Finances in the Golden Era and today

[Lincsong]

Pictures of?????

 

[jamespowers]

Pictures of?????

Houses you could have bought for about $4000 when new.

 

[handlebar bart]

Water heaters were not always installed on platforms. Originally in the 40s, they were indeed installed on the floor. Nothing ever happened to mine.

A waterheater in a garage is required to be installed atleast 18" off the garage slab according to even the most lax code. You should have someone install yours properly to avoid any potential problems. It is an easy one to tackle for a do-it-yourselfer also.

 

[Lincsong]

The first one in black and white looks shoddily built.

Water heaters are relatively easy to install and replace. Just don't place one on the floor of a garage.

 

[Lincsong]

Houses without attached garages with water heaters in a closet or laundry room?lol

Yeah I don't see any garages in those pictures.

 

[handlebar bart]

Just to clear up one point incase someone stumbled on this thread looking for pointers on mounting a water heater.lol
Uniform Plumbing Code (section 510.1) applies to California
Water heaters generating a glow, spark, or flame capable of igniting flammable vapors may be installed in a garage, provided that pilots, burners, or heating elements and switches are atleast 18 inches above the floor level. Applies also to electric water heaters.

 

[vitanola]

Wow! I don't think I would want that. It could destroy your whole house if it went. :eusa_doh:
Mine is under the house in the basement. It can stay there.

Modern water heaters are pretty safe, with their safety TPR valves, but if one is going to blow, its location in the cellar will not protect anything. Here is a video of a water heater explosion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJoyuUJj2Q
[YOUTUBE]<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="500" height="405" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JmJoyuUJj2Q" frameborder="0"></iframe>[/YOUTUBE]

An exploding water heater can launch itself more than 400 feet in the air!

Of course, such explosions are almost unheard of these days, with proper installations and modern TPR valves.

I wonder why I can no longer successfully post YouTube video to the forum?

 

[jamespowers]

A waterheater in a garage is required to be installed atleast 18" off the garage slab according to even the most lax code. You should have someone install yours properly to avoid any potential problems. It is an easy one to tackle for a do-it-yourselfer also.

That is the modern code. I am not disputing that. However, back when it was built(1940s), all water heaters in the area were in fact just set on the concrete floor in the garage. That was the way it was. Many are still that way. I notice when the neighbors put up the garage door or when we talk in front of the garage. In a neighborhood of hundreds of houses, I have not heard of one water heater explosion in 40 some years. [huh]
When you replace them then you can/should put them on a platform.

By the way, that requirement out here was not put into effect until 1968 from my subsequent research on the code number you refered to.

 

[jamespowers]

Modern water heaters are pretty safe, with their safety TPR valves, but if one is going to blow, its location in the cellar will not protect anything. Here is a video of a water heater explosion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJoyuUJj2Q
[YOUTUBE]<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="500" height="405" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JmJoyuUJj2Q" frameborder="0"></iframe>[/YOUTUBE]

An exploding water heater can launch itself more than 400 feet in the air!

Of course, such explosions are almost unheard of these days, with proper installations and modern TPR valves.

I wonder why I can no longer successfully post YouTube video to the forum?

Yeah, that water heater was replaced a few years ago and it cost me a ton to have it retrofitted to be safe---next to a furnace.

 

[jamespowers]

Yeah I don't see any garages in those pictures.

Here is the typical floor plan of a house built in the 1940s:

They tend to look like this one here:

A large house for the time:

 

[handlebar bart]

Here is the typical floor plan of a house built in the 1940s:

They tend to look like this one here:

A large house for the time:

No such thing as a typical 1940 house plan, unless you are just referring to the house having a kitchen, bedrooms, living room, and indoor toilet and not the actual layout of the house. Those may be found in the small sliver of the globe you reside but that is hardly typical.
And I will ignore the other response posts as your point has evaporated. Building code supercedes the poor practices of a unknowledgable 'handyman' in 1940 or 2010. Codes exist for a reason and the reason is to protect people from unknowingly being in a dangerous environment. Perhaps you have learned about the dangers associated with the improper installation of water heaters and can now share that with those you care about because just because something unfortunate and avoidable hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't or won't, especially since people are apparently oblivious to the dangers.

 

[jamespowers]

No such thing as a typical 1940 house plan, unless you are just referring to the house having a kitchen, bedrooms, living room, and indoor toilet and not the actual layout of the house. Those may be found in the small sliver of the globe you reside but that is hardly typical.
And I will ignore the other response posts as your point has evaporated. Building code supercedes the poor practices of a unknowledgable 'handyman' in 1940 or 2010. Codes exist for a reason and the reason is to protect people from unknowingly being in a dangerous environment. Perhaps you have learned about the dangers associated with the improper installation of water heaters and can now share that with those you care about because just because something unfortunate and avoidable hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't or won't, especially since people are apparently oblivious to the dangers.

I said that that is what houses look like here.
Handyman? That was done by housing developers back in the 1940s.
The code may supercede what was previously done but the code supercedes tons of things that would make you literally tear down a whole house as it doesn't conform to code today. Previous things are grandfathered for that reason.
I am not saying that it was better or not---just that that was the way it was done back then.
This is all very off topic for this thread and I will cease responding to get this back on track. [huh]

 

[Paisley]

It would cost me thousands of dollars to get my house up to code: Moving the garage farther from the alley, moving the circuit box outdoors, putting in a fan for the stove, putting in GFIs...that's just the stuff I know about.

Considering that I've lived in my house for 14 years without incident, I think I'll save my money.

 

[Lincsong]

Here is the typical floor plan of a house built in the 1940s:

They tend to look like this one here:

A large house for the time:

You can say that that is also the typical floor plan of a 1200 square foot house built today. They tend to be the same; three bedrooms, kitchen but now there's two baths. I don't know of any single family homes built today that are only 2 bedroom. Just condo's and townhouses.

 

[Lincsong]

This is all very off topic for this thread and I will cease responding to get this back on track. [huh]

:eusa_clap

 

[jamespowers]

You can say that that is also the typical floor plan of a 1200 square foot house built today. They tend to be the same; three bedrooms, kitchen but now there's two baths. I don't know of any single family homes built today that are only 2 bedroom. Just condo's and townhouses.

The plan shows two bedrooms not three. The dining and living room are fairly large in the plans so it might have well been 1200 square feet. [huh]