As you prepare your home for sale, check these items too.
Water Heater:- Seismic Belting: Water heaters must be double-belted for seismic safety before an escrow closes. Heavy-gauge metal belts are sold at hardware stores in kits. It's wise to have your plumber or a licensed handyman install these, since they'll need to be placed properly 1/3 down from the top of the heater and 1/3 up from the bottom of the heater and anchored properly. Once upon a time, it was considered acceptable to use light-gauge metal strapping (sometimes called "plumber's tape") or devices attached to pipes on top of the water heater. These are no longer adequate to comply with the law.
- Proper Elevation in a Garage Location: Code requires a gas water heater located in a garage to be elevated to a certain height (usually on a proper stand or box) so that gasoline fumes or combustible liquids which might spill on the garage floor won't be ignited by the water heater's pilot light.
- Temperature and Pressure Relief (TPR) Valve: The City of Pasadena requires water heaters to have a TPR valve installed and a metal overflow pipe for the TPR that terminates per code requirements. Even if you don't live in Pasadena, it's a good idea to have a TPR and overflow pipe for your own safety, plus your buyer's physical inspector will call you on it. Put one in - no one likes to think of being scalded.
- Proper Venting: Take a look at your water heater's vent pipe to ensure that spaces between sections of vent pipe are properly sealed (especially at angles); that a metal collar adequately separates the perimeter of the pipe from wood as the vent exits through ceiling, attic and roof; and that a vent cap is securely in place.
Smoke Detectors:- An operable smoke detector needs to be installed in each bedroom and in the hallway outside a bedroom. If the hallway is more than 12 feet long, you'll need two smoke detectors for the hall. If you have a convertible den that has a closet, it will be considered a bedroom and need a detector.
- A detector is also required at the top of basement stairs and in a finished room if it's at the bottom of basement stairs.
- If your property has more than one dwelling unit under the same roof, check on requirements for hard-wired smoke detectors.
Electrical:- Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) electrical outlets are the outlets with two little buttons (red and black) on them. They're used instead of conventional electrical outlets within six feet of a sink, tub or shower and in outside locations (under a covered patio or porch, near a pool, etc.) to protect against electrocution. If your home is under a certain age or if you have a remodeled kitchen or bath, you'll be expected to have operable GFCI's installed. The City of Pasadena inspector will be looking for these. So will your buyer's inspector. For your own safety, it's wise to have them - and to test them (they seem to wear out over time). One of those buttons is a "test" button.
- Exposed Romex Wiring is unacceptable. Romex is the thick (wide), somewhat flat wiring in a plastic casing. Most often it is seen used improperly in a garage where someone intended to install paneling or drywall over it and never got around to it. Romex cannot be put into conduit because it builds up too much heat. If you have exposed Romex in your garage, you can either go ahead and cover it or replace it with regular wiring installed inside conduit. Yes, inspectors will look for exposed romex.
- Reversed Polarity of electrical outlets causes appliances to still be on when you think they're off, and can also cause items with electric motors to have problems. Reversed polarity is a result of having (you guessed it) reversed positive and negative wire connections at the back of the outlet. An inexpensive polarity tester can be purchased at a hardware store. You may as well get one and check your outlets because inspectors have one.
- Ungrounded Outlets should have only two vertical slots for plugging something in. Over the years as more and more electrical items (including transformers for innocuous items like portable phones and answering machines) began being manufactured with three prongs, more and more older homes became mysteriously retrofitted with three-prong outlets that had no "ground," which is what that third prong is supposed to do. You can either have ungrounded three-prong outlets replaced with the old two-prong types, or have your electrician ground the outlets (which is easy if you have conduit). Yes, there's a tester for this too.
- Electrical Covers are important because access to exposed wiring is prevented. From your main electrical panel to basic outlet and light switch covers, inspectors check to ensure they cover the openings properly.
Garage and Automatic Garage Door Opener:- Reverse Mechanism and Sensor: After children were injured or killed by garage doors being closed automatically, the automatic garage door industry developed auto-reverse mechanisms to reverse the door if a certain amount of resistance was met in the attempt to close. More recently, light-beam sensors have been used to detect an obstacle in the path of a closing garage door. If you still have a vintage opener, however, it may lack either of these devices. For obvious reasons, you should check it out. Place a cardboard box or other expendable object in the path of your garage door, operate the control and watch what happens. If it doesn't reverse or refuse to close, change the opener or install sensors. Inspectors will check, and your child or pet will be protected.
