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)
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)