Did a new construction house the other day, part of a big development. The development was in what used to be a corn field in a suburb and the Village wants the tax revenue, so they have a “relaxed” code environment.
2nd floor. Only one return and it was on the wall of the 2nd floor hallway. above each room door was a register with another one ion the other side. So ductwork between, they just cut holes in the drywall and screwed the registers to the drywall.
They even took a piece of sheet metal and screwed it into the 2 x 4 above the door so that light would not go through the registers, but you could hear everything through the walls.
I asked the builder and he said, “Hey, it meets code.”
Our house bedrooms are “returned” like that too. I can’t say I notice a problem with it in efficiency and energy costs.
It could have been returned with ductwork within the walls I would guess. But I’m sure cost to builder had much to do with it too.
it’s disappointing that within a generation real architectural design has been forgotten & forfeited for $aving$
Will
what say you when transoms are encountered?
our forefathers & mothers could hear also & so could us curious kids :twisted:
i hope you didn’t embarrass yourself by bringing this “required installation” up during the inspection or comment in report
Transfer grills are almost always required now or else you need individual returns in each room which means like 6 filters to change, which homeowners usually dislike. Nothing cheap about it. All 3 homes I’ve GC’d and a bunch of remodels back in my construction days all either had these or were required to add them as per code.
