love the "tallspace" area for easy access. i'm a pretty big hombre, and cannot fit in my crawlspace if i HAD to, which means i gotta tear up floorboards whenever things go south... if only more people took the extra thousand or so to do it "right" and make it an extra foot or two taller, future generations would have things MUCH easier for repairs/renovations.

4:03 Never thought to use a casement window as a hatch. Brilliant! 👏 👏 👏

I built my tiny 384 square foot house, 16'x24', on a 16"x16" footings then after I added a 16'x24' screened in porch and 16'x24' carport then I went back and mixed 80ib cement bags in a mixer and poured rectangles of slabs until all my 1200 square foot under my house, porch, and carport were poured. I LOVE my slab under my house! I am on 4 cinder blocks high and I can see under my house, no grass, no lakes. I can use a vehicle creeper to roll under my house to work or repair under my house. It works great. I also installed solar string lights on the edge so I can light it up for looks when I have guest over after dark.

I know a concrete contractor who makes most of his money from slabs and he built a home with a crawlspace, but still poured the cement for the ground of the crawlspace

I really love your programming Matt. Very informative and entertaining with you and your guests.

To do a cost-benefit analysis, I think you need to know something about the cost ... which wasn't even mentioned (unless I missed it)

I like Crawlspaces that you can stand-up in.

You’ve helped me very much.🙏

My crawlspace is crappy and probably has a family of bears living in it

tips to having a good crawl space 1) pour footings/chain walls for load bearing areas then pour at least 2 inches of cement for a complete slab under house. 2) cinder block exterior with several 4 foot wide openings for access, at least one on each side preferably in the center, these can be fitted and framed to be decorative and lockable 3) install solar string lighting all under neath for easy lighting 4) install several receptacles for working underneath and on the outside of the house 5) install a garden hose reel on each side underneath for easy to use water on all sides of the house and away from freezing winds.

I live in Phoenix where all construction is slab on grade. But I always wondered why crawlspaces are not treated as just a small basement, fully enclose and condition it. So you get a much longer life out of your floor system, rodents out, no insulation ripping and falling out of the floor. And so much more. It never made sense to me to just have dirt and mud and cold and hot under the floor of your house.

Hey that Stegocrawl picture looks familiar…that was a house I did a couple years ago! Awesome to see it shared by Matt Risinger 😊

Wow that house is nice!

I like that. Never thought about it but the investment will contribute to better temperature and moisture control in the house.

If you're going to build a crawl space that nice, you might as well build a basement. It will only cost a little bit more. Even better, if you have the right slope, put the garage under your house.

I love those crawlspaces, absolutly the way to go.

Well damn. Florence is where I live. Pretty cool.

If you could convince the other builders to not put tge air handlers in the incredible hot attic so us AC guys don't have to die to make a repair do maintenance. Would be great as well as make the unit more efficient.

Why is the tankless water heater pulling air from the crawl space?

I've got an above ground crawlspace in a barndominim. Concrete floors xps Foam on the walls and also over the concrete. Complete dry and clean

Slick work.

Would love to see a video on this topic. TX and S.FL use almost 100 percent slab but when I was in VA and NC everything is crawl space even though its red clay that holds moister. Would love to know why one or the other is used other than cost. Also, the crawl spaces I viewed had 6 mil plastic then rock on top, that's it.

Raising the house up on high piers is even better. Useful open space under the house. None of the problems of crawlspaces or slabs.

Just make sure when it's all sealed up, there is RADON ventilation.

If everything is sealed where is the moisture comimg from that you need the dehumidifier for?

Nice, but All these extra 15-30k usd costs begin to add up to do everything better. I would like more videos that discussed price/cost analysis. Yes, this crawlspace is much better than most but using a good vapor barrier putting 4 inches of quarter minus on top and insulating all the lines and under the flooring might be good enough for most people and save 15-30k

Since our crawl space is only under a small addition off the back of our home, we are not going to encapsulate it. We are however are going to put concrete in there so we can use it for storage

I noticed @5:52 there isn't a vent after the P trap for the dehumidifier. Is that needed? Thanks

What’s the cost between a slab and a normal build 2ft basement and why choose one over the other?

