In the Field · Part 4
Case: the water heater that failed inspection twice
A competent plumber replaces a 50-gallon gas water heater in a garage, does clean work, and fails the final inspection on four items that were all on the checklist in lesson 4.5. He fixes what he thinks the inspector said, calls for reinspection, and fails again on two of the same items, because he did not read the correction notice; he remembered it. The customer, who cannot get her final payment released to the financing partner until the permit is signed off, is now two weeks in. This case walks each item to its section, the second failure to the habit that caused it, and the version of the same job that passed the first time because the plumber ran the sequence from lesson 4.5 before calling the inspector.
What the full lesson covers
- Four corrections on the first inspection: one strap below the controls' clearance (507.2); the T&P line terminating into the pan (608.5, 507.5); no expansion tank on a house with a regulator (608.3); the sediment trap tee installed sideways (1212.9).
- Two failures on reinspection: the T&P line re-run to the outside but ending 3 feet above grade and with a threaded adapter on the end (608.5's 2-foot maximum and unthreaded-end rules), and the strap moved but now across the burner access door.
- The correction notice is a list with section numbers; the second failure came from fixing what the plumber remembered instead of what the notice said.
- The customer's financing did not fund until the permit finaled; every day of correction was a day the customer paid interest on a heater that was working.
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More lessons in The Field: Method, Code, and Cases
- 1The diagnostic method: verify, isolate, cheapest test first, cause not symptom, the options ladder, document
- 2Permits: when one is required, what is exempt, pulling it online, the inspection sequence, what inspectors look for, and handling corrections
- 3Daily-use code: drainage slope, venting, water sizing, cleanouts, trap arms, and fixture units, with the section for each
- 4Gas piping in practice: sizing, CSST bonding, the pressure test, appliance connectors and shutoffs, sediment traps, and seismic shutoff valves