Crawlspace Remediation

Did an inspection of a house with a crawlspace. About 25 year old home. The vapor barrier was not taped or sealed. There was open ground showing.
Seller agreed to redo it. Did another inspection of the crawl space and it was about the same. No tape or sealed over lapping. They even covered a broom and a Christmas tree stand over with the plastic. The seller must of hired their nephew to do the job.
I Provided a picture of a professional job to the agent.
Seller doesn’t understand whats my problem with it.

:joy::rofl::upside_down_face:

Not much can be done if they are not involving a contractor that knows what & how needs to be done.

Was the crawlspace wet or damp?

You can just report what you see and that includes re-inspections.

FYI: Bob, you may want to check your website. It is not yours anymore, it appears and it had funky things happening when I clicked on it. I just Xed out quickly. :flushed:

househomeinspectionsllc.com/

Seller doesn’t understand what’s my problem with it.

Why do you care what the seller has to say. The seller is not your client!
Cheers

As long as you explain in your report your findings and make recommendations as to how the crawl space vapor barrier should be done properly. You could include a link in the report showing a crawl space before and after it has a vapor barrier installed, as well as explaining the importance. However, unless there is structural issues and/or mold issues because of the lack of a vapor barrier, this is not going to be a deal breaker. Just do what you are required to do.For your client you can recommend that once she takes possession of the home, she have the crawl space evaluated by professionals and do an encapsultion and insulation of the space if she wants to make it healthier, energy efficient and durable.

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Very rarely do you find a vapor barrier here in Florida.

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There is a NACHI graphics illustration that depicts a properly installed/sealed crawl space soil cover. I including it in my observation, using the “a picture is worth a 1000 words” concept. It’s a very good illustration. The seller making the improvement should fully understand what needs to be done from the illustration. Do a search in the graphics library for “Proper crawl space vapor barrier”

Thanks, this is a big help explaining my findings.

I have been in 1000’s of crawl spaces in Virginia. Never saw a vapor barrier taped at the seams unless we installed or replaced it. We also did encapsulation of crawls. Sure makes a crawl a joy to enter. My heating technician was surprised when he went into the crawl to service.

The taping of the seams is only prescribed by IRC for unvented (conditioned) crawlspaces. So if it’s not part of local code, it’s not required. In fact, the ground does not even need to be covered if you provide 1:150 ventilation that can be reduced to 1:1500 if the ground is covered with class 1 vapor barrier. Since the OP did not mention if the crawl is vented or conditioned, no way to know the requirement.

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