ASK YOUR MIROWSKI HOME INSPECTOR

Mirowski Inspections often gets calls related to items in people’s home.  Many questions are related to structural inspection items and many in relation to a crawl space.  A common crawl space question is “What is that a pier in my crawl space?”  Below is Tim Pryor’s, a home inspector at Mirowski Inspections response.

Pier In My Crawl Space?

Piers in crawl spaces are used to hold the structure up and keep it level.  Piers can be Wood, Concrete blocks, Concrete or steel.  These are the most common in crawl spaces.  The blocking on the top of the pier is the area that we as home inspectors find the most problems” .

Blocking on the piers should be Steel, hardwood or a composite material.   The problem most seen in a crawl space with blocking is the builder uses a soft wood like pine or masonite and over time this compresses and this can cause cracking in your drywall in areas above doors etc.

The fix for this is to lift the Beam slightly and add the correct blocking.  This can also help to level floors in older homes that have settled over time. This is not a hard fix but can be an added expense in a home buying experience because any time you are crawling through a crawl space in a tight environment and bring tools and material into the crawl space it takes time.

If you have questions or thought about the pier your crawl space please contact us and we will be glad to answer any question you might have.