Houses with crawlspaces

[karinothing]

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to houses with crawl spaces over houses with a slab foundation?

[ssmjlm]

Slabs tend to be colder, the plumbing is in the slab so there can be issues if you need to fix and flooring options are limited.

Crawl spaces aren't really different than having a basement in terms of what's beneath, plumbing, ductwork, wiring, etc.

Eta here those are your only options and we insisted on a crawl space.

[karinothing]

Interesting. Growing up all houses had slab foundations so this crawlspace thing is new to me. We might look at a house tomorrow (assuming it isn't sold by then, which is likely).

[Deleted]

We're on a slab, we live in an area with a high water table, so basements in newer construction only exist where the houses are built into a hill and come with french drains/sump pumps, etc.

It's fine, we've had no issues with our house. As ssm jlm said, it does limit your flooring options. We have tile and engineered hardwood.

[CloudBee]

Feb 1, 2013 9:03:44 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Slabs tend to be colder, the plumbing is in the slab so there can be issues if you need to fix and flooring options are limited.

Crawl spaces aren't really different than having a basement in terms of what's beneath, plumbing, ductwork, wiring, etc.

Eta here those are your only options and we insisted on a crawl space.

Plumbing isn't always in the slab.  All of our plumbing is in the crawel space itself.  Same with our water heater.  How is flooring limited?

We have one because our entire neighborhood is on a hill that's basically solid rock if you were to dig down a couple feet.  Honestly, there are times I wish we had a formal basement.  But for the most part, having a crawel space has kept us from keeping old furniture and random junk. We're much better about weeding out the old when bringing in the new.

Our crawel space is probably 4 ft tall, and access is from the garage.  It has a poured concrete "floor", yet the previous owners put down inexpensive carpeting near the entrance so it's easier to scoot in and move stuff around.  (Probably 2-3 cheap walmart-type rugs that are about 6"x8".)

I think the back end of the crawel space is slightly taller as our water heater is upright in the back.

When the home was built they added a few light bulb sockets, so there's some basic lighting in there.

We store a few smaller pieces of furniture in here, some of our emergency supplies, and a couple seasonal items.  My husband is usually the one to go in there, though, because it's like a basement - lots of spiders, etc.

[dirtyred]

My parents have a house with a crawlspace.  They live in an area that gets a lot of rain/has a high water table, so there are times when there has literally been 3-4 inches of water standing in the yard.  It's kept the house from flooding.

[aspentosh]

We've got a house with a crawl space. I don't think it's really any different, honestly. Just make sure it's got a waterproof barrier (we just have a tarp and it works well).

Our plumbing, hot water heater etc are not in the crawlspace.

[aspentosh]

I should also add- our crawlspace is only accessible via the basement utility room. There is a 3'x3' hole that you have to climb into to get into the crawlspace.

I don't know if this is confusing... We have a 900 sq ft basement. About 750 is finished and 250 is the utility room. "In" the utility room is the entrance to the crawlspace, which is underneath the other 1/2 of our house.

[Deleted]

CloudBee - We couldn't put down traditional hardwood flooring. Our options were to use a floating floor, engineered hardwood, or laminate.

[imojoebunny]

Slabs are a pain if you want to add plumbing or electric. Here, Georgia, Slab is the cheapest foundation to do. It is not usually done in nicer homes, but I have seen it in a few new builds around here. It would not be my preference because of the difficulty with plumbing and wiring.

[Deleted]

Slab foundations are generally cheaper and I personally would never want one because of all the possible issues that could arise. They make it more difficult to add home additions, they make the home harder to heat, and they can make it difficult when working on plumbing and electrical.

Crawl spaces make all of this stuff easier, and as a bonus you can use them for storage in some places.

[savan]

We have a crawl space. It's nice because we have an older home and DH was able to run cabling for our outdoor antenna through the crawl space. We also live in earthquake central so we made sure the house was bolted to the foundation but that shouldn't be an issue in D.C.

