The Attack of the Crawl Space

During the years of training inspectors, I have often been asked: “Is inspecting dangerous?” I don’t consider inspecting particularly dangerous, but like any other trade, safety is very important. Knowing how to safely approach electrical components, roofs and crawl spaces are very important for the safety of a home inspector . I have home inspector friends that have fallen through a ceiling as they were inspecting an attic. I know a couple of my friends have fallen from ladders and roofs.

Before placing ladders, it is very important to know the location of the power lines. Fortunately I do not know anyone that made that mistake, because in most cases you only make that mistake once and that is the last mistake you ever make.

Inspecting the crawl space of a house has sent me and other inspectors I know to the first aid kit and some times to the Emergency Room. Usually crawl spaces are dark and the path of your flashlight is the only light you see, so it is easy for creatures to be too close to you with out you knowing, in time that is. I don’t know which one I disliked most; live creatures in a crawl space or dead ones. Most of the time it’s not the creature that hurts you, but you hurting yourself trying to get away.

I worked with a guy that said he was only afraid of two kinds of snakes; “live ones and dead ones”. I found out that he was afraid of a third kind, when I watched him run four city blocks to get away from a rubber snake that someone put in his wheel barrow. I know you think it was me; well, I am going to take the fifth on that one.