Got a Creepy Crawly Crawl Space?
I am extremely claustrophobic, and not real partial to dark musty areas either. My husband tells me it is a great place to go when a tornado threatens our area. I’m not near as scared of the threat of tornadoes as I am the creepy crawlies that may be in that 100 year old hole in the ground.
When we looked at the house before we bought it, my husband and son’s went down there to inspect it. They claimed it was dry and “not to bad” for a cellar and crawl space. I personally didn’t care, because I had no plans of ever going down there, but my husband insisted it was important that the walls and floors down there be dry. Apparently they were dry enough to suit him, and we were assured by the owners that it stayed that way all the time.
So, we bought the house. Now mind you, we are not dumb people by any means, just a little to trusting. My husband had told me that there was a fan secured in the window for ventilation and there was a sump pump down there as well. That’s pretty normal in older homes with dirt cellars under them. You fasten a small rectangular fan into the little rectangular window and it keeps air circulating for good ventilation.
Apparently, you are also supposed to check on them or replace them periodically too. Otherwise you will wake up in the middle of the night to this terrible screaming sound, when the bearings in the fan go bad. Especially if the window the fan is mounted in is right under your bedroom. The quickest cure for that is to wake up your husband and send him to the dark little creepy crawly space to unplug the offending fan.
Replacing that fan was no easy task. It’s just a small fan about 8 inches tall and 18 inches long, with two little fans in it. People used to put them in their windows before air conditioning became so popular! One end of it has the little accordion slide so it fits snugly into the window opening. One salesman told us that they aren’t very popular and don’t sell well anymore because of the risk that someone will slide them out and break into your home.
Well, if they can get it out of that little tiny window and fit through there, then I guess we are at risk, but they’d have to be pretty brave to go through that dark damp creepy crawly cellar and find the ladder to the trap door in my computer room closet. That wouldn’t do them any good because there’s a big old box sitting on that trap door! So, I guess this fan fixed our ventilation problem and we are safe. So, we thought…
One day, I found a kitten in our back yard. The poor thing had wedged itself behind a section of the foundation and the siding. I quickly went and got hubby to help me rescue it. Wondering where it came from, I got concerned that some mama cat had managed to find her way into the dark old crawl space and have babies. My husband knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until he went and looked in that dark old cellar.
You can imagine our horror when we lifted the trap door and stared down into about 5 feet of dark murky water! Like I said before, we are not dumb people, just trusting. The previous owners told us it never got wet down there. Apparently, you are also supposed to keep on eye on your sump pump to make sure it still works! The house we moved from had no basement, crawl space, fans or sump pumps. Who knew this new house would take so much looking after?
I did tell you that this creepy crawly space is right under our bedroom, right? When my husband said he would have to get a pump and pump it out “tomorrow,” I quite firmly explained to him that I was not sleeping on top of that dark, murky water. He laughed and stated that it had probably been there for days. Yes, well I didn’t know it was there but I did now, and there was no way I was sleeping over it like a giant water bed. It just creeped me out!
I have such a wonderful husband and son. They were up until after midnight that night pumping out the dark murky water from the creepy crawly hole under my bedroom, just so I could sleep! Of course, I’m not sure the neighbors were as proud of them as I was. The pump was a little loud!
If you have a dark creepy crawly cellar or crawl space that needs ventilated and kept dry, you can find the little fan at Walmart. That’s the last of 6 different places that we tried! The sump pump was quite easy to find, but the best deal we found was at our local Rural King. Both the fan and sump pump are functioning perfectly. Even with the torrential rains we have been having in the Midwest the dark creepy crawly cellar is nice and dry.
At least that’s what my husband tells me, when he moves the big old box on top of the trap door and goes down to check on it every couple of weeks!
