Response from Falcone Crawl Space & Structural Repair
Hello Angie's List Members, This is Fred Falcone, and I remember this homeowner and this sales appointment very well. She called about seasonal "cracking floors" and I met with her and her husband in mid-April. She wanted me to quote it before even going under the house, but I did my usual crawl-through. Immediately when I entered the crawl door, I saw fungal growth. It was widespread, except for the front right corner, which had great ventilation. There were a few "soft" joists, which should probably be repaired. The appointment was on a beautiful, dry, breezy day in April. The crawl space conditions were perfect. The wood moisture was fine, however, if you were to crawl under it today, in July, I am sure someone would see the wet conditions that led to the fungal growth that I saw. This occurs every summer, and doesn't dry out until mid-winter.This is why I suggested cleaning and protecting the substructure, then controlling ventilation, as well as repairing those "soft" joists. This crawl, except the front right side, lacked cross ventilation. The back porch is a raised slab, which blocks ventilation, the bushes are thick and tight on the left side, the front porch and garage also block access for ventilation. This is why I recommended a ventilation system. After my evaluation, I sat down with her for about an hour. I explained that while she may need piers, like other companies told her, the mold and moisture problem needed to be dealt with first. Please understand, that when I started this company, I just wanted to build piers and change out rotted wood. That's what I love to do. But, sometimes before we get to do the fun part (building piers and changing beams), we need to deal with the cause of the problems, so the homeowner only has to hire me once. I suggested that she hire a structural engineer, as I found misaligned walls and beams. I imagine that if a structural engineer crawled it today, they would see what I explained to this homeowner. I wish her the best of luck in her search to fix her crawl space. Fred Falcone II