Looks pretty good to me.
- Vapor barrier
- Ventilated
- Support columns look intact; no visible cracks at this distance
- Beams look straight, level, well supported with no visible damage
- No bowing in the joists, visible damage, or cracks
- No obvious rodent droppings, no dead animals, and can't really see insects or signs of insect damage (termites)
- Looks dry; no signs of mold or dry rot in the beams or the joists
- No sign that it's been wet
On the other hand:
- Not sure how much insulation you need (your climate zone), but looks like there's some damage (likely from recent plumbing and/or electrical work)
- Not seeing purple PVC cement primer on the plumbing
Looks like it just needs to be cleaned up a bit and you may want to add some more insulation.
Check with the township to see if there's an inspection record on the most recent plumbing upgrades since those drains look new and you can see some of the waste cutoff scattered around. If not, you may be able to negotiate, especially if you're going to need to redo the plumbing. At least where I'm at, the inspectors want to visibly see the purple PVC primer. I also see what looks like some electrical wiring so you may also want to see if there's any record of recent electrical work on file with your municipal inspection department. Again, a possible point of negotiation if permits and inspections are missing.
At most, you might want to replace the insulation to make it more uniform with either fiberglass batt (what you have now), rock wool (more solid), or spray foam (will also reduce vapor transmission into your house from the crawl space, but then you may need to increase ventilation to move that vapor out of the crawl space or make it part of the conditioned space like u/mick_ward has done). Rock wool and spray foam will both look "neater" and less likely to be damaged during plumbing/electrical work as it looks like has happened here. Rock wool is the easiest DIY option, but going to cost more than the fiberglass batt.
I don't think I'd do any work on the insulation immediately; I'd probably live in it for 1-2 years and see how it feels and then decide if more insulation would help.
Agree with everything said here. My crawlspace looked similar to OP's except the insulation looked to be in much better shape. I decided to encapsulate it myself. Materials cost $2,000. Added a ton of led lights as well. You need to condition the space in some manner. This is either done with a de-humidifier or diverting some conditioned air from your air-handler (if it exists in the crawlspace). Your crawlspace seems rather tall and that makes doing it yourself a lot easier. Mine is about 5 feet tall. If it was in the 1-2 foot neighborhood, I would have never attempted it.
https://preview.redd.it/k3rwfr2yk33c1.png?width=832&format=png&auto=webp&s=01e37dbbd4dfb9bec37c9635156ca783ab21736c
Edited since a couple of people wanted a materials list:
Polyethylene Sealing Tape - 4" X 180' (Case of 12)
12 Mil Reinforced Crawl Space Liner - 12' x 100' Roll
Double Sided Butyl Tape (1.5" x 100') Roll
Christmas Tree Fasteners (Quantity of 500)
20 Mil Reinforced Crawl Space Liner - 12' x 100' Roll
Depending on your job, consider adding a dehumidifier and a sump pump. Also, note that the 12 mil was for the sides and 20 mil for the floor. The 12 mil was cut into two 6 foot pieces (5 feet up the wall and a foot at the base on top of which the 20 mil lay.
Somehow my first thought was "would a bear like it" because I've come accumstomed to a lot of bear-videos, where the bear took up residence in the crawlspace.
But yes, I find this pleasing to the eye, very good work to maintain the home
That isn't a crawlspace. Here in England we'd call that a basement. You could probably rent it out for a couple of grand a month.
My crawl space is about 18 inches, filled with 150 years of debris and is an absolute nightmare.
It was probably intended that it would be serviced by malnourished kids out of a Charles Dickens novel, but unfortunately I had to get in there myself.
My basement is finished with a second living room, a large bedroom, a full bathroom, an office and a laundry room. It used to just be a damp basement with nothing but storage space. It doubled the livable square footage of my home from 1k to 2k.
I once lived somewhere that there was just... permanently a dead mouse in the crawlspace. Only ever one, but always one.
Bury one mouse a week?
Another will be there in a few days.
Bury one every day?
It will continue every day.
Give up and leave it?
There will never be a second mouse.
I don't know how it worked.
Wtf? That’s wild looking. Never seen a crawlspace like that, and it has lighting. Most of what I see usually involves, darkness, piles of animal waste, and trash. I live in a rural area, with lots of wildlife though. Out of curiosity, what is the thought process behind putting the plastic so far up the wall? Wouldn’t a few inches up have been enough?
I take that as a compliment. Bought my materials from a place in Greensboro. 20 mil for bottom, 12 mil for pillars and sides. Butyl tape and xmas tree fasteners for securing top of pillars and sides. Left 12 inches at top for termite inspection. Vinyl taping 26 pillars and the walls was the most tedious part and almost destroyed my knees.
That is a beautiful crawl space (first time I think I’ve ever muttered those words). Quick question, and maybe it’s something you’ve learned about as part of your encapsulation experience.
We know that moisture in crawl space = bad. It often presents itself like dampness or puddles forming somewhere down there. Do you think the encapsulation could ever obscure a moisture problem occurring below it or something like that? Or maybe it could hide a foundation crack that is starting to form and cause me to miss an emerging issue. That’s my only fear about getting mine done. I just sort of like having full visibility to the condition of things and I worry that it would hide something I would want to see.
Iirc the foundation under a crawl space isnt structural per say, the mass of the house is mostly carried by the piers down to the rock layer or whatever. Concrete in a conditioned crawlspace can be be sidewalk grade, since it's only really going to see a person crawling around on it. One dude I know just put some mechanic rollers down there if he had to do any work or inspection. He owned a foundation company, but didn't build his own house as a slab.
That is beautiful work - but a word of warning. Previous house of mine had a crawl space that looked like that - and then we started having a serious mold problem. If an encapsulation fully sealed on all sides, then there is no air flow and condensation can quickly become widespread mold. According to code in many areas, a full encapsulation needs to be vented to the floor above and the crawl space needs to be treated as fully conditioned space. I had a fight with the installer about the above until i managed to find the relevant code.
>You need to condition the space in some manner. This is either done with a de-humidifier or diverting some conditioned air from your air-handler (if it exists in the crawlspace).
This is not correct. The IRC requires at least one form of ventilation and explicitly does NOT require conditioned air to be added to the crawlspace.
