Within my normal social/work circle, I tend to forget sexism is still a thing but getting crawlspace repair quotes was an eye opener. Now I’m willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to the guys who quoted me for heat pump systems. Not that they weren’t shitty quotes, but I believe they would have given the same shitty quotes to a man. I think they just didn’t believe in heat pumps.
But the crawlspace repair quotes had me livid.
I had two companies quote. Both quotes were wildly different and neither was talking about my crawlspace. Now to clarify, my furnace is in the crawlspace and I have lived in this house since 1991. I have lived in this house single since 2000. In all that time someone was changing furnace filters, checking on leaks, putting down rodenticide, basically all the crap that has to be done to maintain a house with a crawlspace. That someone was me, because if I had the kind of income to pay someone for that crap – I would not be living in this particular house.
Now my crawlspace is a nasty place to spend any time in. It’s dirty and spider infested. It’s damp and smelly. The worst part is the back half is claustrophobicly tight. There are spots without even have enough room to roll over. Forget hands and knees – you get around by army crawling.
My House has Issues
Going into this, I knew there were structural issues going on under my house. It wasn’t rocket science – all you had to do was walk into my living room to see the hump in the middle.
Or the 1″ drop in the corner and the main beam sitting proud. I would show you more pictures, but I was always careful to exclude those details whenever I took pictures so there really aren’t many – at least not any ‘before’ photos. You will get to see plenty of during photos.
I also want to be clear that my issues with the quotes I received had nothing to do with the quoted cost. My complaint is these people came into my home and gave me sales pitches that did not describe my house. They assumed I did not know my house or how the structure of a house is supposed to work.
Crawlspace Repair Quote #1
Generally for anything I start with a Google search. So the first company to come and give me a quote was the top result when I searched “Crawlspace repair near me” and I did later end up having them do work for me – but that first quote was a disaster.
So guy number one arrives. I show him the hump in my living room floor, the 1″ drop to the front of the beam.
I show him the crack in the doorway between my kitchen and dining room and the bounce in the dining room floor. Then he goes in the crawlspace and I hear him bumping around – it really is a tight fit. Once he’s done, he goes to his car does some stuff and comes in to deliver his estimate.
You guys! Buddy actually sat there and told me – with a straight face! – there was nothing wrong with the structure of my house. That there was no rot, my joists, rim joists, beam and everything were all fine! He gave me an estimate for encapsulation of the crawlspace and to insulate the foundation. And honestly for the scope of work on the estimate, the price was right around what I expected, but everything else the guy said was a bald-faced lie.
Crawlspace Repair Quote #2
The second quote left me thinking I was in the middle of a Goldilocks and the Three Bears fairy tale. And again, my beef isn’t with the cost. The estimate given was probably exactly right to genuinely fix the structural issues I’ve got going on in this house. My beef was with the pitch I was given. So I pointed out everything to guy #2 that I had pointed out to guy #1 and guy #2 goes under the house.
Now had guy #2 come up and said anything about the fact that the main load bearing wall in my house sits 2 feet in front of the beam instead of on it which is what caused that 1″ drop in the floor I would have felt respected. Had he talked about the fact that the reason my door way between the kitchen and dining room was cracking is because there was no joist under the wall, I would not have felt like I was getting snowed.
If instead of talking about “rusty” joist hangers he had talked about undersized joist hangers attached with common screws instead of nails I would have agreed with him. So guy #2 quoted around $20-28,000 to repair the structural issues with no encapsulation/insulation of the space. That would be on top of the repair work. Also, I would still have a hump in my living room floor.
And that is how I wound up spending what felt like the entire summer, in my crawlspace.
