houses with crawl spaces

[madison man]

we are looking at buying a house with a crawl space under it. I just peeked under there duing the first showing and saw the furnace laying sideways and looks like on a concret slab. But the rest looked like dirt floor with plastic over it. Are there any problem with these that i should be aware of? Any help would greatly be appriciated.

[Surface Tension]

I would avoid it.

Moister, cold floors, freezing water lines and waste pipes, good place for mice,rats, and skunks. Insulate the floors and it becomes even more attractive to mice and rats.

Moving, heaving footings(if there are any).

I'd imagine the place is old. Are you going to every remodel or expand? You'll be sinking money into a place that isn't worth sinking money into. Like anything in life, you need to build upon a good foundation.

[echo2010]

The more open area under your house, the higher the chance of to much radon.

Get a good inspection by someone who knows foundations. Get a radon reading.

there are many many homes with crawl spaces, I think ventilation is Key to avoid moisture

[Tom7227]

I guess that the concern I would have is that it seems logical that whoever put it up was trying to save money unless there's some sort of rock issue or something that would prevent a full basement. If there isn't a rock problem then it almost has to be money. That's not fatal in my book but it would make me wonder if corners were cut in other areas - cheap windows, low end furnace/appliances, things like that. How old is it? Is it a pre-built from prior to the mid-70's? Given your address a housing inspector may not be available but I'd want someone with some general contracting experience check it out for you.

Good luck.

[madison man]

it was built in 1987 close to a river so i was thinking there might be a water tabel issue that's why they didn't dig a basement. I think i am leaning against it too bad, it is a great piece of property.. thanks to everyone.

[chasineyes]

Avoid it...

[Powerstroke]

I wouldn't say avoid it. In the little hamlet of Hopkins (metro suburb), there are many slab homes and homes with crawl spaces. In fact almost an entire neighborhood of high-end older homes is crawl spaces and I don't know of any major problems. I've actually been in most of them because we are upgrading the water meters in town.

Its all about the overall property. I know homes on slabs and homes with basements that are in much worse shape and have more problems than the crawlspace ones. Ask all the questions you want and have it inspected. The furnace is down there so it must keep it warm enough and circulate air. I'm sure the walls have insulation and the house floor would be insulated too.

[Gus]

I lived in a house that was built it in 1952. It had a sand crawl space with the plastic vapor barrier. There was no moisture problems and no rot of the foundation what so ever. Besides being dirty there really wasn't any problems with it. My furnace was not in that area but I didn't see any other problems. All of the houses in that neighborhood were built the same way and I didn't hear of any other horror stories either. I moved out of that house 2 years ago so it was over 50 years old when I was there.

[echo2010]

I wouldn't say avoid it. In the little hamlet of Hopkins (metro suburb), there are many slab homes and homes with crawl spaces. In fact almost an entire neighborhood of high-end older homes is crawl spaces and I don't know of any major problems. I've actually been in most of them because we are upgrading the water meters in town.

Its all about the overall property. I know homes on slabs and homes with basements that are in much worse shape and have more problems than the crawlspace ones. Ask all the questions you want and have it inspected. The furnace is down there so it must keep it warm enough and circulate air. I'm sure the walls have insulation and the house floor would be insulated too.

I wouldnt avoid it either, All the houses I grew up in had crawl spaces

[HawgMan]

RUN!!!!!!!!

& Don't look back!!!!

[Pat K]

After my parents retired they lived in a house with a crawl space. There was only plastic with a lttle bit of rock on it to hold it in place. They lived there for 25 years with no problems because of the crawl space.

All of the houses on the block had crawl spaces because it was part of a flood plain.

When my mother died there weren't any problems selling the house because it had a crawl space.

No matter what you buy, spend the money on an inspection. Cheap insurance and peace of mind.

