No footing under crawl space wall?


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Old 06-20-14, 10:39 AM
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No footing under crawl space wall?

Good day everyone,

We just bought a house in Northwest OH (built 1990). I have been reading a lot about crawl space encapsulation on various internet sites recently. It seems like something that would be beneficial and that I could do myself. So I was looking around down in the crawl space yesterday just to get some ideas on how I would proceed, and I noticed that there doesn't seem to be a footing under my roughly 3' high crawl space walls. I can reach under it quite easily with my hand (there was some loose fiberglass insulation that had fallen down in there). Also, it looks like there is a 2x6 or 2x8 under the wall. I am new to crawl spaces, so I really don't know what to think of this. Shouldn't something be holding the crawl space wall up? Why wood anyone put a wood board under the concrete wall? Should I fill this space in with gravel? Is it actually a poured concrete wall or some cheaper alternative? Thank you for your help.
 
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Old 06-20-14, 01:27 PM
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Even today building codes do not exist everywhere so the method of construction is up to the builder. With codes there would be a footer under any foundation wall or pier and generally no wood.

Were you able to find the ends of the wood? Was is framing an opening or do you think it is under the whole length of the wall? If there is a hole, filling it with gravel is probably a good idea. I would also investigate for signs of water flowing. Possibly the grading around the house is not proper so you have water flowing under the foundation and through the crawl space, eroding away the soil as it goes.
 
 

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