J. Brandon Roberts

A while back, I posted a blog asking when crawlspaces are too tight to go into. Being the superman that I am, I just continued to slip into every hole that I could. I never imagined that I would actually get stuck. But it finally happened. I finally got stuck in a tight crawlspace. Of course, it would be in the farthest point from the crawlspace entrance.

The house was almost 90 years old with a stone foundation. The first picture is where I got stuck, BEFORE I crawled in there. The second picture is after I got stuck and couldn't back out that I decided to take my final pictures so that when someone found my body they would know what happened to me. Eventually I relaxed, ripped my coveralls on some stones and slithered forward because I couldn't slither backwards. The third picture is the area that I eventually slid through. The last one shows how tight the final crawl was. I couldn't even roll over to crawl better. I grabbed the floor joists and pulled on them to help slide myself forward.

The good news is that I discovered evidence of "what appeared to possibly be damage from wood destroying organisms". See the termite tubes in photo 2? And I saw several joists that were rotted completly in half (the right side of photo 3). So it was good that I went back there. I don't envy the contractor that has to make those repairs though.

Lesson learned. Don't be a superman. If it looks too tight - Don't go in! But...... If I don't go in there then who will? Maybe I'll listen to my own advice. More than likely I won't though.