[rubytue]

Crawl spaces creep me out. On newer homes, they aren't too bad, But in the older homes in NoVA they are creepy, nasty places. Sure, you can get under there to get to things, but you don't want to. 2-3', have to wiggle around on your back, run into puddles, bugs, and dead things. They were H's least favorite thing about doing residential service in NoVA. The stories he would tell about the crap he would have to crawl through.

[Deleted]

When we were deciding on our new house, H and I just didn't like the idea of crawlspace unless it's conditioned. If I have to rank the options, it will be:

1. basement
2. conditioned crawlspace (this is a new thing, most homes has unconditioned)
3. slab
4. unconditioned crawlspace

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2013 9:49:46 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Crawl spaces creep me out. On newer homes, they aren't too bad, But in the older homes in NoVA they are creepy, nasty places. Sure, you can get under there to get to things, but you don't want to. 2-3', have to wiggle around on your back, run into puddles, bugs, and dead things. They were H's least favorite thing about doing residential service in NoVA. The stories he would tell about the crap he would have to crawl through.

This is very true on old homes.    I wouldn't even peak into H's first new house's crawlspace.  It also makes me wonder what's down there.  LOL.

[karinothing]

Feb 1, 2013 9:54:45 GMT -5 d0ri said:

Feb 1, 2013 9:49:46 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Crawl spaces creep me out. On newer homes, they aren't too bad, But in the older homes in NoVA they are creepy, nasty places. Sure, you can get under there to get to things, but you don't want to. 2-3', have to wiggle around on your back, run into puddles, bugs, and dead things. They were H's least favorite thing about doing residential service in NoVA. The stories he would tell about the crap he would have to crawl through.

This is very true on old homes.    I wouldn't even peak into H's first new house's crawlspace.  It also makes me wonder what's down there.  LOL.

Ha, this is a newer home so maybe it won't be too bad They do kind of creep me out though!

[aspentosh]

Feb 1, 2013 9:49:46 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Crawl spaces creep me out. On newer homes, they aren't too bad, But in the older homes in NoVA they are creepy, nasty places. Sure, you can get under there to get to things, but you don't want to. 2-3', have to wiggle around on your back, run into puddles, bugs, and dead things. They were H's least favorite thing about doing residential service in NoVA. The stories he would tell about the crap he would have to crawl through.

Our house was built in '84, so not old or new. The crawlspace definitely skeeves me out and it's not even a bad one!

[rubytue]

Oh, its a newer place? Then it might not be too bad and it might actually might have a vapor barrier and other good stuff.

I remember when H was doing some work for some friends in Falls Church. He came out of the crawl space and asked for a shower and washing machine immediately. eww!

[Deleted]

slab foundations are also much harder on back/knees to stand on

[karinothing]

Yeah, it was built in 2002. So pretty new for this area. It is inexpensive though, not sure why. I assume it must be haunted.

[Deleted]

My parents have a crawl space. My dad likes it bc he can get to stuff under the house relatively easily. He'll spend whole days in there wriggling around on his back. And then he comes out and tells my mom about the snakeskins he found. lovely.

If it were between a crawl space and slab I would want a crawl space. I don't think there is really anything wrong with them.

[Marmee]

My first 1940s house had one. We never went in it in 3yrs. We had 1 plumbing repair & he did but seemed to be no biggie. In that city all the newer houses were built on slabs. Slabs can have major issues if not done right--my parents had to have their 1950s house on slab in the same city totally jackhammers out & replaced because of cracking/seizing/crumbling of the concrete under the carpet. Also making changes to the plumbing was tricky & they decided to run it in the attic instead of redoing the pipes in the slab...but now if there is a leak, it could be a major issue fast.

[moolarkey]

Feb 1, 2013 10:09:34 GMT -5 @septimus said:

slab foundations are also much harder on back/knees to stand on

This is true as are the statements about them being colder, limiting flooring options and possible problems for plumbing/wiring repairs in the future. 

