Water Heater Woes

[swapdiva]

I hope you can help....My friends were just told by a home inspector that the water heater in their son's bedroom is illegal. They rent the house and need to know what to do. Do they reinstall somewhere else like the attic (I was reading about that in the IPC regulations and IRC 2005.2 code). The house they rent came with a garage that was converted into a bedroom. Recently they have had problems with leaks (water and gas). The water heater is gas. I think there may be other hazards for having the water heater in the bedroom. The repair person mentioned CO2 emmissions coming from the water heater that would be a health and safety hazard but he wouldn't put it in writing.

If the landlord doesn't repair, can I tell them to purchase another water heater and install in the attic? There is no other "utility" type room in the house to install a water heater....not sure there is a functional attic, either.

Are there safety hazards? How difficult is it to install a water heater in the attic. I can buy one from Home Depot but should they install or it's easy enough that my friends can install....

[HayZee518]

if you rent then its up to the landlord to contend with the inspector. natural gas in any bedroom is a no no. co2 is poisonous and invisible.

[swapdiva]

Thanks for the quick reponse!

Thanks so much for the quick response. They will look into moving the water heater (having the landlord do so) but if they decide to go ahead and buy the house, then it will be their responsibility to get it moved. I think I will pass this very useful website on to them and I may have more repair questions myself. This is a very useful website and I'm glad I found it!

[HayZee518]

your moderators in here are all professional home repair specialists. there are moderators that excel in their own fields. pushkins calls himself a handyman but he is terrific on carpentry. myself am in electrical. gddoorpro services garage doors. speedy-petey is electrical. hube is hvac.

[Redwood]

If I were your friends I would insist on any repairs being done are done by a Licensed Plumber. Their Landlords Handyman sounds a little sketchy!

If they are considering buying the house I would recommend having licensed trade pro's (carpenter, electrician, and Plumber) inspect the house as well. I suspect the water heater may be the tip of the iceberg. I'm not saying this to knock home inspectors but a good many of them are not well versed in all the trades. Frequently I have been sent to a house with a gig list from the home inspector that had a plumbing issue written up about an "problem" and I was clueless what he was talking about but several feet away there was an obvious "Big Ticket" problem that was missed.

The advantage of having the 3 tradesmen inspect is that they will know what they are talking about and they will be able to quote prices for repairs. I would expect to pay them for their time while they inspect but I would also assume the charge would be faily reasonable as it will not take them very long to look over the property and they will probably have an interest in having you be a happy customer in hopes of doing any repairs required.