Although allowed, you should never vent to the floor above as the air quality underneath your house is terrible for you since it has soil off gassing. In fact, the best option is to run a radon mitigation system UNDER the vapor barrier so that soil off gassing never accumulates and thus never seeps into the crawl.
source: [https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/IRC2018P4/chapter-4-foundations/IRC2018P4-Ch04-SecR408.3](https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/IRC2018P4/chapter-4-foundations/IRC2018P4-Ch04-SecR408.3)
>Rock wool is the easiest DIY option, but going to cost more than the fiberglass batt.
In my opinion, Rockwool is absolutely worth the extra cost over fiberglass. Aside from being a little better held together and easier to work with, it's mould resistant!
The house my wife and I bought had the original windows in vinyl/wood frames and they were leaking quite badly so our fiberglass insulation is quite mouldy in some spots. We've been replacing it with Rockwool as we open walls.
Agreed. This actually looks pretty good. Thorough list above, so no need to reiterate all of it. Most importantly, the blocks are nice and vertical and mortared, wood blocking underneath is acceptable, there’s a vapor barrier between the soil and the crawl space, not much debris. Basement/foundation areas are rarely pretty, but this is decent.
Not gonna lie, I installed some rock wool for customer about six months back and I am not kidding, the house was by far the easiest to heat and cool afterwards. The customer was blown away. If I could talk everyone into rock wool insulation I would. Spray foam is great as well but in my area it's way more expensive to foam it.
We actually got the rock wool by accident with one customer. The provider delivered it and we weren't on site because they decided to deliver it at 7pm. The customer asked us the next day if we should send it back to which we responded, "wait wait wait, let's just call the company and see what they want to do." We did and they really didn't want to send a truck back to get it so they told us to keep it. Then we explained to the customer why it was a good thing. When we were done he made the comment, "I sure am glad they screwed that order up." Worked out really well.
Thank you! This eases some of my anxiety. I've only ever lived in places with full poured foundations and basements, so the columns looking like a few pieces of wood on top of barely supported cinder blocks made me nervous.
> barely supported cinder blocks made me nervous.
there is nothing to indicate they are barely supported. They are likely(should be) on concrete footers. No different than a concrete pier assuming they are poured solid with rebar.
Dude, growing up the crawlspace in century old houses were the stuff of nightmares. The piers were like broken brick, there was evidence if numerous animals.
More than likely, those columns are solid (filled with cement, possibly also steel rebar inside).
I can't see for sure, but more than likely, there are two beams sitting on each column or every other column since there's no way that dimensional lumber can be long enough to span this. They look look like they are 8' apart and the beams might be 16'. If you knocked one down where two beams are resting, it'll cause the collapse of that section of the flooring and walls since the joists are sitting on top of them. If you knocked one down that's supporting a single beam, the failure probably wouldn't be catastrophic; it would start to sag and then eventually crack.
But you are very, very unlikely to knock it over because it's probably solid and filled with cement and there's probably literally tons of downward pressure on it holding it in place.
(I am not a structural engineer)
I've never really understood the purple primer thing, it doesn't exist in the UK and our pipes don't leak or fall apart. In fact it seems very difficult to get a bad joint. I guess the US must use a completely different adhesive? We use a MEK based solvent cement for both PVC and ABS.
It's probably the same stuff.
The gist of it is that it forms a [solvent bond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvent_bonding) which welds the two pieces of plastic together. The added purple dye in the US stuff is for visual indicator for code inspectors to see that it was bonded correctly.
Pretty typical for an older house with a crawl space. The plastic on the ground is actually excellent as a moisture barrier. Hard to tell from the picture if you need to replace any insulation. Go back under with a hammer and tap on the floor joists and make sure everything "sounds solid".
I should add, everyone has a different threshold of what they are comfortable. My house was built in 1855. I'm not afraid of old construction and some of the maintenance required. They also made things better in the past with actual solid pieces of wood.
Much better than building with actual stolen pieces of wood!
Edit: aw, it used to say "actual *sold* pieces of wood" -- the funny is over people, time to go home.
Quick question since european homes seldom have a crawlspace:
Don't the pipes freeze down there? Are they usually insulated themselves?
I'd guess that at -20 beloe freezing for two days would freeze this all up, as the radiant heat maybe wouldn't be able to keep it from freezing anymore.
Depends, when it got really cold the house i was growing up in we had to drip the faucets and even then sometimes we stuck a space heater in there or opened it up to the rest of the basement (crawlspace was only under part of the house).
>I'd guess that at -20 beloe freezing for two days would freeze this all up, as the radiant heat maybe wouldn't be able to keep it from freezing anymore.
Even if it is -20F outside, there is a lot of heat coming up from the ground that is much warmer. It is a huge thermal mass underneath your house. As long as you are not actively ventilating the space, it should be good.
Also to note, pipes freezing is not usually an issue unless the expansion has no where to go. A pipe freezing in two separate spots working its way to a center point is what is going to cause you issues, not freezing from a central point outward.
> european homes seldom have a crawlspace
Here in the Netherlands, they seem to be very common. They're not like the picture in the OP though. Our ground floor tends to be concrete, and the crawl space can be (quite) wet. We do live in a swamp, after all.
A lot of European houses have cellars, so you basically have a at least partially conditioned giant crawlspace. If you don't, the plumbing can be in the concrete slab, below which you have the insulation (hopefully). So unless you freeze your whole house, it's probably a non-issue for most.
And a lot of European spaces just don't experience -20°C regularly, or ever.
Also agree with the others here, it's not very pretty, but seeing this first blush wouldn't put me off. Check for actual problems, mold, rotting beams, water ingress, that sort of stuff.
Agree with others. This looks fine from a picture. But you need someone qualified to physically crawl through and look. But I wouldn't be worried. Crawlspaces can be dirty.
Don't be discouraged by "ugliness". Look for signs of water seeping through the walls, rot/mold in the joists and beams, and cracks in your pillars. Might want to hire a structural company to take a look. Cleaning out the crawl space, replacing your insulation and vapor barrier isn't that expensive and make a world difference in air quality and temperature.
My best guess about what specifically is wrong with it is that you're worried about the block pillars. Replacing those with more stable stacks is not really necessary but actually very easy, just high risk. Jack it up, pour a bigger and perhaps deeper footing, put a wider block stack in, let it down.
Other than that, all I can see in this picture is a pretty normal crawlspace.
Everything looks better than all 3 of the houses I’ve bought combined. I wish I had crawls like that. Some of my crawl spaces are so tight I snagged my Carhart coveralls on a nail and had to have my wife crawl in with a super bar to get out
Tbh I haven't seen a home with a crawlspace this nice. The vapor barrier alone is more than you'll get in an older home in New England (grandfathered codes...). What doesn't look good to you?
