Earlier today I wrote about old roof debris and the huge mess it creates in an attic. At that time I eluded to a different, but similar, scenario in the crawl space. In the crawl space the builders will often leave the old wood forms around the poured footings or piers. Sometimes, instead of wood, they will leave cardboard forms. An inspector knows, probably better than anyone, why this is such a bad idea. When you see home after home, older homes, and these forms have been in place for years, the old forms are almost always rotten and might have any number of other wood destroying organisms from carpenter ants, moisture ants to termites. Basically, in my view, this is just sloppy work and not finishing the job in the first place. Even a casual laborer could be hired, for a paltry sum, to go under and remove the wood. It is not hard to do but one thing is certain -- it should be done!
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Bellingham Home Inspector
Steven L. Smith
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Steven
I have experienced that crawl space thing. What a mess I found when I bought a vacation home.
Sincerely
Tom Braatz
Tom,
You are probably one of the few, other than contractors and inspectors, who get to enjoy that damp, rotting wood under the house.