I had my crawl encapsulated and all vents sealed off. But the epa now recommends a vent fan to exhaust some of the stale air / gasses that would otherwise accumulate in an encapsulated crawl. I have one now plus a dehumidifier but I’m not sure I want the fan. Any advice? I live in the south.

We have a name for crawlspaces that don't suck: they are called basements. We have them up here in the Northeast.

Is the rinnai combustion air intake not ducted outside?

Hate the tight belly crawling spider web crawl spaces here in KS. Next house, full basement or slab.

Good building science when being forced to build a partial crawl. 👍

Well the old cliche pertaining to real estate, is location, location. And that same cliche should be applied to selecting the property to build a home on to begin with. As for (water proofing), there is no such thing when it comes to water infiltration in basements and crawl spaces. If the situation is serious, water will find a way in, or it will make a way in, regardless of the precautions taken to prevent it. Water will find its way in by infiltrating where lolly collums are located in the slab for example. The only way to prevent water infiltration is by installing a good french drain system along with what ever moisture barrier is chosen. But again, location comes into play, because not every location will allow for a drain system to be installed. Certainly there are areas where soil type alone is more favorable for having dry basements. Local builders as a rule know the good and poor locations. Unfortunately, they are not always involved during the land selecting process. Also, as they say money talks, meaning not all customers are very interested in spending money on things that cant be seen. Like french drain systems for example.

I'm wanting to encapsulate my crawlspace but not sure what the best solution is for a big front porch that is open to crawl space below. Do you make a wall out of foam board to separate the front porch area or is another method recommended?

How to prevent flood water from getting inside the crawl space?

I wonder how much it costs to do that

I hate that builders often do the bare minimum and sell for a high dollar. Maybe that's not the truth but that's how I feel.

Money is a limited resource for most people, and most people would rather use that money on a nicer kitchen rather than improving the life of the random handyman who has to access the crawlspace. Building a “short basement” is incredibly expensive (concrete work is some of the most cost intensive for a house), and just doing it for a little bit of efficiency gains and longevity simply doesn’t make sense for most people.

I wasn’t clear on what the video was saying about putting insulation on the ground: yes? No? Depends on climate??

any reason the builder chose plywood over OSB for subfloor?

Florence!? Tell me u came to the rocket city😂(Huntsville)

Matt’s solutions never have a budget consideration

This house is protected by the de-humidifier as long as it remains operating if you seal the crawl space denying O2 w/o venting and moisture is added either thru upward mitigation thru concrete slabs on grade, the foundation or more likely downward mitigation when a leak happens within the house the water will find its way to the crawlspace and without ventilation wood will dry rot and the wood will lose all its structural integrity. I love an accessible crawl space and it never occured to me to do this, however I would ventilate to prevent rot. Your builds are tremendous I would seek you out for my builds if I was in your area your clients are lucky. Ray Stormont

Rats, Rodents and Raccoons ! Oh My!

So if power does go down for long Period of time, does the enclosed crawl space become a humid mess with no ventilation?

How about a video on a vented crawl space that doesn’t suck?

Nc also

All crawl spaces should be closed. But you can do it for 1/4 of this guys price. You don’t need spray foam, state of the art dehumidifier and a concrete floor just to roll around on a sleeper. Instead use a block foundation with 4’ headroom and 12-20 mil plastic and foam board on walls.

Tip #1: Make a basement instead

The tankless instant gas water heater looked like it was getting supply air from the internal envelope... is that to code in the US? It wouldn't be in Europe.

I don’t like most crawl spaces and neither does my employees

Either do a full basement or a slab on grade. Crawl spaces make no sense.

First view 🎉

how many people does this video actually apply to? I'd bed the target audience is not doing a short basement.

Crawl spaces should be outlawed. Slab or basement. No more of this in between bs

No insulation? Are you kidding me! Terrible construction

Why don’t Americans just build a concrete foundation?

The best features of the crawlspace werent in the crawlspace. Geeze.

The Cadillac of Crawlspaces 🫡