Crawlspace Soil Height

[Vince Santos]

Today's inspection had a half crawl with low soil height in two areas. Do any of you call this out? These photos were taken in the crawl on the opposite side of the basement wall.

[David P. Valley]

Vince,

I like to see a good 8" or so of clear foundation with no wood contact. If not, it all depends on the situation involved, but I do recommend upgrades to all crawlspace areas.

I have never seen a perfect crawlspace to this day, so every crawlspace I inspect always gets written up as a recommended upgrade.

This is a perfect Massachusetts crawlspace.

[James E. Braun, CMI]

HUD requirement is at least 18 inches. I do not call them out though. Not enough clearance is too common in my area.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

I don't know what you mean about "low soil height". Are you referring to the clearance between wood structures and the soil? Or undermining of the foundation by soil that has been dug out? Your pictures are not descriptive at all to me---I can't make heads or tails out of them.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

What Joe said. What are you asking?

[David P. Valley]

Joe,

I was thinking that he was referring to the soil height to the mud sill, but after your statement I looked at the pics again and I think I see footings in pic#1.

Vince,

If you're referring to exposed footings, that is just dead wrong. Footings need to be buried and not exposed. The bottom of exterior footings should extend below the frost line (if applicable), but not less than 12 inches below the undisturbed soil. Your local building department should be able to provide frost line depth information for your area.

[ldapkus]

I had one yesterday with some "issues".

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by ldapkus

I had one yesterday with some "issues".

Some issues?

Quite major if you ask me....

[ldapkus]

Yup, Lots of "microbial growth" too.

[Jack L. Gilleland]

"A river runs through it".