A Lesson Learned

While inspecting a large, single-family home, an inspector determined there were two evaporative coolers on the roof. Because it was Phoenix in the summer, he wanted to get the entire exterior as well as the roof and the attic inspected first so he could finish the rest of the inspection in the cool interior of the house.

While inspecting the coolers, he observed one cooler was activated and its reservoir was filled with water while the other wasn’t activated and its reservoir was dry. He decided to operate a valve on the water feed line to the deactivated cooler and found that it shut off the water supply to the active cooler. He saw that there was a tee on the water supply piping to the active cooler with a valve immediately downstream of this tee. The one-quarter-inch copper piping downstream of this valve disappeared under the shingles and through the roof sheathing. He operated this valve and water began to fill the empty reservoir of the deactivated cooler very slowly.

Because the flow rate of water filling the deactivated cooler was slow, he wondered if there might be another supply valve for the coolers. He climbed down from the roof and proceeded to look for a supply valve and piping on the exterior of the house at the typical locations—the hose bibs, the main water supply line, etc. Finding none, he went into the house and located a valve feeding a one-quarter-inch copper line coming off of the cold water distribution pipe supplying the washing machine. Thinking this was consistent with a water supply feed valve and line for an evaporative cooler and noting that it was off, he turned it on. Does the word “oops” come to mind yet?

He then went back up on the roof and found that the reservoir of the deactivated unit was now full. Sure that he had figured the system out, he completed his inspection of the roof and the components above the roof line before going back inside the house to inspect the attic. Upon entering the attic through the access opening in the garage ceiling, he heard the sound of running water and spotted a one-quarter-inch diameter copper line passing through the underside of the roof sheathing. Water was trickling down the length of the pipe, dripping off of it at a bend in the pipe, and wetting the blown cellulose insulation beneath it.

Believing the source of the water was the valve he had opened on the water feed line on the roof (remember, the copper line from that valve passed under the shingles), he went up on the roof again and shut off that valve. Returning to the attic, he found water was still running down the pipe in the attic.

Taking hold of the one-quarter-inch copper pipe, he pulled on it until it came out of the roof sheathing. Now he found himself holding a pipe that was not visibly connected to anything, but that had water coming out of one end of it.

He had mistakenly assumed the pipe he saw disappearing under the shingles when he was on the roof was the same pipe he saw in the attic. It was not. He placed his finger over the end of the pipe and stopped the flow of water, repositioned the pipe end over the attic access opening above the garage floor so it would not continue to wet the attic area, and climbed down into the garage. Once down, he went into the laundry room and turned off the valve he had previously opened.

One of two evaporative coolers on the client’s roof in Phoenix

Water had been wetting the attic insulation blistering the the ceiling texture and paint.

He then went to look at the family room ceiling, which was immediately below the area where the water had been wetting the attic insulation. To his dismay, he saw several four four- to five-inch diameter blisters in the ceiling texture and paint.

Knowing there was only one right thing to do, he contacted the listing agent and the seller, told them what had happened, and said he would arrange and pay for the removal and replacement of the wetted insulation, the replacement of the damaged ceiling gypsum board, and the retexturing and repainting of the ceiling. It cost him about two-thirds of the inspection fee, but he learned a valuable lesson. As he commented when he told me about this incident, “My education was cheap at the price.”

Because one cooler was shut down/out-of-service, he should have noted that as such in the report and provided appropriate commentary stating it could not be evaluated for proper function and could not be operated using normal operator controls. Then he should have provided an appropriate recommendation for action, and that would have been the end of it.

He made two errors. He ignored one of the cardinal rules for home inspectors: Do not operate any system or component that is de-energized, deactivated, or shut down. And he treated the valve in the laundry room as part of the normal operating controls for the cooler. Normal operating controls are thermostats, switches, valves, and other devices intended by design and manufacture to be used by homeowners or occupants in the normal and regular day-to-day operation of systems or components.

He learned the hard way that water supply stop valves for bathroom fixtures and other fixtures like evaporative coolers, humidifiers, ice makers, refrigerator water dispensers, etc. are not part of the normal operating controls of such fixtures. Inspecting them for damage, leaking, improper support, etc. is appropriate; however, they should not be operated.

Before any readers think they knew what was coming or that they wouldn’t have done what this inspector did, it’s worth remembering that we always have the after-the-fact advantage over the inspector in the story. We have a different perspective that allows us to figure out what is going to happen next while the inspector in the story charged straight ahead toward his fate. All of us have our own “oops” stories, whether we are brave enough to tell anyone else about them or not.

Good home inspectors are conscientious and competent individuals. However, it doesn’t mean they can’t make mistakes. The inspector’s assumptions led him to see things in a particular way that turned out not to be how things were. His education cost him a little, but he earned the respect of the buyer, seller, and both agents and enhanced his standing in the real estate community as a home inspector who was willing to step forward and pay for his own education.

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