Top 7 Worst Crawl Space Repairs

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Comment by Bob Daley on January 25, 2013 at 9:56am

Ugh! I read #2 and shuddered--spray foam is great but it should NEVER be used on a damp surface! What a nightmare.

Comment by tedkidd on April 12, 2012 at 7:16am

LOL.  My aunt and uncle have four 50 gallon electric water heater in their summer home, with a recirc, that runs 24/7/365.  I suspect the same goes for the electric floors in the 5 bathrooms.  

Tom,  

I've been down the path of investing time and energy to save other people money they don't care about saving, its not fruitful or rewarding.  Again, "chasing savings here represents negative return on time invested for them" and therefore, for you.  I believe the meat of the energy saving market is people with incomes under $150k, for these people the savings matters more than the time it costs to achieve it. 

Sell them a Navien or leave the heater's alone, adjusting settings only opens the door to complaints.

Comment by Tom Delconte on April 12, 2012 at 6:16am

Hello Ted: just remembered I talked this particular owner into turning their gas water heater down. Even this has backfired on me, 'cause every time I visit I must remember to turn it back up! Have a great weekend, t

ps: my offspring is purchasing a new home from KB Homes, energy star awardee. thank the lord!

Comment by tedkidd on April 5, 2012 at 11:41am

LOL.  Please give me his number!

Seriously, I think people who earn under $150k per year ARE interested because spending $1000 - $3000 too much on energy is a big deal to them.  But they simply don't know the opportunity is that big.  They have no way to measure. (I have a simple calculator, and blogged about this)

With On-Bill financing people can now update and increase the comfort and value of their homes, gain some control over future energy obligations, and not change their cash flow situation by $1.  The energy savings pays for the improvement.  

But I have relatives and friend with nose bleed incomes, and chasing savings here represents negative return on time invested for them.  So if that's your primary client I'd say even calling the utility co attempting to discover total cost probably is time you'll never earn compensation for. 

Comment by Tom Delconte on April 5, 2012 at 11:30am

Ted, yes, it's not my energy bill, the homeowner's not complaining, and they don't care about the cost. This is not a paradigm. This is typical behavior of people in the U.S. It's just not a place where people want to save money on energy costs. It's a status symbol to have high costs to some people! I'm not responsible for this. Remember when John McCain was asked how many houses he owned? Turns out it was 13! All due to the fact that his wife is the daughter of a beer distributor! He's the next customer you want, that's a real opportunity, not me or the people I assist occasionally with light maintenance.

Comment by tedkidd on April 5, 2012 at 10:50am

I know dude, 

"Not my energy bill, and the homeowner's not complaining" is the predominant paradigm.  And those guys don't care that they're spending 4x what's reasonable to heat houses they don't live in but 1 week a year - so how do you turn this into opportunity for paid work?  

I don't know the answer.  But if you CAN get an idea of annual spend from the utility, you might be surprised that some of these folks are open to discussion. 

Comment by Tom Delconte on April 5, 2012 at 10:38am

Ted: my HVAC guy specializes in these, I can't even get him to visit my tiny place. These are $25k opportunities, for him!

Comment by tedkidd on April 5, 2012 at 10:24am

Well, if $5000 energy cost doesn't represent a problem to you, I guess there are no problems.  

To me that represents a problem and an opportunity.  

And if you don't know what the consumption is, maybe this is a hole in how you judge if problems exist.  

Comment by Tom Delconte on April 5, 2012 at 10:19am

Repeat: there are no problems! How could a overly well-maintained house that looks like this ever have a problem? Repeat: gas and electricity costs are not issues. Sorry, no INSTALL here. That's why: i'm just a blogger who doesn't use numbers, as they inhibit real human communication! As I posted on Alison Baile's last article: Yes, and it's also possible that entropy production will cease and the universe will achieve heat death in our lifetime. In other words, nothing really matters.

Comment by tedkidd on April 5, 2012 at 10:01am

Hey Tom, 

Are you looking in the wrong place for problems?  Looking at the crawlspace and not seeing problems doesn't necessarily mean the crawl space doesn't represent huge problems.  It may just mean you don't have access to the correct tools to determine/diagnose health - in this case, the energy bill.  

Think you can get annual therm consumption if you call the utility?  Or possibly back into it if they'll only give you the gas budget?  (We can only get "monthly budget" for other people's homes from our utility).

Where I am I would say the home has an unrecognized problem - one that might be significantly attributable to that crawl space -  if they spend more than $1000 per year on gas (particularly with that occupancy).  But we are at $1.05 per therm and in a colder climate, two variables you'll need to adjust to.  

So, how close are they to 1000 therms? That gives a rough starting point.  

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