this creates a perfect way to suck air soil gases from under the entire slab. Gaps in the slab are also sealed to help prevent radon entry.

A passive radon control system consists of the same 3″ plastic pipe, but without a fan. An electrical junction box will need to be wired in to the attic near the pipe so a fan can be easily added later, if needed. A layer of 4″ aggregate, sand, or soil gas collection mats must be installed under the basement slab, and 6 mil polyethelene laid over the aggregate before the basement slab is poured. This allows soil gases to be properly pulled from everywhere under the slab, and keeps soils gas from entering in to the home if the basement slab cracks. Any openings in the basement floor must also be sealed, such as sump baskets and bathtub drains.

There are many benefits to building a home with a passive radon control system. The most obvious is that it reduces the risk of lung cancer. Passive systems don’t require the use of a fan, so there is no electricity being constantly consumed - it’s a ‘green’ thing. These systems are also much more cosmetically appealing, as most of the components will be concealed in finished spaces. The photo at left shows a radon mitigation system that was installed on an old home - the fan and the vent pipe are clearly visible from outside the house. Another benefit to passive systems is that they will help control moisture in the basement. Openings in the basement floor now need to be sealed, which will help prevent moisture migrating from under the slab to the rest of the basement, and eventually the rest of the house.

For more information on passive radon control systems in Minnesota, visit the Minnesota Department of Health.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Home Inspections Minneapolis

For my clients that need a Truth-in-Housing inspection but are worried about having 'The City' come through their house, I offer pre-inspection. A pre-inspection is done by a private evaluator to let the owner about the items in the home that would require repair on an official Truth-in-Housing inspection. Instead of talking about the details of how a pre-inspection works, I'll tell a story. Hopefully this will make it easier to understand.

Jane is getting ready to sell her home in Minneapolis, and knows she needs a Truth-in-Housing inspection before she can list her house for sale, so she hires me, a licensed evaluator with Minneapolis, to inspect her house. I spend about an hour walking around the house with Jane, making notes in my computer the whole time, creating the official report.

At the end of the inspection, there are a few things I've identified that require repair in Minneapolis; non-functional smoke detectors, missing CO alarms, and missing vacuum breakers. These are rated on the report as RRE items - "Repair / Replace, Evaluator" - this means that an Evaluator (such as myself) needs to verify repair of these items. Another item that requires repair is the water heater flue, because it's backpitched. This is rated as RRP - "Repair / Replace, Permit" - this means that a permit is required to do the repair, and an employee of the city of Minneapolis will need to inspect the repairs A number of other items are rated as B - "Below Minimum Requirements". These are things like a missing handrail at the stairway, missing cover plates on outlets, and a broken window. These items don't require repair.

I explain these items to Jane, and tell her she has a few choices:

Get the final report. This is probably her least desirable option, because there will be a bunch of items on the report for anyone to see, making her house less desirable than another house with a ‘clean' report. The benefit would be that she can list her house right away. If she gets the report, she has two more choices to make - fix the items and have them re-inspected, or sell her house as-is. If she sells her house as-is, whoever buys the house will need to sign a responsibility agreement, saying that they'll be responsible for repairing the RRE and RRP items, and have them inspected within 90 days of closing. Most buyers aren't interested in taking on other people's repairs, so this is usually a last resort for sellers.

Get a pre-inspection. I will print an informal list of items that would show up on the final report. Jane will have 35 days to complete these repairs and have me come back to verify they're corrected. I tell Jane that she needs to obtain a permit to repair her water heater flue, but I won't be checking for permits when I come back; I'll be checking to make sure the repairs are correct. The only drawback to doing a pre-inspection is that she can't put her house on the market right away.

Jane decides to go with a pre-inspection, and has me back out three weeks later. The re-inspection takes about five minutes, and I verify that Jane has corrected all of the "RRE" and "RRP" items, and has even fixed all of the "B" items. I give her a clean, official report, and she puts her house on the market that day.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Truth-in-Sale of Housing Evaluator

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