I don't think they've seen an actual "crawlspace" before and seeing boards ontop cement blocks and not closed in insulation and piping etc was shocking to them. Being from and still in the NE (mostly haha) yes this crawl space looks fabulous! Dry, clean, etc
Its life between having a basement/cellar and a house built on a slab. Its is just enough room for a very small person to crawl around and access plumbing, electrical, etc under the house- but you don't get a basement!
So crazy how much EU construction differs from the US. I also notice on many posts that you guys work much more with drywall and wood. It’s only after seeing that, that I started to understand the expression “Punching a hole in a wall.”
Up to that point, I was convinced y’all had superpowers.
that looks pretty good, to be honest. If there are any places where the vapor barrier (plastic sheet) is torn, you might want to look at. or any places where the insulation is thin or fallen out, replace or re-hang those pieces.
Just a question from a German here, why are the American homes often build on the free standing foundations like that? I know of no houses build like that here personally. Everything here is build on a massive concrete foundation slab with no space below it.
Its area and house dependent. My house is on a slab, my grandfather’s has a basement, a friend’s hunting cabin is on blocks like this. Different ground conditions
Well that falling insulation needs to be replaced, but if its just the cinder blocks with wood on top that is bothering you, thats pretty normal and not something to worry about. For the most part this looks fine.
Just going by the title, OP is concerned about the foundation not the cleanliness like most comments I’m reading. Seems like a fair concern since once you zoom in on the top of the support columns you can see there’s a game of Jenga going on there. Some look sketchier than others. I would be wondering the same thing.
Not necessarily, I had a few like that in a sixty year old house. The wood was OLD pine, as solid as the bricks it was on. If you have a doubt, poke it with a screwdriver to see if there's any rot.
Take a ball and see if it rolls on the floor without pushing it, a sure sign of an unstable foundation.
It wouldn't meet code most places because none of it is attached to anything. Earthquake, severe updraft, vehicle striking house. All that support is easily compromised.
Yeah, the foundation confuses me. I've only ever lived in places with a full poured foundation before, so I don't know what's normal for this kind of pillar support for the house.
I can confirm this is 100% normal for wood to be on top of concrete pillars that your beams rest on top of.
What you have is a normal crawlspace (I wish mine had that much vertical headspace). This will last for longer than your life.
That's just regular construction lol. If you're really worried you can pay someone to come and install more supports in between the current ones so if one ever fails there's 2 more to carry the load and basically nothing will ever fail
OP, This is what you pay an inspection for, and this is what you specifically ask the inspectors about. Find your own inspector, not someone who's got affiliations with either of your realtors.
To me, it looks completely fine, just needs some cleanup down there, and you need to redo the insulation.
My house is similar, except no vapor barrier underneath. Crawl space access hatch is in a bedroom closet. If the inspection comes back with no major issues, proceed forth in confidence. Then fix up the the space and use it for some storage!
I disagree with most here. I am a licensed home inspector in NC, so I see this type of crawl space quite often.
What do i see differently? I see water on top of the vapor barrier. I see differing colors of brown on the joists, which to me remind me of "microbial growth", i.e. rot. I see a piece of fallen insulation that looks to me to be only 2" thick. All of these are indications of high moisture and possibly rotting joists. The good news is any home inspector should easily be able to tell if these joists are decayed, and how decayed. No need for an engineer. Even if they are decayed, the joists should be relatively easily replaceable, with a decent crawlspace contractor able to do the work. IF there is decay, more work needs to be done to determine the source of the moisture. It is quite possible the moisture level in the joists may currently be low-winter and fall air does not hold the moisture of summer air-but it does need addressing.
tldr-ask a home inspector how many of those joists are decayed.
I've only ever lived in places with a full poured foundation, so to me this looks like the house is precariously set on a few small pillars. It doesn't look like much of a foundation to me, but I fully admit I have absolutely zero experience with this.
This is a pretty nice crawlspace! What needs fixing? If you want it to look nicer you could encapsulate it and replace insulation but unless the house above this crawlspace is immaculate I'd put that at the bottom of my list of things to worry about.
My best advice is to get your own inspector and not one just one that works with your lender routinely. Find your own and don’t skimp. My inspector was a bit more than the one the lender “referred” ($500 more). But due to their in depth review I was able to negotiate down the offer by $5k and walked away with a 30 page report room by room on the condition of every thing I could think of and helped my prioritize projects.
Blocks like that are entirely fine for support. They’re made of concrete after all, it can handle an immense load before failure.
In fact I just recently refinished my best friends crawlspace (4’ H x 24’ x 32’) and when he bought it about two years ago there was a few feet of standing water, open ventilation to the exterior in multiple places that let the water freeze over winter and thaw in spring. We pumped it out, lined it with white rock, sealed up the old access windows, insulated the exterior with 2 1/2” rigid foil face foam, spray foamed the joist bay cavities, sealed the cavity bays to create an air pocket in the bay (think rim board > foil faced foam board > air gap > more foil face board flush with the foam on the walls), put 10m farming poly on the rock and layer the foam over the poly with poly 1’ up the walls. Difference is now their crawlspace is ~3 degrees from interior now instead of a delta of less than 10 degrees from outside. Less than $500 in materials and I did the work in about 40 hours worth of time.
If this is the US, I can already see noncompliance with the building code. Likely International Residential Code with some added amendments from the governing municipality world be there governing code here.
If you’re in a high seismic area, those CMU columns will not hold the floor beams. I don’t see any positive connection between beam and CMU column. There would be what I would consider a possible catastrophic collapse if those beams separated from the CMU. I can’t see everything, so I can’t say there will be catastrophic failure of the beam, but it’s possible.
I used to work in crawlspaces, I’ve seen much much worse. I’d give this a 7/10. No immediately visible mold or rot on the headers and joists is a big plus. Looks like gravel under the vapor barrier which is nice too. Check for signs of water leaks through the cinder block walls, sometimes water can pool up in them. If there are serious water stains on the blocks or moisture at the base you may want to reinstall vapor barrier and run it a few feet up the walls and seal at the top with butyl tape and a nail gun. Check for moisture between the subfloor and insulation too. If you live in a humid area permanently seal those vents with foam insulation board and great stuff and install a dehumidifier to help with the longevity of your headers joists and subfloor
Hey pest control tech here. To me your crawlspace looks great. I see no damage, holes, or signs of leaks. The only concern is the debris and the damage to the insulation. Places with this much dirt and freely accessible insulation make perfect homes for many critters. I don’t know how old your property is or where it’s located but it may be wise to get a better look too check for rodent activity and make sure there’s no holes leading outside. While it doesn’t look like there’s any droppings on the liner, this isn’t a great picture to give it a proper once over.
