Should I move gas water heaters from attic to garage shelf and sacrifice room space? (Cisco: real estate, new house)

[Ciscogeek]

Hi everyone:
Highland homes is building my house. The location is great and the plan we liked has been great so far until I heard that the two gas water heaters will be located in the attic.
I have read countless horror stories from people who have been victims of attic's heaters' going bad and lost significant in repairs.

I asked the builder to analyse if they can be shelved in the garage on the tire stop. But he is saying, there isnt much space and inspectors won't pass that. So the only possibility of him bringing them down is if I give up 7'*3'=21 sq. ft. from my 11'*11' study-turned-bedroom. If i do that, my bedroom will be ruined and will be left with a 4'*3'*10' useless space and the usable space to merely 11'*8'=88 sq. ft.

Do you think, having a study-turned-bedroom left to only 88 sq.ft. won't scare future buyers away and won't impact the resale?

I am confused. Should I forget worrying too much about the water heaters being in the attic or should I keep worrying and agree on giving up bedroom space so heaters can be shelved in garage so they become more accessible, easier to maintain and replace? Dont know whats the right thing.

Spacious room with keeping heaters in attic or a smaller room and bring them down to minimize future damage?

Is 88sq. Ft. still a legitimate and acceptable space to be officially called a bedroom in real estate? This is an expensive house and currently has 4 spacious BR,3 bath and bringing heaters down will reduce it to a 3BR, with 4th BR of 88 sq.ft and 3 bath and this might impact appraisals as well as become a "no-no" for the future buyers. Hm?

Please let me know your thoughts.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Ciscogeek

Hi everyone:
Highland homes is building my house. The location is great and the plan we liked has been great so far until I heard that the two gas water heaters will be located in the attic.
I have read countless horror stories from people who have been victims of attic's heaters' going bad and lost significant in repairs.

I asked the builder to analyse if they can be shelved in the garage on the tire stop. But he is saying, there isnt much space and inspectors won't pass that. So the only possibility of him bringing them down is if I give up 7'*3'=21 sq. ft. from my 11'*11' study-turned-bedroom. If i do that, my bedroom will be ruined and will be left with a 4'*3'*10' useless space and the usable space to merely 11'*8'=88 sq. ft.

Do you think, having a study-turned-bedroom left to only 88 sq.ft. won't scare future buyers away and won't impact the resale?

I am confused. Should I forget worrying too much about the water heaters being in the attic or should I keep worrying and agree on giving up bedroom space so heaters can be shelved in garage so they become more accessible, easier to maintain and replace? Dont know whats the right thing.

Spacious room with keeping heaters in attic or a smaller room and bring them down to minimize future damage?

Is 88sq. Ft. still a legitimate and acceptable space to be officially called a bedroom in real estate? This is an expensive house and currently has 4 spacious BR,3 bath and bringing heaters down will reduce it to a 3BR, with 4th BR of 88 sq.ft and 3 bath and this might impact appraisals as well as become a "no-no" for the future buyers. Hm?

Please let me know your thoughts.

I'd leave them in the attic.

[JoeSiczpak]

Let's put the 40 gallon hot water tank overhead. What could go wrong? The inspectors will approve it, thus proving they're unqualified to inspect it at all.

It's obviously idiotic to put a water heater in the attic. It will eventually fail, and probably leak. When it does, you'll be lucky if the splash pan and drain catch the flow, otherwise, you'll probably need a lot of messy and time consuming drywall and paint work. My guess is the builder won't even bother to install a splash pan.

Maybe you can instead spend a little more on on instant heater, which takes far less space, and locate it in a SENSIBLE location. You'll save space, money and worry over the long run.

YMMV.

[jcl_cls02]

+1 for tankless.

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by jcl_cls02

+1 for tankless.

We love our tankless!!!!

[globe9]

Our water heater is in a raised type closet in our garage. No way i'd have it in the attic.

With that said, if I was building a new house, I'd definitely have tankless. Have you considered that? They're a little more expensive but much smaller and could probably be installed somewhere like your laundry room or garage.

Please don't put the tank water heaters in your attic. I also wouldn't put them in a bedroom closet. That's just ridiculous.

[Rakin]

Leave in attic. Just make sure when you change your AC Filters every 30-90 days you look at the HWH's to make sure they look good and not leaking.

Rule of thumb....... If you ever see water dripping outside the eves of the roof, you have a problem.
Learn what your secondary drain lines look like and why they exist.

After about 12 years, change them out. Don't wait for them to break.

[MurphyPl1]

I'm with Rakin. I think it's stupid that they've moved to putting them in the attic. But I don't think it's the worst thing in the world. You're obviously concerned about it, which means you'll be more vigilant for service, upkeep and replacement than a lot of folks.

We have ours in our attic and just replaced them (2 50 gals). We were at the 8 year mark. No issues, and perhaps a little early, but peace of mind. Same weekend, our friends replaced their two tanks. And at 10 yrs there's were showing that they were nearing end of lifespan.

We've got probably 300 homes in the 8+ range in my neighborhood, with a vocal email group. As far as I know there's only been one ceiling issue where the heater gave up. But those folks actually ended up with a more expensive home repair when the kids bathroom upstairs overflowed.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by JoeSiczpak

Let's put the 40 gallon hot water tank overhead. What could go wrong? The inspectors will approve it, thus proving they're unqualified to inspect it at all.

It's obviously idiotic to put a water heater in the attic. It will eventually fail, and probably leak. When it does, you'll be lucky if the splash pan and drain catch the flow, otherwise, you'll probably need a lot of messy and time consuming drywall and paint work. My guess is the builder won't even bother to install a splash pan.

Maybe you can instead spend a little more on on instant heater, which takes far less space, and locate it in a SENSIBLE location. You'll save space, money and worry over the long run.

YMMV.

BS. I'm guessing 95% of homes around here less than 20yo have attic located water heaters. Given just a dash of homeowner attention and reasonableness the chances of a modern water heater blowing out and leaking significantly are very low. The newer auto-shutoff valves render significant leaks even less likely.

ETA - if something goes wrong with a water heater's venting it's way better to have CO leaking into the attic than into one's living space. It's also best to have something that generates as much heat and waste heat, water heater vent ducting gets very hot, well away from air conditioned space.

[frenzyrider]

I am with tankless in this case. Will give you a piece of mind and you can get the connections through the garage. Don't do attic for tankless. I built with Darling and my HWHs are in the garage but it is a 900 sqft garage so... anything fits i guess.