Have a house in the woods that gets what you'd expect at a house in the woods - spiders, mooncrickets, roaches, other insects - and I'm thinking of doing a Raid Fumigator or similar fog bomb in the crawlspace once a month for the next year to hopefully make a big dent in the population. I have a quarterly pest spray guy but I'm in the woods so that only does so much. Question in title - will the bomb do anything or are they smarter than me?
https://imgur.com/a/Ujpxh3A/
Here’s a video of one of these: https://imgur.com/a/eLZN7K3
Thoughts????
Just bought the house in December, so still learning and figuring things out. We knew the crawl space accumulated water, and have been working on getting new gutters and getting the downspout output further from the foundation, but this is a lake like I haven't seen before. We got some big storms earlier in the week, and I can hear some trickling sounds, but I don't think the sump pump is working. What do I need to do to get this water out of here?
Coming home from work one evening, I noticed my wife on all fours in the hedges that lined our front porch. When I walked up to her, I realized she was kneeling beside the crack in the crawl space under the porch. She was cooing at the fencing and holding a can of tuna in one hand.
“There’s a cat living under our house,” she told me. “I heard it this morning and this afternoon. It keeps meowing.”
I didn’t hear anything. I told her as much.
“I heard him earlier,” she insisted. “Before you came in from work, he was meowing.”
I bent down and shined my phone’s flashlight into the narrow space. All I saw was a lot of dirt and cobwebs but I couldn’t quite get a good angle. I had to peek through the diamonds of the fencing to glimpse anything. It surprised me how well our shrubs limited the sunlight in such an open space. It was practically pitch black unless I shined a light.
Though I couldn’t see the cat, I didn’t deny it was possible one crawled under our house. The lattice fencing that bordered our crawl space that had been cracked forever. My nephew came over and drove one of those battery-powered cars into it a few summers ago and I’d never gotten around fixing it. The bushes did a good job of covering the damage. My concern was that the thing under the porch might not be a cat at all, but a raccoon or some other pest.
My wife stayed out for a bit longer, but the cat never came. She left the can of tuna just inside the crawlspace in case the cat would come later. After work the next day, I pushed the fence forward to check on the tuna can. I found it empty right where my wife had left it.
I still didn’t hear anything, but I tried to take another look. I can’t say if my crawl space was unusual. Spiders multiplied in abundance down there and I think I could glimpse the dirty remnants of a rusty hammer that must have been forgotten by the foundation a few years back. I’ve never been in my own crawl space. Never checked it before this.
But, I heard my wife pull into the driveway, climb up our first three steps of the porch, stop, and climb back down. I thought she maybe went to check the can and would come right back up. But, fifteen minutes passed and she still didn’t come inside. When I came out to check on her, she was there, between the bushes, trying to lure the cat out with kissing noises and little coos.
When she saw me, she smiled. “Where do we keep the tools, honey?” she asked me.
I vaguely recalled them coated in dust under the sink. Though
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This is my first home, and I was wiggling around in the crawlspace because I was pretty sure a rat had gotten down there (didn't find him, which is another issue in itself). While I was down there, I noticed that there were tiny black spots which I assume is mold all over the bottom of the floors (subfloor?) and this was throughout the length of the house.
Since I've never had to deal with a crawlspace before, I have no idea if this is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, or if it could be a concern that I should contact a professional over. I've got a weak nose, but my partner has sensitive allergies and he says they're worse when he visits me, and he says he can 'smell' the house on my hair and clothes when I visit him. Looking at the floor, I'm wondering if maybe this could be the source of the problem.
Any input or thoughts? The home was built in 1930, I don't think the floors have ever been replaced. It's in Tennessee, so hot, humid, and wet summers.
Edit: corrected image links
A house we recently bought has this access hole for the crawl space where the water heater and furnace/ducting are located (album here).
The only reason it's even this big in the photos is because I tore out the 2x4's that were acting as a frame for the door panel someone built as we're having a water heater installed today and it's literally only going to fit by like 1 inch. It's also just a huge pain in the ass to crawl in and out of.
Is it generally safe to knock out the foundation to a rectangle, ending where the acute corner is right now? I'm thinking it'll be fine and that the odd shape was simply due to the shape of the ground, which now has plenty of room to open it up and put something more proper there. I'm just hoping for a sanity check before I start putting in to much planning.
Thanks!
Home build 2020 South East, US Pictures following rain today: http://imgur.com/gallery/WvZ81H4
Wondering how much of an issue this standing water is near this positive drain and what could be a good remedy for it. Also what are issues that could arise from the cinder foundation being water saturated following rain. The house has gutters and the plastic down spout extenders. My house is still under a builders warranty and I am a first time so wondering a best approach on how to fix this.
Just had an inspection done on a property. Mold was found in the crawlspace (bad vapor barrier).
Does anyone have any recommendations as to who could remedy this?