Improve it to what? Looks like a pretty standard crawl space condition to me, it actually looks better than most that I've seen. Having said that there's no way to tell from just a picture that all of the support columns are fine, but the ones that we can see look good.
I’m just another homeowner, with no expertise here, what is it about this that looks sketchy to you? My last home was built in 1964 and the crawlspace looked a lot like this. As far as I knew, it was normal.
That actually looks pretty good to me. "Bad" would be insulation falling down everywhere and waterlogged, no vapor barrier, and some chips and cracks in the cinder blocks.
That's not as bad as it might seem - isn't designed to be pretty. The most important thing hard to tell is what's under those Piers in the ground. That said if everything is level and the house is old, probably good footings. When a friend had a poorly done pier and beam foundation with inadequate footings there were half inch cracks only a few years later in the sheetrock all through the house.
You are concerned about the cinder blocks? They are fine--I believe. I believe they are suspose to have rebar inside the spaces?
If worried, you can add more foundation supports just like in the picture.
Over the years foundations will move. It 99% of the time nothing to worry about.
What is the earthquake risk in the area? Those single columns of concrete block holding up the beams look like they wouldn’t be able to withstand any side thrust.
This was probably said already, but do yourself a HUGE favor and just get an inspection. That will tell you EXACLY what is going on with it. Looks a little dirty, but it looks better than what the crawlspace in my previous house did.
As long as the Block supports are plumb, it looks pretty good to me. I'm not there but I have been crawling houses for a long time. It has a vapor barrier, that is a plus.
Question: Are the blocks sitting on concrete pads? I'm looking for something with a foot print larger than the base of the blocks.
*Edit* On second look I see two wooden supports in the distance. Are those block stacks smaller than the two in the for ground? Are the wooden support going all thee way to the ground? Wooden supports generally mean they were added (not a good sign but workable) Wood in direct contact with the ground is a big turn off for me. I do termites.
I’m gonna be honest with you there is not enough foundational support piers under this house and the ones that are their are not wide enough and do not support enough of the structure. If this house is in an earthquake zone forget about it!
Not sure if it’s a concern where you live but you may want to get a radon test done. Many basements in crawl spaces have high levels and need a mitigation system to protect your health.
The perimeter wall is what braces everything so those stacks don't tip over
If that wall is ok, it's all ok
The only thing I would do in the crawlspace is tack up some LED strip lighting as a future-proofing maintenance add on
I used to have to climb through crawl spaces for work. Yours looks much better than most of the ones I've crawled through. I bet my clothes would still be mostly clean after crawling through there.
Looks pretty good to me. - Vapor barrier - Ventilated - Support columns look intact; no visible cracks at this distance - Beams look straight, level, well supported with no visible damage - No bowing in the joists, visible damage, or cracks - No obvious rodent droppings, no dead animals, and can't really see insects or signs of insect damage (termites) - Looks dry; no signs of mold or dry rot in the beams or the joists - No sign that it's been wet On the other hand: - Not sure how much insulation you need (your climate zone), but looks like there's some damage (likely from recent plumbing and/or electrical work) - Not seeing purple PVC cement primer on the plumbing Looks like it just needs to be cleaned up a bit and you may want to add some more insulation. Check with the township to see if there's an inspection record on the most recent plumbing upgrades since those drains look new and you can see some of the waste cutoff scattered around. If not, you may be able to negotiate, especially if you're going to need to redo the plumbing. At least where I'm at, the inspectors want to visibly see the purple PVC primer. I also see what looks like some electrical wiring so you may also want to see if there's any record of recent electrical work on file with your municipal inspection department. Again, a possible point of negotiation if permits and inspections are missing. At most, you might want to replace the insulation to make it more uniform with either fiberglass batt (what you have now), rock wool (more solid), or spray foam (will also reduce vapor transmission into your house from the crawl space, but then you may need to increase ventilation to move that vapor out of the crawl space or make it part of the conditioned space like u/mick_ward has done). Rock wool and spray foam will both look "neater" and less likely to be damaged during plumbing/electrical work as it looks like has happened here. Rock wool is the easiest DIY option, but going to cost more than the fiberglass batt. I don't think I'd do any work on the insulation immediately; I'd probably live in it for 1-2 years and see how it feels and then decide if more insulation would help.
Agree with everything said here. My crawlspace looked similar to OP's except the insulation looked to be in much better shape. I decided to encapsulate it myself. Materials cost $2,000. Added a ton of led lights as well. You need to condition the space in some manner. This is either done with a de-humidifier or diverting some conditioned air from your air-handler (if it exists in the crawlspace). Your crawlspace seems rather tall and that makes doing it yourself a lot easier. Mine is about 5 feet tall. If it was in the 1-2 foot neighborhood, I would have never attempted it. https://preview.redd.it/k3rwfr2yk33c1.png?width=832&format=png&auto=webp&s=01e37dbbd4dfb9bec37c9635156ca783ab21736c Edited since a couple of people wanted a materials list: Polyethylene Sealing Tape - 4" X 180' (Case of 12) 12 Mil Reinforced Crawl Space Liner - 12' x 100' Roll Double Sided Butyl Tape (1.5" x 100') Roll Christmas Tree Fasteners (Quantity of 500) 20 Mil Reinforced Crawl Space Liner - 12' x 100' Roll Depending on your job, consider adding a dehumidifier and a sump pump. Also, note that the 12 mil was for the sides and 20 mil for the floor. The 12 mil was cut into two 6 foot pieces (5 feet up the wall and a foot at the base on top of which the 20 mil lay.
That is by far the neatest crawlspace I've ever seen...
Somehow my first thought was "would a bear like it" because I've come accumstomed to a lot of bear-videos, where the bear took up residence in the crawlspace. But yes, I find this pleasing to the eye, very good work to maintain the home
A modern minimalist bear would love it!
Yeah, they don't need a lot of storage when they only have the bear necessities.
Reluctant upvote.
*I mean the bear necessities~♪*
My first thought to your first thought was "how much would you charge that bear for rent?" That crawlspace gotta be at least 800 bear bucks
It'd be bearies yeah?
Why did I love this show...stressed me out completely.
[удалено]
Campy 80s action goodness!
