Thread: Enclosed Crawl space ?

Saw something new (like everyday...) but this one puzzles me.
The one story, built in 1982, vacant, wood frame house has no foundation vents, painted wood on exterior foundation walls, inside crawlspace walls have blown on fiberglass (appears original) and unable to view. The kicker is there are no HVAC ducts to the floor registers - the main duct into the crawlspace just direct vents into crawlspace.
The heat and a/c bills are low, nobody got sick from the situation and no modifications in the crawlspace.
HUD said this is an old but typical construction.
Other than the dryer duct disconnected and ten years of lint down there, we are thinking of just having the crawlspace cleaned and new vapor barrier installed.
Anybody else run across this situation and what happened...?
Thanks!

JIM
H O M E
...so many houses, so little time...

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Jim,

It would help if you would take a minute to fill out your profile with your location so that the rest of know where you are and what may be in your area.

Go to user cp top left of page.

Edit profile.

Enter info and save.

Then we all know where you are.

It certainly would not be described as typical in my area. Are you saying that the forced air furnace just blew air into the crawl space at one central location? There were no ducts and vents connected to it? Did it radiate up through the flooring, or were there vents in the floor to allow the heat into the house? On top of that you mention AC. I can't imagine that working well at all for central air. How did the air return to the furnace?

Can you give us more details, or some photos?

I have run across several of these in my area with solid wood foundations. The entire crawl is sealed with moisture barrier on walls and floor sealed. There are just openings for the diffusers and the crawl has positive pressure from the plenum directly venting into crawl that is forced into home through the diffusers. I have never seen one with any problems since they take extra care to seal it up tight and extend drainage away from foundation.
A different adventure everyday... Jeff G

Jim my very first home I bought had this type of system, and it was built in 1983. I think it is called a plenum system. The home had a sealed foundation and a small electric furnace that blew directly into the crawl space. There was no ductwork only register vents.