Bedrooms in .NET

Printing QR Code in .NET Bedrooms

Every habitable room in the house must have at least one openable window. Sometimes doit-yourself homeowners finish off an area in the basement or attic for use as an extra bed116 Interior rooms

room even though there is no window in the room. If you find such a room, be advised that it is a potential fire hazard. When a room is used as a bedroom, certain items are necessary as fire-safety measures. As a means of escaping in the event of a fire, each bedroom should have at least one outside window whose sill height is not more than 44 inches above the floor. The window should also have a minimum net clear openable area of 5.7 square feet with no dimension less than 20 inches in width and 24 inches in height. If a bedroom is located two stories above the ground, a rope ladder or equivalent device should be provided in the room to enable the inhabitants to escape once they climb through the window. Some municipalities have local ordinances against converting a third-level attic into bedrooms without adequate fire protection. If you find bedrooms in a converted attic, you should check with the local building department to see if a certificate of occupancy had been issued for those rooms. Last, from a fire-safety point of view, every bedroom must have an entry door. This door should be closed when the occupant goes to sleep. A closed door reduces drafts, thus reducing flame-spread time, and drastically reduces smoke infiltration. Check to see if there is a smoke detector on the wall or ceiling. There should be. In new construction most states require that all of the smoke detectors in the house be hard wired and interconnected. Check the operation of the detector. If it s interconnected with the others, hold your ears. The alarm noise is quite loud. Don t forget to look for a closet. Is there a ceiling light fixture in the closet More often than not the light fixture is a porcelain base with an exposed incandescent bulb. Check to see if the bulb is relatively close to the closet shelf. If it is, it s a potential fire hazard. If clothing or other fabrics come in contact with a bulb that has been inadvertently left on for

an extended period of time, they could ignite and start a fire. In some homes where bedrooms have been added, closets are omitted in the renovation. There should be a closet in every bedroom. If there isn t one, record that fact on your worksheet.

Because of the nature of the room, the bathroom must be well ventilated. Ventilation can be provided naturally through an openable window or mechanically by an exhaust fan. If there is an exhaust fan, try to determine where it discharges. The air drawn through the fan should discharge into the atmosphere. This can be accomplished through the use of a duct that terminates on the side of the building or one that extends up through the attic and terminates on the roof. When the bathroom is located on the level just beneath the attic, the exhaust fan very often discharges directly into the attic. This is undesirable because the moisture-laden air can cause condensation problems in the attic. From a convenience point of view, many builders often connect the exhaust fan to the lighting circuit so that both are controlled by one switch. This is not an energy-efficient installation, since the exhaust fan is not always needed. If you see such a setup, you might want to consider rewiring the fan so that it can be controlled by a separate switch. A recurring problem in bathrooms is water leakage through cracked and open tile joints around the tub or shower. This condition requires periodic maintenance and if neglected can cause considerable cosmetic damage. Check the tiles for cracked and open joints. Lean over the tub or go into the shower and press on the tiles, particularly at the lower portion of the walls. Loose tiles will move slightly or might even come out. If the tiles yield, it is usually an indication that the plaster or plasterboard backing has suffered some

deterioration from water seepage. Depending on the severity of the deterioration, it might be necessary to rehabilitate that portion of the wall. Sometimes the cracks are not readily visible but will nevertheless allow water to seep through and wet the wall behind the tiles. You can check for leakage by using your moisture meter on the tile wall. If the walls around the tub and shower are not kept watertight, water can leak around open areas, wet the ceiling below, and eventually rot the wood framing and cause the ceiling to deteriorate. Missing tiles must be replaced; loose tiles must be resecured; and cracked and open joints must be regrouted or caulked. Caulking is the procedure most often used for making repairs. A tube of caulking compound is available at any hardware store. If the walls around the tub or shower have a panel finish rather than tile, check the joints for cracked or open sections. Sometimes the tub or shower and its associated walls are an integral unit made of molded plastic. In this case, leaks through open joints are not a problem. Many homes have showers and tubs with doors to prevent water from splashing onto the floor. The doors must be made with safety glass or plastic and should be checked for cracked panes and ease of operation. When the shower base is covered with ceramic tiles rather than molded plastic or is terrazzo-constructed, there is the potential for a problem because of a faulty shower pan. A large lead or plastic sheet is normally installed below the tiles at the base of the shower to collect water that seeps through cracked and open tile joints. If the shower pan is intact, it will direct the water down the drain without incident. However, as the shower pan ages, the joints very often deteriorate, resulting in water leakage through those joints. If you notice large water stains on or damage to the ceiling of an area below the shower, you should suspect a shower-pan problem. Bathrooms 117