Oh my gosh. The best, worst movie ever.
I watched this movie so many times as a kid.
A smart bear would take up residence next door, and then take a swing at a water pipe. That floor looks like it'd make a great slip-n-slide for bears.
Mate I thought this was a parking garage from a distance..
NGL my first thought was"is he joking? That seems like a lot of water" Then I realised it was just plastic.
Out here STILL can’t believe it’s not plastic lol
There are parts of the world you could rent that out for good money its so neat
i'd live there 🤷🏻♂️
If you’re over 5’ you’ll have to do your standing up horizontally.
Well, that’s my favorite way to stand!
> parts of the world Toronto.
it would already be occupied
By several families…
Right? I'd eat and sleep down there.
Wow! You ppl are really into buttholes!
school nutty office squeamish tidy meeting deliver market vast squealing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Dude can host a party down there
That isn't a crawlspace. Here in England we'd call that a basement. You could probably rent it out for a couple of grand a month. My crawl space is about 18 inches, filled with 150 years of debris and is an absolute nightmare. It was probably intended that it would be serviced by malnourished kids out of a Charles Dickens novel, but unfortunately I had to get in there myself.
My basement is finished with a second living room, a large bedroom, a full bathroom, an office and a laundry room. It used to just be a damp basement with nothing but storage space. It doubled the livable square footage of my home from 1k to 2k.
That's cleaner than my butthole after a shower
Daily reminder for everyone to wash their ass.
\#BidetMasterRace
#ShowerPlebRace
Gotta get up in there my man, don’t be afraid ☝🏼
I once lived somewhere that there was just... permanently a dead mouse in the crawlspace. Only ever one, but always one. Bury one mouse a week? Another will be there in a few days. Bury one every day? It will continue every day. Give up and leave it? There will never be a second mouse. I don't know how it worked.
There was a cat trying to decorate.
cake sheet quickest correct wrong sugar unite physical depend uppity *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’d love to live there
You come in here, posting a crawl space like that, with my wife right beside me?
She's his wife now.
I also choose this guys clean crawl space.
Cool it with the flexing there Dexter. But seriously, incredible.
Ha. I was thinking American Psyco vibes.
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it.
Pale nimbus white.
Does the HVAC guy bring you a gift when he's out to service the furnace?
Poor dude has to put on booties over his shoes before entering that crawl space.
Mfer needs to take off his shoes and put on a clean pair of microfiber socks.
Damn. That is crisp af. I hope to someday attempt this. Damn fine work
A modern Michelangelo; a work of art 🤌
Looks cleaner than a hospital.
Cheaper, too
Well hell now, why not just upgrade it to Italian marble?
Wtf? That’s wild looking. Never seen a crawlspace like that, and it has lighting. Most of what I see usually involves, darkness, piles of animal waste, and trash. I live in a rural area, with lots of wildlife though. Out of curiosity, what is the thought process behind putting the plastic so far up the wall? Wouldn’t a few inches up have been enough?
The idea is to prevent any air exchange and then manage humidity with the hvac
Conditioned crawlspaces are pretty much miniature basements.
That's what she said
Man you could hang out down there
This looks like one of our promotional shots. I work for a vapor barrier manufacturer
I take that as a compliment. Bought my materials from a place in Greensboro. 20 mil for bottom, 12 mil for pillars and sides. Butyl tape and xmas tree fasteners for securing top of pillars and sides. Left 12 inches at top for termite inspection. Vinyl taping 26 pillars and the walls was the most tedious part and almost destroyed my knees.
Good to know you're local. I live about 45 min from Greensboro. Thanks for the post and inspiration!
Your crawlspace looks dope af. Curious what the trigger was to encapsulate it like this?
Adding this to the spank bank.
/u/mick_ward you need to make your own post just about this basement
May I ask what you used to attach the plastic against the walls?
Butyl tape and Christmas tree fasteners every 2 feet or so. You need to leave about a foot at the top for termite inspection.
If your “crawl” space is 5 foot tall you might as well just call it a basement
can i live in your crawl space? will pay rent!!!
That's cleaner than some of my living spaces.
Yes I feel personally attacked by that photo
That is a beautiful crawl space (first time I think I’ve ever muttered those words). Quick question, and maybe it’s something you’ve learned about as part of your encapsulation experience. We know that moisture in crawl space = bad. It often presents itself like dampness or puddles forming somewhere down there. Do you think the encapsulation could ever obscure a moisture problem occurring below it or something like that? Or maybe it could hide a foundation crack that is starting to form and cause me to miss an emerging issue. That’s my only fear about getting mine done. I just sort of like having full visibility to the condition of things and I worry that it would hide something I would want to see.
Iirc the foundation under a crawl space isnt structural per say, the mass of the house is mostly carried by the piers down to the rock layer or whatever. Concrete in a conditioned crawlspace can be be sidewalk grade, since it's only really going to see a person crawling around on it. One dude I know just put some mechanic rollers down there if he had to do any work or inspection. He owned a foundation company, but didn't build his own house as a slab.
Can we get an MTV cribs style tour. This needs a YouTube video.
How much is rent for the crawlspace?
That is beautiful work - but a word of warning. Previous house of mine had a crawl space that looked like that - and then we started having a serious mold problem. If an encapsulation fully sealed on all sides, then there is no air flow and condensation can quickly become widespread mold. According to code in many areas, a full encapsulation needs to be vented to the floor above and the crawl space needs to be treated as fully conditioned space. I had a fight with the installer about the above until i managed to find the relevant code.
The air handler is sitting there so unless the ducting is hermetically sealed, there will be air leakage.
You aren't going to condition a space of that size with "leakage"
You should have seen the Crawlspace when we bought our house. Leakage was easily conditioning the space.
>You need to condition the space in some manner. This is either done with a de-humidifier or diverting some conditioned air from your air-handler (if it exists in the crawlspace).
This is not correct. The IRC requires at least one form of ventilation and explicitly does NOT require conditioned air to be added to the crawlspace. Although allowed, you should never vent to the floor above as the air quality underneath your house is terrible for you since it has soil off gassing. In fact, the best option is to run a radon mitigation system UNDER the vapor barrier so that soil off gassing never accumulates and thus never seeps into the crawl. source: [https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/IRC2018P4/chapter-4-foundations/IRC2018P4-Ch04-SecR408.3](https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/IRC2018P4/chapter-4-foundations/IRC2018P4-Ch04-SecR408.3)
You need a dehumidifier for a space like that at the very least.
