St. Louis Real Estate-Crawl Space Inspections

St. Louis Real Estate-Building Inspection-Crawl Space Inspections

No Basement, No Sweat. . .but you better pay attention to this!

A crawl space is an area or portion of a space in a building or house, without a basement, between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the first floor. This space is usually less than normal headroom. This space is designed to permit access to components such as ductwork, wiring, and pipe fittings.

“This sounds like a great idea”, says Mr. and Mrs. Home Buyer, “Besides, we don’t need a basement for storage and we don’t care what our crawl space looks like, we will never go down there”

You may not want to go through a crawl space, but you better know the condition your crawl space is in. There are three concerns every buyer should be aware of when it comes to crawl spaces.

1) BUGS & CRITTERS – Dirt crawl spaces are a great place to live, thrive, and reproduce if you are a bug. There is even temperature, moisture, damp wood, and shelter. Spiders, beetles, centipedes, termites, and all kinds of other insects are found in dirt crawl spaces. Animals such as mice, (dead or alive) are commonly found in dirt crawl spaces. In some cases even rats, snakes, and small animals have been found in crawl spaces.

2) CONDENSATION – Because of the high humidity level in dirt crawl spaces, cool surfaces such as the earth at 55 degrees, concrete, and metal surfaces will sweat with water vapor condensing out of the air. This can result in rot, odor, and is a water source for critters.

3) MOLD & STRUCTURAL DAMAGE – Mold spores, the seeds of mold, are everywhere. All they need to grow is organic material, such as wood, the right temperature range, and moisture. Dirt crawl spaces have the high humidity levels necessary for mold to grow. Humidity levels from 50%-90% are easily found in dirt crawl spaces even when they have never flooded. Mold can grow on dirt, insulation, framing, and even under your carpet on the first floor. Mold can reproduce by producing millions of floating airborne spores, which some people are very sensitive to. Spores even can be dormant for many years waiting for the right conditions to grow.

I hope I have the attention of all the buyers out there on the importance of knowing the conditions of a house with a crawl space. The good news is there are many solutions and improvements that can be recommended by your home inspector after the conditions are evaluated. Don’t panic, many of these solutions and improvements are not that pricey. If you truly love the house, you will make these improvements. Take your time, talk with your inspector, and make intelligent decisions for the safety and well being of your family.

Harry Morrell
ASHI Certified Inspector

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 6:21 pm and is filed under Building Inspection News, First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.