Crawl Space Safety Concerns (Wildlife)

Specific Inspection Topics
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I’ll admit — I’m a bit overly cautious when it comes to crawl spaces. I’m especially concerned about the dangers lurking in Florida’s underbellies. In my own crawl space at home, without ever actually going inside, I’ve already encountered rodents, fire ants, snakes, scorpions, and wasps. In our great state, we’ve got a healthy variety of venomous snakes, and I’ve run into those in the wild on multiple occasions, so I know they’re out there. I feel like it’s not a matter of if I’ll run into something dangerous in a crawl space — it’s a matter of when. And that has me on edge, if you couldn’t tell.

Never mind the other hazards: rusty nails, toxic chemicals, unsafe wiring, etc. Honestly, it almost feels ludicrous to put yourself in that environment as a home inspector. The SOP says we’re not required to enter if we determine it’s unsafe — but I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that every crawl space is potentially unsafe for the reasons above. Am I wrong for thinking that? lol

Yet, I know many inspectors go in there all the time. They roll the dice. So my question for inspectors in areas with a ton of dangerous wildlife (like Florida): is it a reasonable concern for you at all? How do you deal with the risk? Do you just accept that one day you’ll probably get bit and call it part of the job? Do you take special precautions — like wearing body armor of some sort?

Do you do anything beforehand to try to clear the space — sonic devices, deterrent sprays, etc.? Can’t I just use an RC car with a GoPro (maybe even a 360 GoPro) instead of going in physically, as a standard practice? (I know it’s probably not as effective, sure.)

I’m considering a strict no-entry policy for crawl spaces when I start my business, even if it costs me some clients. Someone told me to just specialize in condos if it’s a big issue, and I thought that wasn’t a half bad idea ha. I know I’m probably overreacting, but I’m wondering if I’m alone on this?

P.S. — I know attics are no walk in the park either, but they strike me as significantly less dangerous than crawl spaces when it comes to the wildlife I could encounter.

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Seriously? I go in at least crawlspaces every day, I’m in Missouri we also have snakes, wasps, scorpions, and deadly spiders. 99% of homes here have crawlspaces, at least in Florida 99% of homes are in slabs. So you actually have it good. If you can’t deal with the occasional crawlspace, this is not the job for you. As 80% of significant defects are always in the crawlspace. You will just get yourself sued and loose your business anyways. I don’t enter 1% of crawlspaces for different reasons, some are access issues, some are because it’s full of water or just the overwhelming smell of mold. For these reasons I have a crawlbot. But they have limitations.

Who cares what your sop says. You just can not seem every crawlspace dangerous. You are picking the wrong carrier path my friend if you are that scared of what might happen.

You might just stay home as you might get in a car accident, you might just choke on a piece of food, you might get food poisoning. Get real…

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Surprised you didn’t mention 'gators!

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Open the crawl hatch and make some noise, then go put your crawl gear on. When you come back to enter, if there was anything waiting to bite a home inspector, it’ll likely have scurried away.

If your part of the state has mostly crawls, you’ll never get a booking for anything.

Probably a bit, yes. Take normal safety precautions, and don’t dwell on it. Most of the combatants I’ve encountered down there tend to hide or move away from us. There’s way more risk in there crawling through rodent droppings, feces from a variety of other mammals, broken drain/sewer pipes, pesticides, unsafe wiring, etc.

It’s all part of the job, accept it or consider alternative work or different parts of similar jobs. As has been stated, too much goes wrong down there to not enter.

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Super helpful feedback, William. Cheers!

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Never heard of a gator in a crawl space, but yeah I suppose that’s a possibility.

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That’s actually great advice. Thank you, Dominic!

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Even more reason to be wary… you aren’t looking for them!

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I will definitely keep that in mind moving forward :laughing: :crocodile:

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Some real estate agents refer certain home inspectors to their clients specifically because those inspectors don’t go in the crawlspace and because those inspectors do a super short inspection. You could market your shorter inspections and shorter reports to those super sleaze realtors. :rofl:

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Open one end and then open the other end, in one and out the other. You may have to zig-zag a bit.

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Spend the money on a nice crawlbot for the crawls that are not safe to enter. Heck, I’ve been shopping for one and I only get a few crawls per year in my area. However, I do a fair amount of HUD certs, so having a crawl would be nice for those. I don’t need to inspect the whole crawl, just a few key spots for those. But seeing those spots can be a bear sometimes.

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I was concerned about that when we moved from CA to Tallahassee. If I had concerns about a crawlspace I would send in my BIGCrawler to scout out the area to see if anything was there. I could then go in with confidence. Great use for a crawler.

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Welcome to Florida!

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We already left, lol.

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Great idea! Reconnaissance Robot :robot:

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I just use a camera on a pole. I won’t go in low crawls. I will go in the ones that are around 36” at the opening and run my camera pole up into the low danger zone.

I’ve been in enough to know everything tends to scurry away from the giant.

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Same with me. I only ever see a crawlspace when inspecting manufactured homes. They almost always have secured in place skirting with no access. You can see most of the important stuff like anchors and tie-downs, vapor barrier, piers, and the plumbing is all run along the perimeter. Not much to look at crawling around underneath one.

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I have never seen 2 crawlspace hatches on a single family house, I have on a duplex but there is usually a concrete wall separating the two.