How to tell when a structure is not professionally done.
This house had a very large addition added to the back. The addition is supported by foundation walls on the exterior perimeter of the room, with two double Micro-laminate beams across the span. Under the entire addition is a crawl space.
When so many things are not done properly, one begins to expect that what looks proper may not be!
The wood beams enter the foundation walls like this one. ALL FOUR LOOKED LIKE THIS ONE.
There should be a space all around where the wood does not touch the concrete (or mortar).
The bottom seems supported by what looks like a wood-splitting wedge to me. These are driven into the end of logs with a sledge hammer to split the log. It is NOT designed to be a shim in any way.
And you can see how tightly it is held in place! Now that's a secure structure!
Engineering codes say this double beam should extend 3" into the wall onto a shelf called a "corbel." Certainly I could not tell if this was so.
Given what is elsewhere I would wonder.
The double beams should be secured to each other with through bolts.
The supportive columns should each be through bolted to the beams. None is.
This column is not attached in any way.
This column is too small.
This column is not centered.
This column is not plumb.
This column is supposed to sink 24" into the ground and rest on a concrete footer.
Does it?
Given what is elsewhere I would wonder.
The room above has a hardwood floor that is not level, but has gentle rises and falls throughout the room. That would be related to this structure below.
In the attempt to solve this problem various makeshift columns were put into place.
Many look like this one, resting on a board that is itself resting on the ground.
You can see another type of makeshift column to the right.
Above it is not attached to the joist it is "supporting."
But it is resting directly on the ground and not even on a board so it is sinking.
There are other things, but this is enough to give the idea as to the erratic nature of the floor of this room. Professional?
Was this work done with a permit? Was the permit closed? Was this structure approved for occupancy?
Given what is elsewhere I would wonder.
My recommendation: it took quite a while to crawl around and see what there was to see. It was not easy! This photo shows what a lot of the crawl space looked like! It is important that a home inspector look carefully at areas like this crawl space. It's a part of the job. And it's a good thing this home inspector decided to go in despite all the boards that had nails in them and the rest of the junk in the space.
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia.
Office (703) 330-6388 Cell (703) 585-7560
