RC spy car as crawlspace inspection device?

I want to inspect the crawlspace once in a while but don't really enjoy crawling in it.

Can you use the trakr (RC video camera tank) to inspect the crawlspace or is there something more appropriate? The camera would need to see in the dark or have built-in light.

Things I want to checks are : water on the vapor barrier, rodents, detached insulation, etc.

Reply to
james
Loading thread data ...

If it is fairly smooth it could work, that looks very easy to high center. Were that to happen, you would have to crawl to retrieve it. Built in light? you could attach a small led flashlight to it. Here is another thought:

formatting link

Reply to
Eric in North TX

IIRC, there was a show on the history channel showing such a strategy to explore one of the air shafts in one of the pyramids. Worst case, you would have to crawl in and retrieve it.

Reply to
deadgoose

Tie a string to it so if it flips, you can haul it out. After watching a TV show where they were hauling dead and maggot-ridden possums and skunks out from under the crawl space, I am now thoroughly convinced NEVER to buy a house without a basement. Repairing *anything* serious in a crawl space turns a fairly routine job into a near-lunar expedition, complete with bio-hazards from the parasites and other creatures that inhabit living and dead possums, skunks, raccoons, etc. You have my sympathy. Gives me a good idea, though. Start a plumbing and electrical company staffed by midgets specializing in crawlspace work. (-:

I've never been able to figure out why some areas of the countries don't have basements. It was probably a good building strategy when there was no plumbing, CATV or electric in houses, but now? Uh uh.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

you could tie a light line to it incase you have to drag it back or something. I know in one house we have, there IS no going in the crawl space. It's about 8" from the joists to the dirt.

Reply to
Steve Barker

Robert Green wrote: ...

Clearly you've never had a leaking one or failed walls from clay soil heave, etc., etc., etc., ...

--

Reply to
dpb

High water table, would be my guess.

nate

Reply to
N8N

It's easy enough to keep the serious critters out of a crawl space. The bugs and small things won't hurt you.

as for your question about no basements, well in someparts of the country it is solid rock. Can't dig. Hard enough to put in a frost footing. In other areas, no tornadoes, so no basement needed. Build on a slab. It's cheap. Ever watch extreme home makeover on sunday nights?? Those fancified mcmansions are ALL built on slabs. It's the only way they can do it in a week. Crawl spaces are not the end of the world, but i sure do wish the folks in the old days would have made the house just 8 or 10 inches taller off the ground. LOL! I'm not as skinny as i used to be. And the house i live in has the joists 8" off the dirt. and NO access to the space anyway.

Reply to
Steve Barker

2 words: flash floods
Reply to
Eric in North TX

Video camera from Harbor Freight? Radio Shack? For light install a proper lamp assembly fitted with a CFL.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

Here in Florida, those are called swimming pools.

Reply to
Larry Fishel

There are telescoping poles with wireless cameras (Some very costly).

This cam pole, maybe? Or make something similar.

formatting link
.. two cent...

Reply to
Oren

Steve Barker wrote in news:lJOdnT4eysyX6EzRnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Oh yes there is going there. 6 mos ago the last place I rehabbed was just that. Fortunately dry. Took wireless house phone with me for sure. If I had a Fred Sanford "Big One" under there it would have been a CSI desert recovery and ID by the time I was found.

Reply to
Red Green

A properly built and drained basement makes those occurrences extremely rare. I know the soil conditions and water tables in some areas make basements problematical, but unless I absolutely had to live someplace they were totally impractical, I would find a basement, or go with a well built slab house. I hate crawls with a passion. Or if cost was no object, I'd find a lot that was big enough to make a hill that was above the water table. (That last tactic is pretty common with McMansions in bayou country. Looks nicer than the houses on stilts.)

Reply to
aemeijers

Tie a string to it to retrieve it if it gets stuck. I use an RC truck to pull cable over suspended ceilings quite often. If it gets hung up, I yank on the fish-cord to get it unstuck, then let it go again.

Reply to
clare

There ARE other options Basement, or on slab, I'd never buy a house with a crawl-space. (or a flat roof)

Reply to
clare

Clearly. Well, I've had leaking ones, but I'd rather deal with that than crawl under the house on a hot day to fix a cracked pipe lying next to a dead skunk, a cadre of spiders and loads of other things that seem to call crawlspaces "home sweet home."

Is soil instability the only reason to omit basements (aside from cost)?

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

I've never been under one, never want to be, either. You just can't do your best repair work choking on rotting raccoon dust squished in like a sardine. We've nearly rewired the house to be all grounded circuit outlets (it was two wire). If I had to do it from a crawlspace and not the basement, it wouldn't have gotten done.

One thing I noticed in the crawlspace they showed on DJ's was all the loops of unsecured wiring under the house. Probably not professional work but I'll bet neatness suffers when the repairman is unhappy. Those loops make it doubly hard to move without snagging and breaking something. I think I'll go have a party for my basement in my basment tonight. I didn't know how good I had it until I saw the raccoon ridden crawl space exploration on Dirty Jobs.

hill that was above

At least you could take a workboat under a house with stilts. I'm assuming that no basements are standard in areas like NOLA because they bury people above ground which has to be a testament to how unstable the ground is. I've only lived in the north and mid east, and real estate values probably help dictate the desire for basements. The more it costs per square foot, the more temptation there is to expand that real estate upward and downward. The area we're looking in has a lot of basementless houses. Since I can't crawl around under them anyway anymore, I shouldn't care. It's a younger man's worry now I suppose.

I'm having enough trouble deposing of the stuff that builds up in a basement over time - stereos that need fixing, broken appliances, not quite dead yet auto parts for cars I no longer own, old porch lamps, new porch lamps that are waiting for new porch, plywood scraps, pipe scraps, useless plexiglas, half dead batteries, dead battery tools awaiting rebuilds, old PCs, lots of spools of wire, soda bottles filled with paint (so they don't rust in the bucket), plumbing tools, wiring tools, old shoplites, new shoplites, so much stuff to get rid of. Hmmm. That wouldn't happen with only a crawl space. Maybe they do have a use.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

You're not moving to Florida, then. (Might be a good thing for those of us already here as well as for you. My mom used to have a bumper sticker "leaving Florida? take a friend".) Basements are rare in Florida, and pretty much non-existent in residential building.

High expense when it's not needed to get below the frost line. In north Florida, the frost line is about 1/4" below the surface. In south Florida, it's at the top of the grass. Plus the water table is almost never 8' down, so a basement has to have a floor and the walls and floor have to be not only watertight but keep out 2 to 4 psi. Basically you have a houseboat.

If you don't like repairing something in a crawl space, try repairing it when it's embedded in a slab.

But I agree, an 8" crawl space is beyond stupid. They don't have to be like that. I can sit up in mine in the most cramped corner. At the access door, I can sit up and have space between my head and the joists. Eventually I plan to seal it with 6 mil poly and put down boards to slide on -- cleaner and keep the humidity out.

So the problem is not a crawl space per se, but a crawl space that's stupidly small.

Edward

Reply to
Edward Reid

It seems to me a slab is just as troublesome as a crawlspace, just in different ways. At least you won't have rotting skunks in a slab. My wife freaked when she learned that critters especially like to nest in the area up and around the bath tub in houses with crawlspaces.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.