Bay Area Home Inspection

During a Dublin house inspection, I went up into the attic to check out the heating furnace and air conditioning unit.

When an air conditioning evaporator coil unit is installed in the attic (silver box in photo), a condensate overflow pan is typically installed under the unit. The condensate overflow pan is a safety device intended to prevent unwanted condensate leakage (water) from spilling onto floors and ceilings.

As you can see, there's rust colored water (condensate) in the overflow containment pan... not a good sign.

The water in a containment pan could have come from an internal evaporator coil leakage, blockage in the primary drain line and/or blockage in the secondary drain line at the pan.

Whatever the reason, condensate leakage has found its way into the containment pan... and the metal pan is corroding.

If left unchecked, the pan will eventually rust through. This can lead to mold growth in the attic insulation or drywall ceiling; and/or ceiling water stains or leakage onto the floor.

Since most homeowners don't go into their attics, this condition seems to be discovered when ceiling stains appear... or rust colored condensate drips from the secondary drain pipe termination outside the house... or when the house is being sold and the home inspector sees red in the containment pan.