[CloudBee]

Feb 1, 2013 9:52:55 GMT -5 d0ri said:

When we were deciding on our new house, H and I just didn't like the idea of crawlspace unless it's conditioned. If I have to rank the options, it will be:

1. basement
2. conditioned crawlspace (this is a new thing, most homes has unconditioned)
3. slab
4. unconditioned crawlspace

I just Googled, and we definitely have a conditioned crawl space.  Unconditioned looks scary!

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2013 9:09:59 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Interesting. Growing up all houses had slab foundations so this crawlspace thing is new to me. We might look at a house tomorrow (assuming it isn't sold by then, which is likely).

Exciting!  I'm nosy and want to know where.

We have a crawl space in the addition where we don't have a basement.  I don't have a general issue with crawl spaces.  For us it's been both a positive and a negative.  Positive:  It allowed us to run duct work in our addition for central AC and gives us access to plumbing.  Negative:  It somehow allows mice to run from the crawl space to the attic (fortunately just the attic).  We've resolved the mice issue for the time being.

[CloudBee]

Feb 1, 2013 9:19:16 GMT -5 @bonsoirlune said:

CloudBee - We couldn't put down traditional hardwood flooring. Our options were to use a floating floor, engineered hardwood, or laminate.

Huh, I wonder why that is.  We have hardwood, but I know nothing about how it's installed. 

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2013 10:25:18 GMT -5 @mrsbecky07 said:

My parents have a crawl space. My dad likes it bc he can get to stuff under the house relatively easily. He'll spend whole days in there wriggling around on his back. And then he comes out and tells my mom about the snakeskins he found. lovely.

If it were between a crawl space and slab I would want a crawl space. I don't think there is really anything wrong with them.

One reason why unconditioned crawlspace is at the bottom of my list.  I would choose slab over it. 

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2013 10:41:22 GMT -5 CloudBee said:

Feb 1, 2013 9:52:55 GMT -5 d0ri said:

When we were deciding on our new house, H and I just didn't like the idea of crawlspace unless it's conditioned. If I have to rank the options, it will be:

1. basement
2. conditioned crawlspace (this is a new thing, most homes has unconditioned)
3. slab
4. unconditioned crawlspace

I just Googled, and we definitely have a conditioned crawl space.  Unconditioned looks scary!

We originally chose sealed/conditioned crawlspace but after we got a quote for the basement option, the cost difference was not much at all.  So we spent a little more for a full basement.  They just had to dig deeper to give us a basement. 

[karinothing]

Feb 1, 2013 10:41:52 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

Feb 1, 2013 9:09:59 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Interesting. Growing up all houses had slab foundations so this crawlspace thing is new to me. We might look at a house tomorrow (assuming it isn't sold by then, which is likely).

Exciting!  I'm nosy and want to know where.

We have a crawl space in the addition where we don't have a basement.  I don't have a general issue with crawl spaces.  For us it's been both a positive and a negative.  Positive:  It allowed us to run duct work in our addition for central AC and gives us access to plumbing.  Negative:  It somehow allows mice to run from the crawl space to the attic (fortunately just the attic).  We've resolved the mice issue for the time being.

You have a PM! I am pretty sure this is an unconditioned crawlspace. I didn't even know conditioned crawl spaces existed. ha ha

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2013 10:47:48 GMT -5 d0ri said:

Feb 1, 2013 10:25:18 GMT -5 @mrsbecky07 said:

My parents have a crawl space. My dad likes it bc he can get to stuff under the house relatively easily. He'll spend whole days in there wriggling around on his back. And then he comes out and tells my mom about the snakeskins he found. lovely.

If it were between a crawl space and slab I would want a crawl space. I don't think there is really anything wrong with them.

One reason why unconditioned crawlspace is at the bottom of my list.  I would choose slab over it. 

LOL I know, right??  They live on a big river, snakes are inevitable, but it freaks my mom out to know they are right below her haha.