- Attached Garage Walk-Through Door: The door from the garage leading into the house must be of a special fire rating and must have an operable automatic closer mechanism.
- Holes in Garage Firewall: A hole in the wall between house and garage or a hole in the garage ceiling potentially could suck flames into the living area if a fire were to start in the garage. For this reason, inspectors look for holes in these fire wall areas. Most often, these are the result of failure to seal spaces around venting, pipes and ducts that run through the firewalls.
- Spring Safety Cable should be run inside each garage door spring (obviously this doesn't apply if your door is operated with mechanical arms or is sectional and runs on a track). Garage door springs are under great tension and are prone to breakage over time. If this happens, one side of the door could slip violently and, worse case scenario, rip the connection of the other side out of the wall and send the door crashing to the ground, smashing whatever or whomever is under it. Get the picture? Inspectors? Yes. Personal safety? Most important.
General Plumbing:- Leaks at faucets and drain pipes and signs of past leaks not only can turn potential buyers off, but also will attract negative attention from inspectors. Check for leaks, have them remedied and repair the damage.
- Water Conservation is a big deal within the City of Los Angeles. If you live in the City of LA, you'll need to ensure legally required retrofits are performed prior to closing escrow. Every toilet in your property must have been changed to a 1.6-gallon low-flow model. In addition, water-conserving shower heads must be installed. To make things easier for you, the City of LA has a toilet exchange/$100 retrofit rebate program, plus they'll give you the retrofit shower head kits for free. For the latest details, check out the City of LA Water Conservation Website.
Chimney and Fireplace:- Spark Arrestor: If you have a wood-burning fireplace, inspectors will want to see that you have a spark arrestor installed on top of the chimney (does not interfere with Santa's entrance on Christmas Eve but may prevent a spark from the fireplace igniting your roof, a nearby tree or your neighbor's house).
- Gas Log Fireplace Brace: If you have gas logs in your fireplace, code requires the fireplace damper to be permanently braced in an open position so occupants don't succumb to gas fumes or carbon monoxide. Inspectors will check for the brace. A chimney contractor can brace your damper; some will just tell you how to do it yourself using a big C-clamp.
- Chimney Cracks: If you have one, call a reliable chimney contractor to come and evaluate it before we put your house on the market. You'll have paperwork to show a potential buyer the full extent of the problem and you'll have an estimate in case a buyer insists it be remedied. If the break is sufficiently severe, it's probable you'll be required to have it repaired prior to closing.
Pool and Spa:- Child Safety is a big concern. Gates to the pool area are required to be self-closing and self-latching. Spa covers should be lockable.
- Fences around a pool are required to be at a minimum height. Check with your local authorities for specifics.
Window Bars:- Window Bars in Bedrooms are a tragedy in the making in the event of fire. For this reason, in any bedroom where there are window bars, at least one window which is of adequate size for escape must be equipped with an approved quick-release mechanism.
Sliding Doors:- Sliding Door Safety Glass: A sliding door poses a hazard if someone were to walk or run into it. Therefore the City of LA requires every sliding door either to be safety glass or to be retrofitted with impact hazard glazing, an approved film that renders the door shatter-resistant, before close of escrow. To determine if your sliding door is safety glass, look for a tiny etched emblem in one of the corners.
Seismic Gas Shutoff Valve:- Seismic Gas Shut-Off Valves will be required to be installed on every gas meter prior to close of escrow for escrows which are opened on or after February 1, 2002, by LA City Ordinance. For escrows opened prior to February 1, 2002, they must be installed within one year of closing escrow. This being the case, nearly every purchase offer on an LA property has called for the seller to install one. The valve is designed to automatically stop the flow of gas into a structure when there is an earthquake at or greater than a certain magnitude so even if you are away from home or sleeping, the shut-off valve can greatly reduce the risk of a gas explosion. Most of the valves can be re-set by the owner once it is determined there are no breaks in gas lines within the structure. If you're selling a property located in the City of LA, plan on having such a valve installed now or later. The Gas Company has a list of approved, licensed retrofit contractors who are authorized to install the valve. This is not a do-it-yourself project. Cost is around $200 including the cost of the valve and its installation.
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