buying in the villages

[kathy palermo]

We have some questions pertaining to the building of the homes.
We have read about gas pipes in the ceilings, that can be hit
by lightening, how do you know if the home has this problem?
We have also read about houses that have lightnening protection but
the protection is faulty. What area (Villages) were these problems in?
We like the villa's, is block better than "stick"? Is three bedroom better than
two? We have seen there are many that start in in Villa's but end up buying
bigger homes, not once but even twice.
We love the Villages and are planning to come for a 3 month stay to try to find a home. We currently live in Rochester New York and the winters are
too much to deal with. Appreciate any feed back

Thanks
Kathy
Rochester New York

[graciegirl]

Kathy...Welcome.

You will find many of your answers when you come for your long visit. The gas is not an issue in new homes. They aren't building them with gas anymore.

I think the matter of how many bedrooms can be decided by evaluating how much stuff do you have and how much company will you have.

I am so excited for you to see how wonderful this place is..

[dfn8tly]

Kathy;

First of all, get the hell out of Dodge or Rochester in your case. This is where it's happening and you're about to freeze your butt off again. Gracie has the right idea. There are so many lovely homes in TV that you can be quite happy living in. Yes, there have been some issues with gas lines but remember how many houses we have here. Keep it in perspective. As for the size of your new home . . . throw away at least half your "stuff", tell most of your friends you're moving to Arizona in the middle of the desert. Your family should be informed you're going on sabbatical to Venice and can only be reached by contacting one particular white pigeon in St. Mark's Square (it has a small gray feather in it's tail). Finding the right one will take them years.

I'll bet you recall Mad Magazine and it's mantra "What, me worry?"

Jump in, the water's 82 degrees.

[SteveFromNY]

Kathy,
If the house has gas, the pipes run through the attic. A number of homes have been struck by lightning and the gas lines running across the attic have burst. This gas fed fire has caused accelerated burn through the attic and eventually (20 minutes or so) the house is "toast", or so have a number of houses. A lightning protection system can be installed to mitigate the potential of damage from a lightning strike.
However, Central Florida is THE LIGHTNING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Don't let yourself be fooled into thinking lightning only strikes houses with gas lines. IMHO, any house in the area should have a lightning protection system, even if it's all electric. I have seen homes in TV that have been struck by lightning and did not burn down - homes with a 4 ft wide hole in the roof to deal with after the storm ends! So it's not just the gas fire problem!
My advice, allow a little extra money to have an LPS installed in your home. And get a reputable installer. We used a1-lightning - we thought they were excellent.

As for the bedrooms - well only you can answer that. How much room do you need? Will a lot of people be visitning at the same time? Do you want to deter a lot of people from visiting at the same time? Do you need a gym? Do you need an office? We decided on 3 bedrooms (technically, 2 bedrooms and a den).

As for moving around TV - many people do move from one house to another. But I think it's more to do with changing needs than to do with making the wrong initial choice. I'm sure some have downsized to pull some cash out of their investment, I'm sure some have up-sized because all the kids want to come every Christmas, etc, etc. Again, up to you.

The best thing about TV is it's difficult if not impossible to make a bad choice. As many here have said, everyone thinks their village is the best! My guess is you will too! Good luck!

[djplong]

What possible reason is there for putting gas lines IN THE ATTIC??? I have a gas dryer, stove and forced hot water by gas... I can't imagine why someone would put lines up there!

[Ohiogirl]

In the Villages, and indeed most of Florida and most of the South for that matter, there are no crawl spaces or basements. Slabs can settle and that makes gas line installation in the slab dangerous and also expensive to find leaks. Do a search on gas lines and you should find other and better explanations than mine. Most houses I've lived in the South have attic lines for just about everything - many have furnaces and ductwork in the attics as well.

[another Linda]

We currently live in Rochester New York and the winters are
too much to deal with.

Apparently there are quite a few of us in this area that agree with you! Unfortunately this year we are going to be here so I'd better learn to love the one I'm with (so to speak!). We love TV and I'm sure you will too. 2 bedrm or 3, newer or older, block or stick -- I don't think you can really go wrong. Good luck.

[obxgal]

We have a 3 bedroom villa that is all electric. The main reason we bought this one(bonita) is because the washer and dryer are in the main part of the house, not out in the garage. We did rent a 2 bedroom with the washer and dryer in the garage and it got extremely hot in the summer doing the laundry out there. Inside laundry for me was a must have. We did put extra insulation in the attic, but the garage still gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

[graciegirl]

In the Villages, and indeed most of Florida and most of the South for that matter, there are no crawl spaces or basements. Slabs can settle and that makes gas line installation in the slab dangerous and also expensive to find leaks. Do a search on gas lines and you should find other and better explanations than mine. Most houses I've lived in the South have attic lines for just about everything - many have furnaces and ductwork in the attics as well.

