crawlspace inspections: What lies beneath? - 07/31/11 01:20 PM
What lies beneath? No I’m not referring to the movie were Harrison Ford plays the adulterous, murderous husband. I’m referring to the crawlspace your house is sitting on. Most people have no idea what’s going on in their crawlspace. They’ve never been down there and have no intentions of going down there.
Now stop and think about this. The crawlspace is the area between the ground and the first floor of your house. The air quality in your crawlspace affects the air quality in your house. The very supports that your house is built upon are in your crawlspace. Now take … (9 comments)

crawlspace inspections: What Lies Beneath - 11/15/09 03:23 PM
No, I'm not referring to the Harrison Ford movie. I'm referring to the crawl space. It seems that when it comes to the crawl space out of sight truly is out of mind. After all, who wants to go into a dark, cold, dirty crawl space along with all those nasty spiders and such?
Well things that are ignored tend to develop problems. If those problems are ignored then they become real serious problems. With time these problems will become a structural nightmare. This home was purchased less than 5 years ago. The crawl space had already undergone multiple repairs. The … (7 comments)

crawlspace inspections: Crawlspace Inspection - 10/25/09 03:51 PM
One of the most important and revealing part of the home inspection is the crawlspace. More often than not this is the part many inspectors dread most. Looking at this picture it's very easy to understand why so many inspectors feel this way

Unfortunately the condition of the crawlspace directly affects the entire house and as unpleasant as it maybe we would be doing our client a great injustice to rush through this portion of the inspection. This particular crawlspace is basically shot. All insulation, most of the box beams and sill plate, the entire girder and all the joists … (8 comments)

crawlspace inspections: Shim Shim-a-Dee, Shim Shim-a-Do - 04/03/09 04:47 AM
Dude, you sure you should be letting your children run around the house like that?
What if the floor you're relying on to support you and your furniture turned out to look like this?
How many people really know what condition their home's crawlspace is really in?
This was what I found when I crawled into the crawlspace of a home that was up for rent. The height from floor to joist starts out at 28 inches, and then narrows down to 15 inches, not much room to maneuver around over all the debris.



Okay, so maybe my chosen field of work … (10 comments)

crawlspace inspections: Bolt Cutters and PadLock - Never Leave Home Without Them - 03/27/09 12:01 PM
Earlier in this week I mentioned in a post that I carry bolt cutters and an extra brand new Master padlock when performing home inspections. The reasons being that all too often Sellers don't have or just forget to leave the key to their crawlspace either at the house or with their Realtors.
Now we always make sure that it is very clear that the crawlspace will be inspected and that access needs to be provided, but all too often this is forgotten and it would require that portion of the inspection to be postponed and for us to return at … (14 comments)