Even the nicest of crawl spaces can be forbidding places—almost like visiting some other planet. By the time the inspector gets all suited up to go in the crawl space they can even look like a space man.
Some inspectors look for almost any excuse to not go in the crawl space, even though it is required of licensed home inspectors in the NW—-unless deemed unsafe to do so. But does “unsafe” mean one rat turd or 100? Does it mean one little puddle or completely flooded? It is left to the home inspector to decide what is safe, so make sure you know what kind of home inspector you are hiring.
While I don’t exactly “love” crawl spaces I do find lots of good blog fodder in them. This is often where the deal killers hide.
The crawl space I am posting about today had no water in it at the time of inspection, but there was a lot of evidence of past flooding—–all the way up to the insulation. Almost enough to turn the home into a houseboat.
This would mean that there would be in excess of 24″ of water in the space. This was not just any water—-it was salt water. Every time there was a storm-surge this low lying home’s crawl space would flood with water. When the water receded, seaweed would be left dangling from insulation and wood structures.
All it needed was a sail.
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