Once upon a time, there was an older gentleman who sold his home. The potential home buyer hired a home inspector. The Ohio cold weather zone home had a very large vented crawl space with 7 vents to the exterior. The home inspector told the potential home buyer that these vents were very low to the ground and when it rained, water would enter into the crawl space. This trapped water would evaporate in the crawl space and cause condensation, mold, and house musty odors. The home inspector also told the prospective home buyer that vented crawl space in cold weather zones such as Cleveland Ohio would permit cold air to enter during the winter permitting house floors to be cold and during the summer, it would permit hot moist air to cause condensation and rusting of HVAC ductwork. This was obvious because the past homeowner had already replaced some of the rusted deteriorated ductwork and left metal ductwork debris throughout this crawl space. Furthermore, the home had a 35 year old rusted flue modified furnace that was located in this wet, musty, moldy crawl space with open and not connected cold air return ductwork. Open cold air return ductwork mean that the furnace sucks air from the crawl space, from all 7 exterior crawl space vents, and not from the upper home. This means if the cat peed in the mulch, you could smell cat pee in your bedroom. The furnace flue was also modified with a homemade fan to suck combustion fumes and possible carbon monoxide up the chimney because the furnace flue was too long and the cold air return was not connected to the upper home causing crawl space negative pressure. The home inspector told his client that this was a bad design that would make the home smell musty, cost a lot of money to heat, and cool. The client asked the homeowner to repair these crawl space conditions prior to the sale of the home.
The home buyer responded and stated that the home inspector was wrong on several items, and disagreed with the home inspectors conclusions. This disgruntled homeowner stated that the home inspector who has inspected over 14,000 homes in the last 25 years did not know the difference between a ducted, and non ducted HVAC cold air return system. He stated that nothing was wrong with his non-ducted cold air return system. This homeowner further stated that the home inspector was very reckless, ignorant, and unprofessional for making a comment about his very nice house. Finally, the homeowner said he was not going to make crawl space repairs and that there was nothing wrong with his house. The prospective homebuyer decided he did not want to deal with this homeowner, nor did he want to deal with his crawl space, so three days later, he found another home which he bought.
So what did we learn boys and girls?
1. Cold airs returns must be 100% sealed and must be connected to upper home.
2. Vented crawl spaces are not desirable in a cold weather climate zone. The crawl space should not have vents to the exterior. It should be insulated on the perimeter walls and is should have a proper vapor barrier. Finally, it should be heated, cold, and de-humidified.
3. Finally, that there are many homes for sale and you do not have to deal with unreasonable sellers.
The end. This has been short stories by Marko Vovk at www. Housinvestigations.com. Please rate and subscribe. Marko is also on Face book and on Youtube under the name ClevelandMarko.