Several years ago, I did an inspection on a house being sold by a certain professional race car driver. Here is what I found in his garage:

Back to the left is a gas water heater. A water heater in a garage is required to be on a raised platform so that the location of the flame is at least eighteen inches off the floor. That’s because gas is heavier than air, so it will take up space closest to the floor if it’s present via a leak.

Off to the right you can see the washer, with implications that a dryer is close by. And it was. A gas dryer, meaning more opportunity for fire. Interestingly, the codes don’t require that a gas dryer be raised. It’s the difference between an attended appliance and an unattended appliance.

The dryer is considered an attended appliance and is not required to be raised because you’re attending to it while it’s in operation.

The water heater is an unattended appliance. It turns itself on and off as needed, controlled by the setting of the thermostat.

Just off to the left in the picture, the owner was welding metal parts together and sparks were flying all over the place.

Keep in mind that this is the garage for a professional race car driver, a very famous one. Look at those three white jugs and those three red jugs in the center of the picture. Know what they contain? That’s right. Gallons and gallons and gallons of highly flammable gasoline.

Considering how much race car drivers practice safety in and around the race track, this must be the epitome of “Do as I say, not as I do.”

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