Now what else would you expect from a girl from Ohio but a reasonable, to the point and correct explanation.

I have learned from you.

P.S. I was born at St. Ann's in Columbus and grew up in St. Leo's Parish in the south end.

[l2ridehd]

There are over 5 million homes with gas in Florida. Most have gas lines run through the attic. And yes when a home with gas is struck by lightening this can cause a problem. Their are things you can do to mitigate the issue. Keep a spanner wrench hung by the garage door so in the event you are hit, run around the corner and turn the gas off at the meter. Install a good LPS system. Keep a large fire extinguisher handy. Eliminate any flammable items in the attic near those lines.

Gas is our most abundant energy source available today. Gas cooking, heating, cloths dryer, fireplace, pool heaters, is our most efficient way of supporting these types of energy hogs. However any home that takes a direct hit by lightening is going to sustain severe damage. Is there a higher % risk of a gas home suffering more damage? Probably. Based on 5 million homes with gas lines in the attic, less then .0001 % being struck by lightening every year, I will continue to use and prefer to use this available, abundant, and low cost energy. If my number is punched and my ticket about to expire, so be it.

[SteveFromNY]

There are over 5 million homes with gas in Florida. Most have gas lines run through the attic. And yes when a home with gas is struck by lightening this can cause a problem. Their are things you can do to mitigate the issue. Keep a spanner wrench hung by the garage door so in the event you are hit, run around the corner and turn the gas off at the meter. Install a good LPS system. Keep a large fire extinguisher handy. Eliminate any flammable items in the attic near those lines.

Gas is our most abundant energy source available today. Gas cooking, heating, cloths dryer, fireplace, pool heaters, is our most efficient way of supporting these types of energy hogs. However any home that takes a direct hit by lightening is going to sustain severe damage. Is there a higher % risk of a gas home suffering more damage? Probably. Based on 5 million homes with gas lines in the attic, less then .0001 % being struck by lightening every year, I will continue to use and prefer to use this available, abundant, and low cost energy. If my number is punched and my ticket about to expire, so be it.

You make very good points. I have an adjustable wrench out on the counter for just such an emergency!
I guess what baffles me is the apparent confusion around having or not having gas. It seems almost like people in all-electric homes think that not having gas means they can't be struck by lightning. While the damage may be less severe, it's still likely to be pretty messy. A house backing onto Canal St last year (or the year before) had a 4 ft hole blown through the roof. No fire, but a huge hole nonetheless. I'd still get the LPS, even with an all electric home..

[kathy palermo]

Thank you for your reply, we hope to learn alot, this site has been most helpful

[kathy palermo]

Thank you for your reply, this site has been most helpful, look forward to using it more

[kathy palermo]

Steve from NY
Thanks so much for your reply, will keep your information in mind when we are looking
at properties, A1-lightning
We live in a home with a basement, about 2,000 sqft, we want to down size, but still
want enough space so we are not in each others way all the time.
Kathy

[kathy palermo]

Thanks for your reply




What possible reason is there for putting gas lines IN THE ATTIC??? I have a gas dryer, stove and forced hot water by gas... I can't imagine why someone would put lines up there!

[SteveFromNY]

Steve from NY
Thanks so much for your reply, will keep your information in mind when we are looking
at properties, A1-lightning
We live in a home with a basement, about 2,000 sqft, we want to down size, but still
want enough space so we are not in each others way all the time.
Kathy

You're going to miss your basement!

[katezbox]

You make very good points. I have an adjustable wrench out on the counter for just such an emergency!
I guess what baffles me is the apparent confusion around having or not having gas. It seems almost like people in all-electric homes think that not having gas means they can't be struck by lightning. While the damage may be less severe, it's still likely to be pretty messy. A house backing onto Canal St last year (or the year before) had a 4 ft hole blown through the roof. No fire, but a huge hole nonetheless. I'd still get the LPS, even with an all electric home..

Steve,

Thank you - you are the voice of reason....

[Ohiogirl]

Actually, you may find that you don't miss your basement. I've lived in many different housing styles in many parts of the country and found I could do quite nicely w/o a basement. If you haven't used it in 2 years, you very likely don't need it. Take a really good look before you move it down. Plus, if you're like most of us, a lot of that stuff is for maintaining the house and yard you won't have anymore.

The biggest plus is you don't have to clean it! also, you don't have to worry about it leaking or painting it or remembering what's in all those boxes and cubbyholes. And if you still have your kids' stuff, you have a REALLY good incentive to finally get them to take it or trash it.

(And GG - I went to Our Lady of Peace on the north side - if I'm not mistaken, they closed St. Leo's a while back. I moved out of state at 21 and moved back to Columbus at age 50, but always came back regularly to visit family. Columbus greatly improved in my absence - hopefully that was unrelated! Lived in Fairfield for a couple of years in there somehwhere, had one of my kids at Christ Hospital in Cincy).

