No crawl space in old home

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psw5pitt

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I am looking at buying a house which is about 100 years old. Its been rehabbed over the past few years, and I feel good about everything except one area: there is zero crawl space under about half of the first floor (kitchen and laundry room). By zero crawl space I mean the floor joists are literally resting on the dirt. The joists I can see look old, but no rot or mold.

A few things make the situation worse...
-A small area was found to have evidence of termites, though it wasn't in the crawl space area. The termites weren't active, but its winter still
-The center of the basement, which is dirt, was clearly a pool of water recently, and the existing sump pump was at one point under water. It was all dry when I was there twice, and its been wet out so maybe that problem has been fixed?
-There is a very soft spot in floor to the entry way on the first floor, deep into the zero crawl space area.

The house looks to be a great deal otherwise, but the more I think about it, the riskier it seems.

also, the seller wont fix the crawl space or the termite damage.


Should I cut and run or ignore this stuff?

(location is pittsburgh pa, in the southside slopes)
 
Of course it is your decision , get all the info you can from someone there on site.
The question I ask folks is this...do you have the money to fix it if something bad does happen. If not, don't take the risk. Something better is always out there, sometimes you just need to wait a little longer.

Done 10000 and more home inspections...spoken from experience.Not something I read somewhere, or heard from someone else.;)
 

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