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[divine]

Yes, my house has a crawl space. It is definitely a crawl space because there's no way you could stand up down there. I've never been down there myself, but my DH and various workers have been, and they say it's a pretty tight squeeze. I live in NoCal and some of the homes here are built on cement slabs, but mine isn't. I have been told by a couple realtor friends of mine that having a crawl space in preferable in this area because of earthquakes. It seems that cement slabs tend to crack but houses with a crawl space will "give" and move a little with the earth's movement, thus helping prevent some structural damage.

[Pickwickpapers]

No crawl space now.......Our home was built on a concrete slab. Most of the homes in our area have been constructed on slabs since the 1960's or so. Growing up our home was on a conventional foundation. My sister and I were afraid of the crawl space area even though we never went there. We were happy to move to a house that didn't have the crawl space.

[jubilant]

A radon inspector told me you can buy a radon tester and test for it yourself. If it tests high you should NOT close the vents and if you don't have it vented and it tests high ...... Get It Vented ..... It is definitely a safety hazard. She said that many people never think of it and more people than you know have it and it's over the normal range more that you might think. Just a heads up.

[AriesGirl]

I live in Texas and my house was built on a pier and beam foundation in the 50's, which is what we refer to as a "crawl space." I remember my realtor telling me that plumbers, etc. prefer this because it's so much easier on them. For instance, I had a leak in my water line, and my plumber just went into the crawl space and easily fixed it. I can't imagine having to deal with certain problems with a slab foundation.

[Lynnj]

I have a one level home, with a crawl space. It is accessed from outside. You enter through a square space that is level with the ground. I have a wood cover that covers that space. If you need access to the crawl space, you slide that wood piece away from the square hole and jump in. Then you have to kneel down to crawl around down there. I've never been down there, and never EVER will go down there. The floor of the space is ground, covered by a vapor barrier. There are vents, that I can see on the cinder blocks along the bottom of the house. There is no light down there. And whenever I've ever had to have someone go down there to do something, they always come up covered in spider webs and other fuzzy type things on them. Gross! Once the plumber went down there and told me my problem was caused by some pipe he saw down there, I gave him my digital camera to take pictures of what he saw down there. When he came out we looked at the pictures together and he described what was wrong with the pipe and what he would do to fix it. When he was done with he work, I had him take another picture so I could check the work he did. Just did the same thing with the exterminator who told me ants had eaten through some wood down there. I will never go down there.

[sidsmom]

Holy Moly! I Googled Image ""define house crawl space"". The 9th image is a mass of snakes! ""Man finds 41 snakes in buddy's crawl space"". Heebie Jeebies!!!

[jubilant]

On 10/10/2014 Abrowneyegirl said:

One of my homes had a crawl space. It was vented, i think it was vapor barrier with no concrete on the floor. There was nothing down there. It was for randon venting. (We live in a high randon risk area) I have to admit I NEVER went down there. My only knowledge is from the home inspections. I do remember that the 'crawl space' was actually about 6 feet in height The inspectors always needed a ladder to get in and out! They said a few more feet it would have been a basement!

It was never damp and it did not bother me that it was there. I never thought of it as creepy, just a necessity, Radon is NOT good!

I happened to be waiting to see my family doctor when I heard this lady talking about Radon. I asked her how she knew all this and she said she was a Radon inspector. I told her I had never given it much thought because I thought it wasn't a big problem in Indiana and she informed me that that was not true. I am going to get a tester now just to be safe. Ours is very clean even with the deep pea gravel. The walls are cement blocks. You can't get in or out of it without a ladder. We have never had a critter or even a mouse down there. The entrance to ours is in our garage. DH opened it once and I didn't know it. I came out into the garage, turned to reach for a mop hanging on the wall and fell straight down into it. DH sprays for spiders but I know there has to be some down there. I couldn't get myself out....thank goodness he was home and pulled me out!! I hurt my knee and was on crutches a few days.