Water Heater Height Requirement

[Skip Erwin]

The house I inspected today has a gas water heater directly on the basement floor. I know that gas water heaters must be 18 inches off the floor in a garage. Does the same apply to a basement?

Thanks in advance for the answer.

[rdawes]

My opinion would be no. The requirement for a garage is to get it above gasoline fumes which are heavier than air. Unless of course it's a split basement with a garage built into it.

[W. Michael Chris]

I agree with Ronald

[wsiegel]

Send me your email and I will send you the installation instrutions for a gas water heater.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

The IRC says only the garage (and any room that communicates directly with the garage is considered to be part of the garage).

[mthomas2]

Skip,

There is a very clear set of instructions for the installation of a typical natural gas fired water heater here:

http://www.americanwaterheater.com/s.../BFGmanual.pdf

[Charles L. Harper]

Newer home with an FVIR unit.?????????

[Barry Adair]

FVIR are not fool proof, maybe designed safer but things break and stuff happens and the way we see things incorrectly installed we should never assume anything.
http://www.gamanet.org/gama/inforeso...d?OpenDocument

The way the basement is being used, today during the inspection, may not be how it is used in the future.

Common sense notifications are sometimes not common enough, in our reports.