[djplong]

Yeah, I knew about the lack of basements. As I recall, it was because of the high water table. But the thing about the gas lines still puzzles me. I mean, I understand the explanation, but in my house the gas line may come in underground (where a slab would be) but it then goes around the foundation (where the foundation meets the frame of the house) for the exact reason mentioned - ease of access. No digging through concrete or crawling around rafters.

I have to say, right now, I *would* miss my basement. And that's even after losing half the stuff down there due to a burst heating pipe earlier this year. And my fiancee has her own batch of "stuff". I'm not the packrat I used to be - still recovering though :)

I certainly wouldn't mind getting rid of 90% of the stuff in my garage, though. I'll keep the electric lawnmower but #1 with a bullet for getting rid of is the SNOWBLOWER!

[kathy palermo]

My husband informs me that the problem is not that the gas lines are routed through the attic, but that the gas lines are flex-tubing and he has heard that the tubing used is flimsy; consequently the tubing can fail when the house is struck by lightning.

Here, code requires that gas lines are to be black-iron pipe. My husband also heard that some owners in TV have had iron pipe gas lines installed? If it is true that the flex-tubing being used by the developer is thinly-walled we wonder aloud what else is sub-standard in the homes. We want a home with gas as opposed to all electric because we do not want to be dependent on one from of power.

We understand that Florida has some of the worst storms than any other state located within the continental U.S.; also that the part of Florida where TV is located has an unusually high number of lightning strikes when compared to the rest of Florida. However, we still are considering moving here. It is not nice to have your home struck by lightning, it is worse to have a 4-foot hole blown out of your roof because it was struck, but it is sad to think that your home burns down because the gas line failed.

[l2ridehd]

There is black iron pipe rated for gas, but their is also copper flex tubing that is rated for gas. The lines used in TV have to meet code for gas rated pipe to be used. The problem is that copper will melt in high heat where black iron has a much higher melting temperature. It might be an improvement to replace the flex tubing with black iron, however a better and lower cost solution would be to get an automatic shut off installed in the gas line tied to some type of heat/fire sensor in the attic.

For the most part I have found the quality of construction for TV homes to be above average. I would say good quality, not very good quality. I will continue to use gas. I prefer it for cooking, heating, hot water and pool heater. I also have a gas fireplace. I will consider installing an automated system for shutting it off at the meter. I need to do some research to determine what is the best value solution and I will post it when I find it.

[kathy palermo]

There is black iron pipe rated for gas, but their is also copper flex tubing that is rated for gas. The lines used in TV have to meet code for gas rated pipe to be used. The problem is that copper will melt in high heat where black iron has a much higher melting temperature. It might be an improvement to replace the flex tubing with black iron, however a better and lower cost solution would be to get an automatic shut off installed in the gas line tied to some type of heat/fire sensor in the attic.

For the most part I have found the quality of construction for TV homes to be above average. I would say good quality, not very good quality. I will continue to use gas. I prefer it for cooking, heating, hot water and pool heater. I also have a gas fireplace. I will consider installing an automated system for shutting it off at the meter. I need to do some research to determine what is the best value solution and I will post it when I find it.

Now this is a heck of an idea. I will continue to monitor this message thread to see what you have come-up with. Thank you. My husband will most likely research this too.

-Kathy

[kathy palermo]

There is black iron pipe rated for gas, but their is also copper flex tubing that is rated for gas. The lines used in TV have to meet code for gas rated pipe to be used. The problem is that copper will melt in high heat where black iron has a much higher melting temperature. It might be an improvement to replace the flex tubing with black iron, however a better and lower cost solution would be to get an automatic shut off installed in the gas line tied to some type of heat/fire sensor in the attic.

... I will consider installing an automated system for shutting it off at the meter. I need to do some research to determine what is the best value solution and I will post it when I find it.

What an excellent idea. I will continue to watch this message to see what you may have come-up with. No doubt, my husband will start the research also. Thanks. -Kathy

[kathy palermo]

There is black iron pipe rated for gas, but their is also copper flex tubing that is rated for gas. The lines used in TV have to meet code for gas rated pipe to be used. The problem is that copper will melt in high heat where black iron has a much higher melting temperature. It might be an improvement to replace the flex tubing with black iron, however a better and lower cost solution would be to get an automatic shut off installed in the gas line tied to some type of heat/fire sensor in the attic.

... I will consider installing an automated system for shutting it off at the meter. I need to do some research to determine what is the best value solution and I will post it when I find it.

Thank you for this excellent idea. My husband reports he will research the idea too. I look forward to seeing what you find out.

P.S. This is the third time I am replying to this post and for some reason my post is not showing. I have switched browsers and I am trying again. If my answer to this message shows more than once I apologize in advance. -Kathy

[kathy palermo]

12ridehd, thanks for the idea for an automatic gas shutoff. Can't wait to read what you post regarding the idea. My husband is going to also look-into the idea. -kathy