Archive for December, 2009

How To Prevent Poor Attic Ventilation

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

One of the easiest ways to prevent poor attic ventilation is by checking to see if attic insulation is blocking the soffit vents. The ventilation process of an attic is fairly simple. The soffit vents act as intake vents, allowing cool air to enter into the attic, while the upper gable or soffit vents act as exhaust vents.

When insulation is blocking the soffit vents it creates inadequate ventilation and causes higher than normal attic temperatures. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to check and see if insulation is blocking these vents. You can see an example of insulation blocking soffit vents in the picture below:

How To Prevent Poor Attic Ventilation

S Trap Under a Bathroom Sink

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Today I was doing an inspection on a house and quickly noticed that all the sinks in the home were plumbed with S traps. This is actually no longer allowed and something that should be corrected. If you have S traps under your sinks and been noticing a stinky smell in your house, that’s probably the reason why.

The reason why S traps are not allowed is because water filling in the downstream vertical portion will create siphoning and loss of the trap seal. The trap seal is what prevents sewer gases from entering the home. You can see an example of a bathroom sink with an S trap in the picture below:

S Trap Under a Bathroom Sink

How To Support Floor Joists

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

As a home owner, It’s important to know the proper way a floor joist should be supported. Improperly supported floor joists is something I commonly see when performing home inspections so I wanted to make sure I included the information here for you on the blog.

Floor joists should be supported at the girder by either a 2×2 ledger strip or by an approved joist hanger for adequate support. Floor joists should not be nailed direct to the girder. You can see an example of floor joists being nailed to the girder in the picture below:

How To Support Floor Joists