You've Seen It From Both Sides Now

Especially at new homes, the builder often leaves a couple inches of clearance between the bottom of crawl space vents and the soil. Then the landscapers come in and they install landscape bark. In so doing, they (about 90% of the time from what I see) end up putting the bark up past the bottom of the vents. Crawl space wells are one solution to protect the vents from debris, grading the soil back sometimes works too if it is practical.

Then there are the people who do not think it is a problem, either way. Those are folks who have not been in the crawl space. The photo at the left is a vent that is at grade, presently it has plugs in it which is not a good idea either. Then the photo to the right is just behind that very vent, inside the crawl space. As you can see, all of that wood (conducive debris) is making its way inside the crawl space. Multiply that problem by about 5 vents, the number at grade at the home, and you have lots of potential for conducive debris. Also, obviously runoff water and moisture is more prone to being able to enter this crawl space too. Again, this is an example of the importance of having a few inches space between the bottom of the vents and the earth around them.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections