Crawl Space Woes in NC

 As popular as they are in North Carolina and many southern states, crawl space type foundations, when not properly treated, are also a source of many woes, not only for the people living above them, but for those trying to sell a property with a problem crawl space.

Homeowners can live years above a vented, dirt crawl space, not realizing how much their lives affected by it.

They are, for example, unable to relate things like high energy bills or chronic allergy symptoms to the high moisture levels and mold that reside right under their living space.

They might not realize that the creaking, sagging or swollen floors, the doors that don’t close properly and cracks in the drywall, might be signs of structural decay caused by crawl space humidity.

People will patch the walls, shave the doors, and spend a lot of money in energy bills and allergy medication for years without ever adressing the cause of all these problems.

 That of course, all changes when it is time to sell the property.

You just can’t make a crawl space problem go away on a real estate deal. You can’t hide it either.

A vented, dirt crawl space is not a pretty thing. Not even if you only look at it from the outside.

Home inspectors and appraisers dread having to enter them, banks will think twice before issuing a mortgage.

More importantly, no home buyer wants to buy someone else’s problems, especially when the market is still flooded with properties in much better conditions. Buyers who might consider a property with problem crawl space are most likely looking for a bargain, and are expecting a big discount on the asking price and definitely much less than the value of similar properties in the same area.

The good news is that, for a fraction of what NC homeowners would lose by selling the home as a “fixer-upper”, they can have the crawl space completely repaired.

Southeast Foundation Repair offers state-of-the-art solutions for crawl space mold and moisture problems and crawl space structural decay. The company offers free, in-home inspections and estimates and serves southeastern North Carolina, including the Greater Wilmington and Fayetteville, NC areas, and northeastern South Carolina, including Charleston, Myrtle Beach, SC.