# Fireproofing Under Stairs



## conarb (Sep 8, 2015)

Every time a home I built gets sold my owners call me about items called by home inspectors, they don't seem to get the concept that legal-when-built is still legal no matter where the codes have gone, I guess an exception to that is smoke alarms and maybe safety glass?  On another thread I asked ICE about GFIs in the garage, now the same owner is calling about a second home inspector calling for sheetrocking under a stairway. The situation is an open section of a 2 story house with a switchback stair, we closed in the lower section and put a small access panel in it for storage, I say it was legal when built under the 1976 UBC and they can't make him sheetrock it now, in fact isn't this condition still legal under current codes?

Realtors use Home Inspection to buy homes at listed price, then look for conditions or code violations to negotiate the price down, they don't really want me coming back replacing the garage outlets and sheetrocking under the stairs, they are trying to blackmail the seller out of a few thousand dollars.


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## steveray (Sep 8, 2015)

Not legal currently, but yes they can't "make" anyone do it, just find another buyer.....

R302.7 Under-stair protection. Enclosed accessible space under stairs shall have walls, under-stair surface and any soffits protected on the enclosed side with 1⁄2-inch (12.7 mm) gypsum board.


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## ICE (Sep 8, 2015)

conarb said:
			
		

> Every time a home I built gets sold my owners call me about items called by home inspectors, they don't seem to get the concept that legal-when-built is still legal no matter where the codes have gone, I guess an exception to that is smoke alarms and maybe safety glass?  On another thread I asked ICE about GFIs in the garage, now the same owner is calling about a second home inspector calling for sheetrocking under a stairway. The situation is an open section of a 2 story house with a switchback stair, we closed in the lower section and put a small access panel in it for storage, I say it was legal when built under the 1976 UBC and they can't make him sheetrock it now, in fact isn't this condition still legal under current codes? Realtors use Home Inspection to buy homes at listed price, then look for conditions or code violations to negotiate the price down, they don't really want me coming back replacing the garage outlets and sheetrocking under the stairs, they are trying to blackmail the seller out of a few thousand dollars.


So you were building low income in the '70s?


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## conarb (Sep 8, 2015)

ICE said:
			
		

> So you were building low income in the '70s?


Kind of, unfortunately the realtors didn't take any pictures of the stairs, I built the house for $225,000 in 1978, he paid me about $300,000 to redo the roof and windows in 2002, then $320,000 in 2003 to do the kitchen, the buyer said they bought the house for two reasons, the view and the kitchen. Two $2 million a year Cal professors bought it, Cal professors make more than firemen around here, Stanford doesn't reveal how much they pay their professors.  I'm going to have no customers left pretty soon as the exodus out of California continues, just like poor migrants are fleeing Africa and Asia for the entitlement states in Europe, migrants are coming to California for the entitlements here, the smart people are fleeing California for the unregulated low tax states and in some case countries.


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## Msradell (Sep 8, 2015)

conarb said:
			
		

> migrants are coming to California for the entitlements here, the smart people are fleeing California for the unregulated low tax states and in some case countries.


I don't think I can blame them in either case!  Unfortunately most of the migrants as you call them are illegal immigrants who shouldn't be here anyway to say nothing about how much of a strain they put on government services.


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## conarb (Sep 8, 2015)

Msradell said:
			
		

> I don't think I can blame them in either case!  Unfortunately most of the migrants as you call them are illegal immigrants who shouldn't be here anyway to say nothing about how much of a strain they put on government services.


This is now a worldwide problem, *just look at the average IQ of people* coming from those countries, in the agricultural age low IQ people could till the fields, in the industrial age the low IQ people could man assembly lines, in this new technological world there is no way most of these people can be productive members of any society, the AI people in the Valley are planning a world where all physical work will be done by robots, it looks now like Germany is going to be the worst hit because of their lavish entitlement programs, migrants don't want to end up in bankrupt Greece or Italy, they don't want to be in Austria or Hungary, they are holding up signs wanting to go to Germany, others want to get to Sweden.


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## Uncle Bob (Sep 13, 2015)

Conarb, banks have the luxury of being able to make you do anything they want you to do to a dwelling before they allow a home loan.  It's a no win situation.

Hi old Buddy,

Uncle Bob


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## fatboy (Sep 13, 2015)

Hey UB, long time no hear!


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## conarb (Sep 13, 2015)

Uncle Bob said:
			
		

> Conarb, banks have the luxury of being able to make you do anything they want you to do to a dwelling before they allow a home loan.  It's a no win situation.Hi old Buddy,
> 
> Uncle Bob


Bob:

Where this home inspector BS came from was people were suing realtors claiming they should be experts in the field and know and disclose anything wrong with a home, the real estate lobbyists got the law passed and home inspectors serve as a legal buffer between the buyer and the realtors.  A few decades ago California's B & P Code put a home inspector section in the contractors' license law but it's just sitting there as a place mark, there has been no legislation to regulate them.  Remember maybe 15 years ago somebody posted a test to become a licensed home inspector from one of the major home inspector associations, many of us took the test and we all got mostly perfect scores with an invitation to send them $35 and become a licensed home inspector, nobody took them up on their generous offer.  In this case the seller could have told them to pound salt and put the house back on the market, but he, like most, gave them $1,000 off and closed the deal.

Where the Hell have you been?  We have all missed you around here, some of us speculated that some woman captured you and made you her man-slave and you were no-longer a free man, a couple of years ago I tried calling and emailing with no luck, what are you doing these days?


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## pwood (Sep 14, 2015)

Uncle Bob said:
			
		

> Conarb, banks have the luxury of being able to make you do anything they want you to do to a dwelling before they allow a home loan. It's a no win situation.Hi old Buddy,
> 
> Uncle Bob


UB, Insurance companies are no better than banks. I was denied fire insurance on my home in the woods by an Allstate inspector until I did some of their required upgrades. None of these upgrades were code required as I had informed the inspector.I did the upgrades and the reinspection by the same inspector failed. He told me that allstate was just not issuing new policies in fire areas. Allstate are Awholes!


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