[traveler]

We bought a cabin with a cralwspace years back and turned it into a year round home. We very heavily insulated the perimeter, ran the heat ducts thru the crawlspace, and kept it minimally heated (had an indoor/outdoor thermometer down there) and it worked fine for years. It was on a great draining sandy lot, the ground in the crawlspace was bare dirt...no plastic, etc...I had an acess hatch of course, and checked it out twice a year or so, never so much as an insect or rodent under there. Well, a few ants I guess...We sold it 7 years ago and the present owner works with my wife and it's still working just fine. Saved a BUNCH of money not doing a foundation. Yes, the bank loaned on it and it was insurable.

[knoppers]

my lake cabin has a crawl space do to the lot being level. the problem I have is in the spring, the crawl space fills with water, and with the ground being clay, it has a hard time draining out. I looked at it today, and it already had some water in it. I have to go buy a pump, so I can pump it out.

[Jameson]

Hey knoppers,

If the lot is level how did the water get under the house?

While your pumping the water out of there look around to see where it is draining in from. You likely can redo some landscaping around your cabin to keep the water out from under it.

[knoppers]

I am only about 3 feet above the level of the lake, so the crawl space may be near the lake level. but I know the water seeps in through the block foundation, must be from cracks. it seems to be a problem every spring, and spring only, as the rest of the year, there is no problem.

[Sandmannd]

As said by some, if you really like the property I wouldn't let it deture you. Do some research on how to maintain that type of house so you know what you will have to do. Get a good inspection and if all is well take it if you like the home.

[hondarider550]

I would not let the crawl space bother you. As said earlier if you have plenty of ventilation you should not have problems with the space. There are plenty of houses that have lasted a long time with a crawl space underneath so you should not have problems either...

I would consider moving the furnace to a better location though unless it really is working well there but everytime you need to change filters you will have to get into that space I am assuming...

[reddog]

There is nothing wrong with a properly constructed and maintained crawlspace. The problem has been that in the past, most people tried to segregate the crawlspace from the home by insulating the floor system. Bad idea, terminal, probably not, but it does cause problems with rodents and potential moisture problems.

If you are going to buy a crawlspace, I would make sure that the crawlspace is viewed as part of the living space of the house. Since yours has a horizontal furnace down there, then it probably is set up that way.

Criteria for a conditioned crawlspace, is a sealed poly vapor barrier throughout the whole area on the ground. Now, this can be just regular 6 mil poly that you buy at the farm and home store or big box store, but, you really should use a high performance product like Ruffco, by Raven, or Dura Tuff by Yunker plastics. These will withstand any kind of work that will need to be done in the future by the HVAC or plumbers. IT is very tuff stuff.

The other thing, is to insulate the sidewalls and rim joists and not the floor joists.

Then, you also provide some kind of heating, cooling and mechanical ventilation.

8X16 screen vents that open and close for ventilation, are not adequate, although there are about a million of them around.

Treat the crawlspace like it is part of the house, (which it is) and you wont have any problems, (assuming that it doesnt have any kind of bulk water problem.)

[traveler]

Reddog....we kind of winged it with mine, but we never did poly or ventilation, although if you read my post above i would say we treated it as "part of the house". So, why did it work well for years? Not trying to be difficult, I"M just wondering if we just got lucky or what??

[reddog]

Reddog....we kind of winged it with mine, but we never did poly or ventilation, although if you read my post above i would say we treated it as "part of the house". So, why did it work well for years? Not trying to be difficult, I"M just wondering if we just got lucky or what??

My guess, is that it worked well, because of the fact that you did heat it and cool it, even though you didnt have a dedicated duct opening in the space.

Because it was minimaly heated, the risk of condensation from ground moisture, is lowered considerably compared to a crawl with the floor joists insulated and the area below segregated.

Any vapor barrier on the ground, is better than nothing. The fact that you were on sand, helped, but in my opinion, you still should have some kind of ground cover. Under certain/most conditions a bare dirt floor, will dump around 3/5 gallons of water vapor into the structure daily. Obviously, your site, for some reason, didnt have that effect on your structure.