2006 is here and we're ready to ring in the New Year (and a warming real estate market) with jubilation!! Beach to Bayou's most recent Question of the Week issues have focused on Christmas and Holiday trivia - but as we're ready for the market to start up again, so too do the informative Inspection-based Questions. This week's Question comes as a direct result from two inspections we performed during the last month involving brand new water heater installations. It is time to put away your noise makers, take off your party hats and put on your thinking caps.....

True or False? Both electric and gas water heaters are permitted to be installed directly on a garage floor.

FALSE - Florida Building Codes require appliances with an "ignition source" to be installed a minimum of 18 inches above the garage floor - (and above any other floor [like a utility closet] around which there could be flammable vapors). The local interpretation of the building requirement has come to mean gas fired water heaters, which could cause the flammable vapors to ignite during operation. For those of you who answered this question correctly, you may wish to consider a second career as an gas water heater installer - because in the last month alone, I identified two installations which violated this standard.

Jill Arnsdorff at Pelican Real Estate