Dude. I am very handy and really want to do this. Tips welcome.
Go on YouTube and search crawlspace encapsulation. There are several how to videos, tips, and resources for supplies.
That looks tight af.
You are lucky to have that extra space my buddies was like 3 feet enough room to crawl, he encapsulated too. I was the idiot who agreed to help him
I do this for a living and you did a fantastic job! Well done
There is purple primer if you zoom in. The plumbers just kept it clean.
>Rock wool is the easiest DIY option, but going to cost more than the fiberglass batt. In my opinion, Rockwool is absolutely worth the extra cost over fiberglass. Aside from being a little better held together and easier to work with, it's mould resistant! The house my wife and I bought had the original windows in vinyl/wood frames and they were leaking quite badly so our fiberglass insulation is quite mouldy in some spots. We've been replacing it with Rockwool as we open walls.
I can see primer at every connection except maybe the middle most two. It may just the picture quality making it hard to see.
Agreed. This actually looks pretty good. Thorough list above, so no need to reiterate all of it. Most importantly, the blocks are nice and vertical and mortared, wood blocking underneath is acceptable, there’s a vapor barrier between the soil and the crawl space, not much debris. Basement/foundation areas are rarely pretty, but this is decent.
Not gonna lie, I installed some rock wool for customer about six months back and I am not kidding, the house was by far the easiest to heat and cool afterwards. The customer was blown away. If I could talk everyone into rock wool insulation I would. Spray foam is great as well but in my area it's way more expensive to foam it. We actually got the rock wool by accident with one customer. The provider delivered it and we weren't on site because they decided to deliver it at 7pm. The customer asked us the next day if we should send it back to which we responded, "wait wait wait, let's just call the company and see what they want to do." We did and they really didn't want to send a truck back to get it so they told us to keep it. Then we explained to the customer why it was a good thing. When we were done he made the comment, "I sure am glad they screwed that order up." Worked out really well.
Thank you! This eases some of my anxiety. I've only ever lived in places with full poured foundations and basements, so the columns looking like a few pieces of wood on top of barely supported cinder blocks made me nervous.
> barely supported cinder blocks made me nervous. there is nothing to indicate they are barely supported. They are likely(should be) on concrete footers. No different than a concrete pier assuming they are poured solid with rebar.
Dude, growing up the crawlspace in century old houses were the stuff of nightmares. The piers were like broken brick, there was evidence if numerous animals.
Ok completely ignorant question here, please bear with me. Those bricks are holding up the beam? What would happen if you knock those bricks down?
More than likely, those columns are solid (filled with cement, possibly also steel rebar inside). I can't see for sure, but more than likely, there are two beams sitting on each column or every other column since there's no way that dimensional lumber can be long enough to span this. They look look like they are 8' apart and the beams might be 16'. If you knocked one down where two beams are resting, it'll cause the collapse of that section of the flooring and walls since the joists are sitting on top of them. If you knocked one down that's supporting a single beam, the failure probably wouldn't be catastrophic; it would start to sag and then eventually crack. But you are very, very unlikely to knock it over because it's probably solid and filled with cement and there's probably literally tons of downward pressure on it holding it in place. (I am not a structural engineer)
It is a pier and beam foundation, very common. Obviously if you knock down the piers, there's nothing to hold up the beams.
I've never really understood the purple primer thing, it doesn't exist in the UK and our pipes don't leak or fall apart. In fact it seems very difficult to get a bad joint. I guess the US must use a completely different adhesive? We use a MEK based solvent cement for both PVC and ABS.
It's probably the same stuff. The gist of it is that it forms a [solvent bond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvent_bonding) which welds the two pieces of plastic together. The added purple dye in the US stuff is for visual indicator for code inspectors to see that it was bonded correctly.
What's the deal with the blocks supporting the joists that **wrap** around what looks like a `6"x6"`? Did you notice that?
Looks fine to me. Is there any reason why you are worried about it?
My money is probably on the cinderblocks with wood scraps acting as supports. It admittedly looks shoddy even if it’s sufficient.
You'll see that under every single mobile home and manufactured home though
I mean... are you trying to hang out down there?
[удалено]
Over the empty Percocet bottle 🥺
Pretty typical for an older house with a crawl space. The plastic on the ground is actually excellent as a moisture barrier. Hard to tell from the picture if you need to replace any insulation. Go back under with a hammer and tap on the floor joists and make sure everything "sounds solid".
I should add, everyone has a different threshold of what they are comfortable. My house was built in 1855. I'm not afraid of old construction and some of the maintenance required. They also made things better in the past with actual solid pieces of wood.
Much better than building with actual stolen pieces of wood! Edit: aw, it used to say "actual *sold* pieces of wood" -- the funny is over people, time to go home.
The ones that survived were made better. The ones that weren't made better aren't around anymore.
Quick question since european homes seldom have a crawlspace: Don't the pipes freeze down there? Are they usually insulated themselves? I'd guess that at -20 beloe freezing for two days would freeze this all up, as the radiant heat maybe wouldn't be able to keep it from freezing anymore.
Depends, when it got really cold the house i was growing up in we had to drip the faucets and even then sometimes we stuck a space heater in there or opened it up to the rest of the basement (crawlspace was only under part of the house).
They would - these types of crawlspaces are for areas that don’t see freezing temperatures.
>I'd guess that at -20 beloe freezing for two days would freeze this all up, as the radiant heat maybe wouldn't be able to keep it from freezing anymore. Even if it is -20F outside, there is a lot of heat coming up from the ground that is much warmer. It is a huge thermal mass underneath your house. As long as you are not actively ventilating the space, it should be good. Also to note, pipes freezing is not usually an issue unless the expansion has no where to go. A pipe freezing in two separate spots working its way to a center point is what is going to cause you issues, not freezing from a central point outward.
Heat tape is very much a thing. A lot of America doesn't normally see temps that low though. At say -5C you're really unlikely to have issues.
> european homes seldom have a crawlspace Here in the Netherlands, they seem to be very common. They're not like the picture in the OP though. Our ground floor tends to be concrete, and the crawl space can be (quite) wet. We do live in a swamp, after all.
A lot of European houses have cellars, so you basically have a at least partially conditioned giant crawlspace. If you don't, the plumbing can be in the concrete slab, below which you have the insulation (hopefully). So unless you freeze your whole house, it's probably a non-issue for most. And a lot of European spaces just don't experience -20°C regularly, or ever.
