I have seen time and time again building materials, trash, wood, and concrete products left in the crawlspace after some type of home repair. Some builders have went as far as to use the crawlspace as a second dumpster. While most of the time, a few building materials are left in the crawlspace, I do see occasionally a disaster of a mess down there. I've seen refrigerators, bicycles, an entire tear off of roofing shingles, doors, kitchen cabinets, tires, window blinds, dog house, neon lights, beer cans, Christmas decorations, paint cans, etc......... These are just the trash items I've seen under a home. The list of building materials would take to much time to write.
The problem with most of these items being left down in the crawlspace is that they are made of organic substance (wood) and are susceptible to mold growth and rot. Since they are just laying on the ground floor, they will soak up all of the moisture from the ground and slowly decay. During the decay and mold process, it will put off a musty odor.
A cleaned out, dry crawlspace is critical to making the building envelope as healthy as possible. If you live in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, or Illinois, and are in need of your crawl space cleaned out, give us a call 1-877-409-2837 or SIGN UP ONLINE for a FREE ESTIMATE.
Thanks for reading the rambling thoughts of a crawlspace inspector,
Larry Ralph Jr.
When debris is left over for a long time and water and dust makes layers over it...there is bound to be mold and mild dew...so cleaning the environment is a must a necessity.
ReplyDeleteLarry, I've seen all the stuff you talk about, but what I'm finding that is creeping me out is in some of the foreclosures I go to - signs that people are LIVING in the crawl space. In one I found a kerosene heater and a mattress. This is not only unhealthful for the person "living" there, it is a fire hazard for the house.
ReplyDeleteIf you are dealing with vacant properties, it is critical to keep the crawl space locked, and check it periodically. In this house, it would have been easy for the person living there to set the house on fire, or die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
George