WET WET crawls

Specific Inspection Topics Structural Inspections
1

i’m in no way afraid of slopping through the mud in my overalls, but…

what about everyone else?

this < 900 ft2 crawl had standing water in about 30% of it.

all of it was very muddy
had to keep placing wooden blocks under me just so I wouldnt sink.

no power to house during inspection, so of course the sump there is doing nothing.

i actually crawled the majority of this crawl space, but want to know if I should be shying away under certain conditions.

I never felt unsafe at any time, just a big mess.

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2

Entering a wet crawlspace offers an excellent opportunity to be electrocuted. It is a common enough occurrence to avoid them, IMO.

In the aftermath of our recent storms that left St. Louis without power for over a week, one of the more experienced (30+ years on the job) utility operators was killed by a line that presumably had been shut off.

3

Damp is one thing - standing water = “get it dried out then call us back to finish”

4

I agree with Dan and James - get it dried out first - I did a crawl space last summer which had all the water to the house turned off, well the buyer knew how to turn the water on at the pump house out back (owner gave permission - pump house was about 100 yrds away) and by the time we got back to the crawl space it was flooding due to a broken pipe.
I thought long and hard about going under - 2 seconds was all when I saw 3 scorpions on there way out.

5

luckily the meter was pulled on this one.
doesnt mean there couldnt have been some other unsafe situation, though

this is the wettest crawl i’ve ever seen.
i’ll be sure to avoid crawling these types in the future.

guess you cant enjoy a satisfied client if you’re dead.

thanks guys.

6

Poisonous snakes love wet crawl spaces.

7

Blaine,
Exactly! As well as other nasty critters. One reason is frogs love wet, dark places and snakes just love frogs. “They” say they taste like chicken.

8

This type of crawl space invironment, I would havd inspect like a steep roof.

Too steep to walk, inspect it with binoculars from the entry point. Unless they want to pay extra for me to buy and wear full fishing wading gear and the time it takes to go in, back out and change.
This kind of territory I would call inaccessible and danger to the HI. Period.

Marcel

9

Listen to Marcel
NO way will I go there I do not like what I can see and even more worried with what I can not see.
Does any one remember Typhoid Mary , ( try a goggle search ).
Roy Cooke

10

Electrocution concern, I did not get into the water here. Just stuck my camara where I could and reported what I could see and disclaimed the rest.

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11

Roy…I try to stay out of crawl spaces that require me to wear goggles.:wink:

12

From state of CT HI practice regulations:

The inspector is not required to enter any area which will, in the opinion of the inspector, likely be dangerous to the inspector or other persons or damage the property or its systems or components; or the under-floor crawl spaces or attics which are not readily accessible.