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The entrance to your 'crawl space'

By
Real Estate Agent with Dan Edward Phillips

The entrance to the area under your home is very important and should not be concealed! 

An exterior entrance needs to be in plain sight, clear of trash, weeds etc. and securely covered.  The cover needs to be tight but easy to remove in an emergency.  If the cover is loose or the entrance is left uncovered animals will enter and you do not want to deal with skunks etc. under the house. The area around the entrance needs to be free of any objects that make entry difficult.  Workers need plenty of room to enter, have tools available, run power cords etc.  With a little creativity you can make the entrance an appealing area.  Do not use the area under the house as a storage area.  If something catches fire under your home it will be very difficult to extinguish.  And remember that the worker needing access under your house is going to charge you by the hour to remove any obstruction or worse yet will refuse to do the work until you remove the obstruction.

Some homes have the crawl space entrance concealed in a closet.  It may be covered with carpeting.  Try to leave it clear of boxes, shelving etc.  And leave a note where it is if you will be gone and someone will be watching the house for you.  You do not want a plumber doing emergency repairs looking through all the closets to find the entrance if you are not available.

Please note:  You will not have a crawl space entrance if your home was built on a concrete slab

Robert Bob Gilbert
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Anderson Properties - Katy, TX
Your Katy TX ( West of Houston) Real Estate Expert

Dan,

Very good advice for anyone with a crawl space under their home. The sentence about not storing anything in the space due to the potential fire hazard is something everyone needs to be aware of think about before loading junk into this space. . 

Jan 02, 2012 09:36 AM
Bruce Hicks
Best Homes Hawaii - Honolulu, HI
Your Best Hawaii Realtor!

Our crawl space is more, it is tall enough to walk under, since we are on a hillside.  We have to have storage so we leave a 4'wide clearance. Most of our camping gear, water sports things are underneath.

Jan 02, 2012 09:41 AM
Joshua Zargari
MJ Decorators Workshop LI staging and home decorating - Lynbrook, NY
MJ Decorators Workshop

Good evening Dan.

A great advice indeed.

Jan 02, 2012 10:58 AM
Dan Edward Phillips
Dan Edward Phillips - Eureka, CA
Realtor and Broker/Owner

Thank you all for stopping by and your input, it is appreciated.

Jan 02, 2012 12:19 PM
Vickie Nagy
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA
Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

Great advice all around Dan! I have seen some crawl spaces that were discovered under newly installed wall-to-wall carpeting.

Jan 02, 2012 12:49 PM
Dan Edward Phillips
Dan Edward Phillips, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, CA - Eureka, CA
Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, CA

The crawl space entrance should be a routine maintenance item, check it on a monthly basis.

Jan 14, 2012 07:19 PM