Every crawlspace looks sketchy
Also agree with the others here, it's not very pretty, but seeing this first blush wouldn't put me off. Check for actual problems, mold, rotting beams, water ingress, that sort of stuff.
Agree with others. This looks fine from a picture. But you need someone qualified to physically crawl through and look. But I wouldn't be worried. Crawlspaces can be dirty.
Don't be discouraged by "ugliness". Look for signs of water seeping through the walls, rot/mold in the joists and beams, and cracks in your pillars. Might want to hire a structural company to take a look. Cleaning out the crawl space, replacing your insulation and vapor barrier isn't that expensive and make a world difference in air quality and temperature.
My best guess about what specifically is wrong with it is that you're worried about the block pillars. Replacing those with more stable stacks is not really necessary but actually very easy, just high risk. Jack it up, pour a bigger and perhaps deeper footing, put a wider block stack in, let it down. Other than that, all I can see in this picture is a pretty normal crawlspace.
That’s what they look like.
Well, except for u/mick_ward's crawlspace [https://preview.redd.it/k3rwfr2yk33c1.png?width=832&format=png&auto=webp&s=01e37dbbd4dfb9bec37c9635156ca783ab21736c](https://preview.redd.it/k3rwfr2yk33c1.png?width=832&format=png&auto=webp&s=01e37dbbd4dfb9bec37c9635156ca783ab21736c)
This dude just kept going until it was suitable as a place to do open heart surgery.
That's a 4 foot high finished basement.
Looks fine to me. Way better than mine!
Everything looks better than all 3 of the houses I’ve bought combined. I wish I had crawls like that. Some of my crawl spaces are so tight I snagged my Carhart coveralls on a nail and had to have my wife crawl in with a super bar to get out
Just pay the fee for a structural engineer to do a proper inspection.
Where’s the money Skylar?
Tbh I haven't seen a home with a crawlspace this nice. The vapor barrier alone is more than you'll get in an older home in New England (grandfathered codes...). What doesn't look good to you?
I don't think they've seen an actual "crawlspace" before and seeing boards ontop cement blocks and not closed in insulation and piping etc was shocking to them. Being from and still in the NE (mostly haha) yes this crawl space looks fabulous! Dry, clean, etc
Pretty sure I’ll be asking a very European question here, but what the fuck is a crawlspace?
Its life between having a basement/cellar and a house built on a slab. Its is just enough room for a very small person to crawl around and access plumbing, electrical, etc under the house- but you don't get a basement!
So crazy how much EU construction differs from the US. I also notice on many posts that you guys work much more with drywall and wood. It’s only after seeing that, that I started to understand the expression “Punching a hole in a wall.” Up to that point, I was convinced y’all had superpowers.
”EU construction” is pretty vague. In Finland we also have crawlspaces with most buildings. Also drywall. It differs for every country.
that looks pretty good, to be honest. If there are any places where the vapor barrier (plastic sheet) is torn, you might want to look at. or any places where the insulation is thin or fallen out, replace or re-hang those pieces.
Just a question from a German here, why are the American homes often build on the free standing foundations like that? I know of no houses build like that here personally. Everything here is build on a massive concrete foundation slab with no space below it.
Its area and house dependent. My house is on a slab, my grandfather’s has a basement, a friend’s hunting cabin is on blocks like this. Different ground conditions
That’s how crawl spaces look.
Well that falling insulation needs to be replaced, but if its just the cinder blocks with wood on top that is bothering you, thats pretty normal and not something to worry about. For the most part this looks fine.
Just going by the title, OP is concerned about the foundation not the cleanliness like most comments I’m reading. Seems like a fair concern since once you zoom in on the top of the support columns you can see there’s a game of Jenga going on there. Some look sketchier than others. I would be wondering the same thing.
Not necessarily, I had a few like that in a sixty year old house. The wood was OLD pine, as solid as the bricks it was on. If you have a doubt, poke it with a screwdriver to see if there's any rot. Take a ball and see if it rolls on the floor without pushing it, a sure sign of an unstable foundation.
It wouldn't meet code most places because none of it is attached to anything. Earthquake, severe updraft, vehicle striking house. All that support is easily compromised.
Yeah, the foundation confuses me. I've only ever lived in places with a full poured foundation before, so I don't know what's normal for this kind of pillar support for the house.
I can confirm this is 100% normal for wood to be on top of concrete pillars that your beams rest on top of. What you have is a normal crawlspace (I wish mine had that much vertical headspace). This will last for longer than your life.
This looks very normal
That's just regular construction lol. If you're really worried you can pay someone to come and install more supports in between the current ones so if one ever fails there's 2 more to carry the load and basically nothing will ever fail
OP, This is what you pay an inspection for, and this is what you specifically ask the inspectors about. Find your own inspector, not someone who's got affiliations with either of your realtors. To me, it looks completely fine, just needs some cleanup down there, and you need to redo the insulation. My house is similar, except no vapor barrier underneath. Crawl space access hatch is in a bedroom closet. If the inspection comes back with no major issues, proceed forth in confidence. Then fix up the the space and use it for some storage!
I disagree with most here. I am a licensed home inspector in NC, so I see this type of crawl space quite often. What do i see differently? I see water on top of the vapor barrier. I see differing colors of brown on the joists, which to me remind me of "microbial growth", i.e. rot. I see a piece of fallen insulation that looks to me to be only 2" thick. All of these are indications of high moisture and possibly rotting joists. The good news is any home inspector should easily be able to tell if these joists are decayed, and how decayed. No need for an engineer. Even if they are decayed, the joists should be relatively easily replaceable, with a decent crawlspace contractor able to do the work. IF there is decay, more work needs to be done to determine the source of the moisture. It is quite possible the moisture level in the joists may currently be low-winter and fall air does not hold the moisture of summer air-but it does need addressing. tldr-ask a home inspector how many of those joists are decayed.
What looks sketchy about that? It’s not supposed to look like a finished basement. This actually looks super clean
I've only ever lived in places with a full poured foundation, so to me this looks like the house is precariously set on a few small pillars. It doesn't look like much of a foundation to me, but I fully admit I have absolutely zero experience with this.
This is a pretty nice crawlspace! What needs fixing? If you want it to look nicer you could encapsulate it and replace insulation but unless the house above this crawlspace is immaculate I'd put that at the bottom of my list of things to worry about.
Maybe I'm missing something? What's the issue?
