Another week with a long ride for a short inspection. And it involved a crawl space again. Only it really didn't. This was for a real estate transaction, and the home inspector's report said "Inadequate cross ventilation in the crawl space due to the solid porch at the front. Due to inadequate ventilation, the floors are cupping in areas above the crawl space at the foyer, entrance. Properly install a power vent with a humidistat at the crawl space."
Actually, this was probably the worst home inspection report I have seen. For details about the crawl space, it said simply "Entered". Same for the attic. For details on the water heater, it said "gas" and showed a photo of it in a closet. No mention of whether it was a properly vented closet or not.
And the fireplace: The living room contains a gas fireplace that vents out the back. The previous owners added an enclosed sun porch off the back such that the fireplace had to be disconnected. (You can't vent this fireplace into living space.) But the inspection report stated twice that "the fireplace was in acceptable condition." But you can't use it because of the sunroom addition. But it's in acceptable condition. But you can't use it.
The inspector's statement about the crawl space resulted in me driving 9 hours yesterday to look at this 5-year old house. Factory-finished solid 3/4" by 2 1/4" oak that was essentially uniform in appearance throughout the house. Cupping no more than 0.010" with some out-of-plane boards that made things look worse with the big window walls. The crawl space was fine. Nothing over 10% moisture content. No signs of previous elevated moisture. Just some flooring that went in too dry in the first place, and some configuration issues.
This is not California, this is coastal South Carolina. Power venting a crawl space here will more likely cause problems than solve them. Johannes found a good article on crawl spaces that's posted in the Troubleshooting/Inspections part of the HF Forum. I have a couple articles on my web site as well. Over the last 20 years, we've taken many, many nasty crawl spaces and fixed them by sealing them. Pest control people, builders, building codes and even some wood flooring people have recognized the benefits (in some parts of the world). Home inspectors are a hard crowd to get to, and many feel the only solution is to add ventilation. Some even recommend undoing the fixes that have been made.
In this house, I won't recommend changing a thing. Well, except for fixing a couple things the home inspector missed.
