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Is There Time for a Quickie? - Part 3
by Kevin Smith
This is the third and last part of a three-part article on how to size up a property in a hurry without getting into trouble. We talked about doing a quick once over assessment of the property, and then focusing in on the three most expensive repairs that houses call for. These are the foundation, the roof, and the HVAC system. The first installment of the article addressed the foundation, and the second part covered the roof issues.
Now for HVAC. HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning. A lot of the time investment houses will be empty and will not have the utilities turned on. Of course our best approach is to be able to operate the equipment and make our decision based on the performance of the air conditioning and the heating. Since that is not always possible, our next best choice is to look at the general state of the equipment. Here's how to make better-informed decisions.
First of all, take a walk around the outside of the house and look for the air conditioning condensing unit. In some cases, such as townhouses, you will find this piece of equipment on the roof. In single-family residential properties it will usually be on the side or at the back of the house. You cannot have air conditioning without it, so it has to be there somewhere.
If you cannot find it, the unit may have been stolen, or the house may not have had it to begin with. Look for HVAC supply vents in the ceilings of the rooms in the house. Clue: if you see window units, it probably doesn't have central air conditioning. If you see equipment in the attic and no condensing unit, it could also be that the house has only central heat and not central A/C. If it has A/C and no condensing unit, you should at least be able to see the refrigerant lines and the power and low voltage wires coming out of the house. Refrigerant lines are normally copper pipes, one larger than the other, coming out of the exterior wall or coming out of the attic and down the side of the house.
Condensing units have an information plate on the side of the unit. This plate or sticker will tell you the serial number and the model number. The serial number will sometimes tell you when the unit was built. The model number will tell you how many tons of air conditioning the unit was designed to provide.
Have a look at the unit. Without being an air conditioning technician, can you tell if this is a brand new unit, a unit that has been there for a couple of years, or a unit that has been there since the Beatles played Shea Stadium? Look for rusted or corroded parts and faded paint. If the information plate has faded out and is unreadable, it is a pretty safe bet that the unit has been sitting there taking the sun for a while. If the paint on the unit is chalky, it has probably reached the end of its life expectancy and will need to be replaced. Average life span of condensing units in Houston is about 12-15 years, with some lasting up to 20 years, but that's rare.
O.K., up in the attic with you. Look at the HVAC equipment up there. Some houses have the equipment in a hall closet, but the same general rules apply when you look at them. First, check out the overflow pan underneath the evaporator coil. The evaporator coil is the inside part of the air conditioning, and you identify it by the two refrigerant lines coming into it from the condensing unit outside. If this pan has rust in it, one of two things has happened. Either the drain line for the evaporator coil has plugged up with mold and mildew and overflowed into the pan, or the bottom of the evaporator coil has rusted through.
Plugged up is easy to fix, rotted out means replacing equipment. If the evaporator coil has rotted out from rust or corrosion, you can usually feel it if you reach your hand up under its little bottom and rub it. If you feel rust, or if you can push your fingers up into the bottom of the case, then the evaporator coil will have to be replaced. By the way, if the rust is bright reddish orange, then it is pretty recent, last season or so. If the rust is dark reddish brown, it is old business, and usually means that there was an overflow condition that was repaired. Look also on the ceiling below where the equipment is and see if you can tell if it has been repaired from previous leaking.
Furnaces. They come in two flavors: gas and electric. The electric ones are normally rectangular boxes like the gas ones, but the electric furnace does not has a vent on the top of it that goes through the roof. Electric furnaces have a big wire running into them. This wire is about twice as wide as a piece of Romex, which is the white plastic covered wire that we normally use in residential wiring. The furnace wire is bigger because it is 220 volt, and it is usually gray or black.
Think of the electric furnace as a great big toaster. It has those wires running through it that heat up and glow like the wires inside a toaster, only they are much bigger. We blow air across these glowing hot wires, the air gets hot, and we blow the air around to the rooms in the house. What goes wrong with electric heat? The wires will sometimes burn through and you will lose that part of the furnace. A typical furnace will have three of these wires, plus some other devices that control the timing and flow of the electricity to the unit.
There isn't much you can do to check electric heat without power, an amp meter, or some device to take the temperature of the air going into or out of the unit. You can only go by the condition of the exterior skin of the equipment. It's not much, but at least it is better than nothing.
Gas furnaces give up their secrets a little more easily. The gas furnace has a firebox with a burner in it. The hot gas from this burner goes up through a set of pipes or metal channels called a heat exchanger. We blow air over this heat exchanger, which scrubs the heat off of it, and we blow this heated air around to the rooms the same as the electric furnace. Identify gas furnace by the vent pipe coming up off a metal box on the side of the furnace called a draft hood. This vent has to carry those hot gasses from the gas fire out of the attic safely.
The main problem with gas furnaces is a "cracked" heat exchanger. Until a couple of years ago heat exchangers were made of cold rolled steel. That means that they were formed from a flat piece of metal that was pressed and forged into the shape of this heat exchanger, and the open ends of the metal sheet were folded over to make a seam. Over the years, moisture, heat, and just plain age contributed to the deterioration and final demise of these seams or of the metal heat exchanger itself. This meant that the design to carry hot gasses had been compromised, and the furnace was now distributing combustion gases such as carbon monoxide throughout the house. Since carbon monoxide is a deadly poison to humans, it means that the furnace is unsafe and has to be replaced.
What to look at? There is a cover on the side of the burner compartment that you can shine your flashlight into and see the burners. If you see a large amount of rust there, then the furnace is probably a goner. That rust only comes from one place - the heat exchanger. When this goes, you are better off to replace the entire furnace, because the heat exchanger replacement is almost as costly as replacing the whole furnace, and with a new furnace you get a full parts and labor warranty end to end.
When you replace a vertical furnace in a hall closet, replace the evaporator coil too. The evaporator coil is the inside part of the air conditioner. The reason you replace this is that it is normally the same age as the furnace, and if it is not dead now, it will be shortly. When it dies, you have to take the vertical furnace out again to get to it and change it. Save yourself some labor costs and add a selling point by replacing it when you do the furnace.
New furnaces use aluminum, stainless steel, and other materials in the heat exchanger and are far superior in performance and life expectancy to the old steel ones. New furnaces also have glow ignitions (a glow strip igniter rather than a pilot light) and circuit boards that show a little red or green light when the unit is powered. No need to worry about heat exchangers here.
Ductwork is $100 per run to replace, so roll your eyes over that as well. Look for the old gray plastic ductwork that literally falls apart from the heat over the years. If the ductwork is falling apart, it will have to be replaced.
That was a lot of material to read through, but be assured that it takes less time to check out these things than it does to read through this article. Start looking at the things we talked about on your own home, so you will begin to get familiar with what is going on there. Remember, it's not about heating or roofs or foundations, it's about money. Your money. I want to see you keeping it in your pocket because you made informed decisions. If you get stuck, call me or talk to me when you see me around. I'll be glad to help. I'm Kevin Smith, I'll see you out on the property.
Kevin Smith, Professional Inspector
Kevin Smith of Forward Assist is a well-respected professional inspector with hundreds of investment properties inspected every year. Kevin has conducted "Mr. Fixit" workshops and served on the Board of Directors at the RICH club. He shares his treasure chest of secrets with anyone who asks. You can reach Kevin at (713) 858-1330.