If you have the seller s permission, you can test for a faulty shower pan by covering the shower drain and filling the shower base with about an inch of water. Let the water stand in the base for about forty-five minutes. If the shower pan is faulty and there are cracks in the base tile joints, water will seep through and wet the ceiling below. When the tile joints at the base of the shower are all sealed, even if the lead pan is faulty, there will be no leakage. Instead of replacing a faulty shower pan, many homeowners simply recaulk the tile joints at the base of the shower. This is considered a makeshift fix. If you find a heavy layer of caulking in the shower base, even if you do not find water stains on the ceiling below (the ceiling could have been repainted after the makeshift fix), you should suspect showerpan problems. Water pressure and flow The water pressure in a house is an item of concern to most home buyers, and rightly so. However, water pressure per se is not usually the problem. If you see water trickling out of a faucet, it does not necessarily mean that the pressure is low. It means that the water flow is low. Low water flow can be caused by low pressure. However, more often than not, low flow is caused by a constriction in the supply pipes. The constriction can be the result of mineral or corrosive deposits on the inside diameter of the pipes, a kink in the pipe, or small-diameter piping. Quite often low flow at a fixture is caused by a partially clogged faucet aerator, which requires only cleaning. Water flow is measured in gallons per minute, and a sink faucet should be able to deliver 4 to 5 gallons per minute. The water pressure available to a house at the meter varies, but it is usually in a range of 20 to 60 pounds per square inch (psi). I inspected a house that had a pressure gauge on 118 Interior rooms

the house side of the water meter. (A pressure gauge in the plumbing system is desirable but is not very common.) The gauge indicated that the available water pressure was 110 psi. Yet when three faucets were turned on at the same time, the water flow from each faucet was just a trickle. Regardless of how high the pressure is, if a constriction in the water pipes limits the water flow, the amount of water discharging from the faucet will be noticeably low. In this case, the pipes were made of galvanized iron. Over the years, corrosion and deposits had coated the inside of the distribution piping to a point where the pipes required replacement. When you inspect the bathroom, check the water flow by simultaneously turning on the faucets in the sink and tub and flushing the bowl. There will usually be a drop in flow when the second faucet is turned on. If it is not very noticeable, do not worry about it it is normal. You can trust your eye. If the water flow from the faucets looks good, then for all practical purposes, it is good. If the flow is noticeably low, record it on your worksheet. The condition requires correction. If there is a shower in the tub, check the operation of the shower diverter valve. When the shower is on, there should be very little or no water leaking out of the tub spout. If there is, the diverter valve is defective and will require replacement. Record this on your worksheet. Check the flow for both the hot water and the cold water, but not at the same time. It is possible for the cold-water flow to be good and the hot-water flow fair or poor. Occasionally, when the domestic hot water is generated through the heating system, deposits form in the tankless coil, restricting the flow. If the hotwater flow is poor, you probably need to replace the tankless coil. (See chapter 16.) Open and close the faucets rapidly. Do you hear a hammering and vibrating noise You should not, but if you do, you are hearing water hammer, which occurs when the water

flowing in the pipe comes to an abrupt stop. It introduces hydraulic shock and vibrations that can in extreme cases damage the pipe or fittings. The condition can be corrected easily by installing an air chamber or antiknock coil. These units provide a cushion of air to absorb the shock when the water flow stops. While you are checking the water flow, look for water leakage around the faucets, and the drainage trap below the sink. If you notice that a portion of the trap is taped over, it is usually a makeshift correction for a leak. The drainage trap is not installed below the sink to catch rings or other valuables that fall down the drain, although very often this happens. The purpose of the trap is to provide a water seal that blocks noxious gases from seeping back into the room. If a sink trap is not properly vented, it can lose its seal from a siphoning action when the water is draining. (See FIG. 10-6.) Usually the P-type sink trap is vented properly. However, the S-type trap is often not

vented properly. You can tell by making the following test, although it is not foolproof. Fill the sink until the water is almost at the rim; then let the water drain. When most of the water has drained, if you hear a sucking and gurgling noise, the trap is not vented, and the water seal has been lost. When all the water has drained, if you let the water run freely for about five seconds, you will reestablish the water seal. If the main plumbing waste line has a house trap, the problem is minimized. Check the drainage in the sink, tub, and bowl. Wrinkle up some toilet paper into a ball and throw it into the bowl. When the bowl is flushed, the paper should be carried down the drain. If the water in the bowl starts to rise to the top and then settles down without flushing, there is a blockage in the drain line that must be checked further and corrected. If the house has a septic system, this condition might indicate a problem with the septic system. If the water in the sink and tub does not