The Crawlspace Robot: Providing You a Top Notch Crawlspace Inspection

The crawlspace is typically the most neglected and inaccessible part of a home, yet it's a critical area where serious issues like structural damage, mold growth, and pest infestations can take root. Traditionally, inspecting this dark, confined space has fallen to the home inspector—a necessary but often risky and incomplete task. Bringing in a crawlspace inspection robot, allows us to provide a superior inspection, compared to the average average human inspector, in this challenging environment.

Enhanced Access and Comprehensive Coverage

​The most fundamental advantage of a crawlspace robot is its size and maneuverability.

​This small but mighty robot can fit where humans can't. Most crawlspaces have small access points and extremely low clearance. 

Did you know that the standards of practice say, if the crawlspace is smaller than 18”x24” then a home inspector is not required to enter under the crawlspace? That is most homes in the South. Even if they can fit, inspectors must often twist and contort their bodies, limiting their range of movement and visual scope under a crawlspace.  This leaves a lot of room for problems to arise after a client moves into the home. 

Our compact robot is less than 7 inches tall and 14 inches wide, allowing it to enter almost any type of crawlspace. It can effortlessly navigate through tight gaps, around plumbing pipes, and under low floor joists that would be inaccessible to a person.

This Robot is thorough! By reaching virtually every corner and crevice, the robot ensures a more comprehensive inspection. Areas that a human might "write off" as inaccessible—and where problems often hide—are easily documented by the robot.

Safety Issues That Home Inspectors Encounter: 

​Crawlspaces are inherently hazardous environments. Using a robot dramatically reduces the safety risks for the inspector. These spaces can harbor mold, asbestos, sewage contamination, and exposed wiring. By operating the robot remotely, the inspector is protected from direct exposure to these harmful toxins and biological hazards.

Live or decaying animals, as well as nests of rodents or insects, pose a significant risk. The robot can safely scout these areas without endangering the inspector. There have been many times when inspectors have come across snakes or raccoons under a home, and had to deem the crawlspace as inaccessible. This leaves a lot of uncertainty to your home inspection. 

Navigating sharp debris, uneven ground, and potential structural instability can lead to cuts, scrapes, and strains for a human. The robot's robust build is designed to handle this terrain, minimizing the risk of a workplace injury.

​Superior Documentation and Data Collection:

​Equipped with advanced technology, robots deliver a level of detail and documentation that surpasses traditional methods. ​These robots are outfitted with 4K video capture, 6x digital zoom, a bright 1000+ lumen illumination, and an ultra-bright 5.5″ integrated display for the inspector to see what is going on under the home. This results in crystal-clear video and photos, capturing subtle defects that might be missed in the poor lighting conditions a human faces. 

Final Thoughts:

​While the knowledge and expertise of a certified home inspector remain essential for interpreting the data, the crawlspace robot is an unparalleled tool for gathering that data. It offers safer, more thorough, and better-documented inspections of the home's most challenging area, ultimately providing both the inspector and the client with superior peace of mind. 

What We Strive for:

At Top Notch Home Inspections, LLC we are constantly striving to do the best and be the best for our clients. This crawlspace inspection robot gives clients a good understanding of the potential problems under their homes. There is a running joke in the Home Inspection Industry that the smaller the crawlspace, the bigger the problems. While it is a funny saying, it is often very true, because inaccessibility gets written off until major problems occur under the home. 

One of our family members had a home inspection done by another company, a few years back. He wrote that the crawlspace was inaccessible and did not enter the crawlspace. One month after moving in, their walls started cracking and they had to get a foundation repair person out to the home. Because they had hired a lazy home inspector who refused to go under the home, it wound up costing them $30,000 to repair the foundational problems of that home. If that inspector had gone under the home, they would have seen previous repairs done that were not completed correctly. Because of this one section not done on a home inspection, it cost the new home owners thousands of thousands of dollars.

This is a good example of why we go above and beyond for our clients. We treat everyone like family and want to make them aware of all the problems that a home has. While every home will have small problems, there are some that may be extensive and cost more than what the home is worth. Because of this we are now offering crawlspace inspections via the crawlspace robot to ensure that everything is up to par before you move into your new home. This add-on is only $100 and gives you peace of mind, knowing that everything is adequate under your home.