Recently I have inspected two homes with no crawlspace access. Both clients back out on the deal due to not knowing what it looks like under the house, very understandable. Does anyone out there have a camera devise or something they use to inspect 10 to 12 inch crawls? I’m not sure a camera would do a good enough job for the liability involved.
Not for me if I can not enter ,I write that up , if I can only see part again that is what I report .
No entrance I am not going to be held responsible .
what Roy said…
There isn’t really anything you can do in those situations. I’ve had attics or crawls that were not accessible. Recently had an attic with basically no ventilation and no access. What are you going to do? I just had to word my Report very carefully stating that there was no access but that I recommend the buyer to create an access and evaluate the situation once access is gained-preferrably before closing. I was quite concerned about potential mould or asbestos insulation in this case (I can’t really write in my Report what I can’t see, though). The buyers walking away isn’t really your problem. The fact that there was no access to the crawlspace is something they probably could have seen before they hired you.
Thanks guys, I wrote it up the same as you do. This client really wanted to purchase and asked me to find out if any inspector has charged a fee to inspect this type of crawl with some sort of camera system. I was just wondering if there was some sort of devise out there. I know the liability would be to great to just have a camera on a pole. Thanks for you comments!
Is the minimum recommended ground clearance requirement being met?
Required Ground Clearance. (R319.1) Maintain required ground clearance of 12” minimum below beams and girders and 18” minimum below floor joists and the wood structural floor.
I have a remote controlled truck with two cameras attached and led lights that I use on marginal crawls. … Nor really but I am working on it…
Ron there are a number of small robotic devices out there, most are used in industrial or military/police type setting and therefore are built to be very robust which adds to cost. I use to work with robotic for the power industry but thats been a while and as with any technology it changes rapidly. Most of the individuals I knew either got out of the buiness or sold out to a bigger company. Any way a couple of company names are Remotec (now owned by Northrup Grumman), Irobot (yes the one that make the romba vacuum) VIT Everest (now owned by GE) One of my favorite was a Canadian company called Inuktun they made a set of motorized tracks that you could mount to different bodies and also had a tracked robot that could change configuration of the track by moving one point of the triangle. I’m sure there are cheaper options out there. I think there is company who made one for HI’s just can’t remember who. Maybe now that Nick has perfected the Cam Pole for roofing inspections he’ll make a remote crawler for crawlspaces.
Here are some cheaper ones if you call $5000 cheap
http://inspectorbots.com/_Home.html
