when home building takes shortcuts that make no sense

S

SmarterthanYou

rebel
having bought my very first home 6 weeks ago, I came upon an issue today that belies belief. the closet space that holds my AC/furnace has a 24 inch doorway and the unit takes a 20x25x1 air filter............but to make things interesting, the morons put the unit in wrong, so I am forced to fit a 25 inch filter through a 24 inch doorway to fit in to the unit............................

i'm still not passed the idiocy to be angry
 
SmarterthanYou said:
having bought my very first home 6 weeks ago, I came upon an issue today that belies belief. the closet space that holds my AC/furnace has a 24 inch doorway and the unit takes a 20x25x1 air filter............but to make things interesting, the morons put the unit in wrong, so I am forced to fit a 25 inch filter through a 24 inch doorway to fit in to the unit............................

i'm still not passed the idiocy to be angry
Click to expand...

Usually the AC/Furnace sits on a platform above the Return Air. There's usually a standard Grille in a wall at the bottom. Sometimes, not recommended, they install the Return Air in the ceiling.
Look around, do you see a Grille anywhere? They intentionally make it easy for 'Johnny Homeowner' to change Filters.
 
Jack said:
Usually the AC/Furnace sits on a platform above the Return Air. There's usually a standard Grille in a wall at the bottom. Sometimes, not recommended, they install the Return Air in the ceiling.
Look around, do you see a Grille anywhere? They intentionally make it easy for 'Johnny Homeowner' to change Filters.
Click to expand...

its on the bottom. the grill and flap door to install the filter is there. the filter is bigger than the actual doorway that you open to access the unit.
 
Having a hard time visualizing what you're describing. You said closet door so I'm assuming a standard interior door, then you talk about the furnace filter opening. Is the filteropening right up behind the door?

Because otherwise I'd just say turn the damn filter to the side. I'm just imaging one of those videos of a dog holding a stick that's too big to fit through an opening.

Anyway dumb construction stuff is actually pretty common, a friend of mine has a side door that opens into the kitchen, and the oven is right up against the wall near it. In order to open the oven door, the door trim had to be removed so there's just no trim at a certain point to the floor.
 
Mr.Badguy said:
Having a hard time visualizing what you're describing. You said closet door so I'm assuming a standard interior door, then you talk about the furnace filter opening. Is the filteropening right up behind the door?

Because otherwise I'd just say turn the damn filter to the side. I'm just imaging one of those videos of a dog holding a stick that's too big to fit through an opening.

Anyway dumb construction stuff is actually pretty common, a friend of mine has a side door that opens into the kitchen, and the oven is right up against the wall near it. In order to open the oven door, the door trim had to be removed so there's just no trim at a certain point to the floor.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure a Stove adjacent to a Wall is 'legal'. Building Codes have minimum dimensions that need to be met. This sounds like some 'Landlord Designer' at work. :|
 
Mr.Badguy said:
Having a hard time visualizing what you're describing. You said closet door so I'm assuming a standard interior door, then you talk about the furnace filter opening. Is the filteropening right up behind the door?

Because otherwise I'd just say turn the damn filter to the side. I'm just imaging one of those videos of a dog holding a stick that's too big to fit through an opening.

Anyway dumb construction stuff is actually pretty common, a friend of mine has a side door that opens into the kitchen, and the oven is right up against the wall near it. In order to open the oven door, the door trim had to be removed so there's just no trim at a certain point to the floor.
Click to expand...

"Of all the things that can go wrong with stoves, the most prevalent problem has to do with the “inventive” places cooks find to place hot pans. A minimum of 12 inches of landing space on one side of the stove, and another 15 inches on the other side, are the required landing area widths. As this is hardly enough room to set a single pot or pan, this should be considered an absolute bare minimum, with greater widths highly recommended."
https://www.fix.com/blog/kitchen-design-best-practices/
 
Trumpet said:
"having bought my very first home 6 weeks ago"
I think he said that he purchased the home, but he didn't say if it was new construction.
Click to expand...

My response was to 'Mr. Badguy' and the Stove situation. I don't think any Builder wants his name on a House with a Stove next to a Wall. That has 'FIRE' written all over it. :(
 
SmarterthanYou said:
having bought my very first home 6 weeks ago, I came upon an issue today that belies belief. the closet space that holds my AC/furnace has a 24 inch doorway and the unit takes a 20x25x1 air filter............but to make things interesting, the morons put the unit in wrong, so I am forced to fit a 25 inch filter through a 24 inch doorway to fit in to the unit............................

i'm still not passed the idiocy to be angry
Click to expand...

In my area if that happened to me I would call code enforcement.
 
alright, this shouldn't be that hard to imagine, although I did take a picture but it won't seem to upload, but picture a closet type door in a hallway, where most AC units would be in............the width of that doorway is about 23 inches. Now, picture the AC unit inside....................the size of the filter is 25 inches.........
 
SmarterthanYou said:
alright, this shouldn't be that hard to imagine, although I did take a picture but it won't seem to upload, but picture a closet type door in a hallway, where most AC units would be in............the width of that doorway is about 23 inches. Now, picture the AC unit inside....................the size of the filter is 25 inches.........
Click to expand...

Most Units are in a 'Closet'. The Return Air Grille is on the outside. 'Johnny Homeowner' never needs to open the AC/Furnace 'closet' to change the Filter.
Shut the door to the AC/Furnace compartment. Look around. Do you see a white, metal Grille, about 2 feet by 2 feet nearby? It's usually at the bottom of a centrally located wall. It could be in the ceiling though.



Does anything look like this:


 
Is this a new home or one that's older? If it's new you have up to four years from the date you purchased to come back against the builder for defects in workmanship. You should be able to force them to install a wider (in this case, likely custom) door. It wouldn't be a building code issue, but rather one of poor design / workmanship.

To resize the door to say, 26" is possible but it's quite a bit of work to do. The quick and dirty fix would be to cut the raised part of the jamb on both sides out where you can slide the filter in, but that's as I said, quick and dirty.

If you do replace the door, make absolutely sure the new wider door has the same amount of area that is vented through for return air. That is a code requirement.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
Is this a new home or one that's older? If it's new you have up to four years from the date you purchased to come back against the builder for defects in workmanship. You should be able to force them to install a wider (in this case, likely custom) door. It wouldn't be a building code issue, but rather one of poor design / workmanship.

To resize the door to say, 26" is possible but it's quite a bit of work to do. The quick and dirty fix would be to cut the raised part of the jamb on both sides out where you can slide the filter in, but that's as I said, quick and dirty.

If you do replace the door, make absolutely sure the new wider door has the same amount of area that is vented through for return air. That is a code requirement.
Click to expand...

it's about 20 years old. i'm looking at cutting the lowest 2 inches of the door frame to slide a filter through it
 
SmarterthanYou said:
it's about 20 years old. i'm looking at cutting the lowest 2 inches of the door frame to slide a filter through it
Click to expand...

That's the quick and dirty solution. Resizing the door would be the proper way but that'd run you about $150 in materials to do and you'd need some decent carpentry skills.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top