Chimney close to deck

Wondering your thoughts on this deck that was built adjacent to the chimney? Probably inside of 7 feet from chimney to the railing. It’s a functioning wood burning fireplace. Home was built in 1939. The vines may be worth noting as well. Is this a defect? Thanks much for your input on this.

John
Laguna Home Inspections

What are the clearance requirements for chimneys?

It is within the 10 foot radius.

I don’t see any part of the structure that is not at least 2 feet below the elevation of the chimney termination within that radius.

I don’t see any issue with the proximity of the deck structure to the chimney.

I agree with Chuck… Not an issue at all.
Cheers

Thanks much guys

Chimney height rules: Height & Clearance Requirements for Chimneys - how high must a chimney be, what other chimney clearances are required for fire safety or function?

nice…

A little surprised that no one has mentioned the lack of a rain shedding cap or spark arrestor on the chimney. :-k

The vegetation in contact with the structure is a deficiency as well. Invites pests.

I suspect the OP noted the lack of rain cap.

We answered the question the OP asked.

How do you know how far the trees are from the house? BTW

Cheers

If that was pertinent to the question he asked I would have mentioned it. He had a specific question and did not ask for us to inspect the house for him. I think it would be ill-mannered to assume that he was incapable of performing his own inspection without our collective oversight when all he asked was input on a very specific question.

@ the OP,
If I said anything that offended you or implied that you are not competent inspector, I offer my sincere apology.

@Chuck,
My comment expressed surprise that no one else had mentioned the lack of a chimney cap. I routinely see other inspectors pointing out deficiencies in photos that have nothing to do with the thread. Very common at this forum. I in no way meant to imply that the OP was not capable of performing his own inspection. Apparently, that is what you chose to assume.

@Doug
“I suspect the OP noted the lack of rain cap.”
I suspect so as well. I was surprised that no one had commented on it. Tangential observations from photos are pretty common at this forum, from what I have seen.

“We answered the question the OP asked.”
No argument there, but straying from the thread seems to be common practice at this forum. Am I to be excluded from that freedom?

“How do you know how far the trees are from the house? BTW”
As you correctly imply, it is not possible to definitively tell how far the vegetation is from the house, but it is quite obvious from the photo that there is vegetation in contact with the deck, which is why I used the term “structure”, not “house”.

Gentlemen, I am here to learn, and offer comments to elicit responses that might expand my knowledge. I have become accustomed to having other forum members call out deficiencies in photos that have nothing to do with the thread, so when I saw no one had in this case, I tossed out a few comments to see if there were some aspect of the items cited on which my knowledge was less than complete.

Given the accusations of laziness and professional incompetency that routinely get hurled about by some at this forum, I am surprised that my relatively innocuous comments even made it onto your respective radars.

William, I would never consider a tree or shrubs near a deck as a deficiency. The photo, in reality, is too far away from anything to mean anything at all.

Cheers

It’s a silly practice that serves no value to the person who posted a specific question. It serves little purpose other than self-stroking the egos of the off topic respondents, who often aren’t capable of addressing the question that was actually posed. Now if someone has a corollary question and posed it as a question for the purpose of validating their understanding, then I would expect that would receive on-topic responses too.

For a while, in this thread, we were fortunate to have all of the responses to this question be on-topic. But the moment has passed. C’est la vie.

Well said Chuck!

BTW William, you, in the greater scope of things, have been here less than 10 seconds. There is no such thing as a perfect home and we, as inspectors need to be aware of that fact. Our job is to identify SIGNIFICANT issues that should be corrected for the safety of the occupants or to protect the value of the home.
Pay attention to things that matter, don’t just nitpick!
Hope this helps
Cheers

Cheers

Well, the way I see it, with a slight breeze, this would be a bug free Deck at night. ;):slight_smile:
Curious to how they access that upper deck.

Doug and Chuck,

In the interest of moving the focus away from your comments about my comments and back to the the topic of the thread, I will continue our conversations in PMs, so kindly check your boxes.

Cheers

I did.

Thanks for your input.

Cheers