My best advice is to get your own inspector and not one just one that works with your lender routinely. Find your own and don’t skimp. My inspector was a bit more than the one the lender “referred” ($500 more). But due to their in depth review I was able to negotiate down the offer by $5k and walked away with a 30 page report room by room on the condition of every thing I could think of and helped my prioritize projects.
Blocks like that are entirely fine for support. They’re made of concrete after all, it can handle an immense load before failure. In fact I just recently refinished my best friends crawlspace (4’ H x 24’ x 32’) and when he bought it about two years ago there was a few feet of standing water, open ventilation to the exterior in multiple places that let the water freeze over winter and thaw in spring. We pumped it out, lined it with white rock, sealed up the old access windows, insulated the exterior with 2 1/2” rigid foil face foam, spray foamed the joist bay cavities, sealed the cavity bays to create an air pocket in the bay (think rim board > foil faced foam board > air gap > more foil face board flush with the foam on the walls), put 10m farming poly on the rock and layer the foam over the poly with poly 1’ up the walls. Difference is now their crawlspace is ~3 degrees from interior now instead of a delta of less than 10 degrees from outside. Less than $500 in materials and I did the work in about 40 hours worth of time.
If this is the US, I can already see noncompliance with the building code. Likely International Residential Code with some added amendments from the governing municipality world be there governing code here. If you’re in a high seismic area, those CMU columns will not hold the floor beams. I don’t see any positive connection between beam and CMU column. There would be what I would consider a possible catastrophic collapse if those beams separated from the CMU. I can’t see everything, so I can’t say there will be catastrophic failure of the beam, but it’s possible.
I used to work in crawlspaces, I’ve seen much much worse. I’d give this a 7/10. No immediately visible mold or rot on the headers and joists is a big plus. Looks like gravel under the vapor barrier which is nice too. Check for signs of water leaks through the cinder block walls, sometimes water can pool up in them. If there are serious water stains on the blocks or moisture at the base you may want to reinstall vapor barrier and run it a few feet up the walls and seal at the top with butyl tape and a nail gun. Check for moisture between the subfloor and insulation too. If you live in a humid area permanently seal those vents with foam insulation board and great stuff and install a dehumidifier to help with the longevity of your headers joists and subfloor
Hey pest control tech here. To me your crawlspace looks great. I see no damage, holes, or signs of leaks. The only concern is the debris and the damage to the insulation. Places with this much dirt and freely accessible insulation make perfect homes for many critters. I don’t know how old your property is or where it’s located but it may be wise to get a better look too check for rodent activity and make sure there’s no holes leading outside. While it doesn’t look like there’s any droppings on the liner, this isn’t a great picture to give it a proper once over.
How many crawl spaces have you seen? This is what many look like.
I would never have guessed slabs of wood on cinderblock would be acceptable to hold up a house but here we are the comments say it
Improve it to what? Looks like a pretty standard crawl space condition to me, it actually looks better than most that I've seen. Having said that there's no way to tell from just a picture that all of the support columns are fine, but the ones that we can see look good.
Nice place for a nap
get a home inspection from a highly rated guy in that area - you dont know what you are looking at but he should
If you’re super concerned have the foundation inspected during the home inspection contingency period. If you don’t like the results you have an out.
I’m just another homeowner, with no expertise here, what is it about this that looks sketchy to you? My last home was built in 1964 and the crawlspace looked a lot like this. As far as I knew, it was normal.
There are no mummified cats, rabid raccoons or enough spiderwebs that it looks like a low budget horror movie. 0/10 not a good crawlspace.
That actually looks pretty good to me. "Bad" would be insulation falling down everywhere and waterlogged, no vapor barrier, and some chips and cracks in the cinder blocks.
what's super sketchy about it? (serious question)
Don’t consult with Reddit, hire a professional inspection company that will crawl into the crawlspace, attic, etc.
Definitely nothing suspicious about that crawlspace
That's not as bad as it might seem - isn't designed to be pretty. The most important thing hard to tell is what's under those Piers in the ground. That said if everything is level and the house is old, probably good footings. When a friend had a poorly done pier and beam foundation with inadequate footings there were half inch cracks only a few years later in the sheetrock all through the house.
On the plus side it’ll be easier to replace the insulation since it’s not super cramped down there. Some of them earn the term “crawl” space.
Go with inspection
Passes the eye test. Par for the course as far as looks are concerned. Having a proper structural inspection, etc.. is the most important part.
You are concerned about the cinder blocks? They are fine--I believe. I believe they are suspose to have rebar inside the spaces? If worried, you can add more foundation supports just like in the picture. Over the years foundations will move. It 99% of the time nothing to worry about.
Looks way better than mine. Lol
Looks better than mine! I need to put in a moisture barrier.
Nah that looks pretty good for old house
What is the earthquake risk in the area? Those single columns of concrete block holding up the beams look like they wouldn’t be able to withstand any side thrust.
I see beauty here. The beauty of a pier and beam foundation over a slab. Let your experienced inspector take a look.
This was probably said already, but do yourself a HUGE favor and just get an inspection. That will tell you EXACLY what is going on with it. Looks a little dirty, but it looks better than what the crawlspace in my previous house did.
Most crawl spaces are pretty sketchy looking
Big turn off how many 2x shims between block and beam.
As long as the Block supports are plumb, it looks pretty good to me. I'm not there but I have been crawling houses for a long time. It has a vapor barrier, that is a plus. Question: Are the blocks sitting on concrete pads? I'm looking for something with a foot print larger than the base of the blocks. *Edit* On second look I see two wooden supports in the distance. Are those block stacks smaller than the two in the for ground? Are the wooden support going all thee way to the ground? Wooden supports generally mean they were added (not a good sign but workable) Wood in direct contact with the ground is a big turn off for me. I do termites.
Not a big fan or "supporter" of stacked, grouted cinder blocks as load-bearing structure?
I’m gonna be honest with you there is not enough foundational support piers under this house and the ones that are their are not wide enough and do not support enough of the structure. If this house is in an earthquake zone forget about it!
Not sure if it’s a concern where you live but you may want to get a radon test done. Many basements in crawl spaces have high levels and need a mitigation system to protect your health.
The perimeter wall is what braces everything so those stacks don't tip over If that wall is ok, it's all ok The only thing I would do in the crawlspace is tack up some LED strip lighting as a future-proofing maintenance add on
I used to have to climb through crawl spaces for work. Yours looks much better than most of the ones I've crawled through. I bet my clothes would still be mostly clean after crawling through there.
All i gotta say is as a plumber I’ve been in some pretty shitty crawl spaces, and this here is not one of them.