After 10 yrs it happen, got stuck under a small crawlspace

[WarTurtle]

One time I was in a building where they had a vaulted ceiling but there was still a small attic space above the ceiling. It was so tight that I was crawling on my stomach with my shoulders very snug on either side, not a good feeling. Then they started tearing off the front porch with heavy machinery! Only the front porch was scheduled to be destroyed and I was far from it but being in a tight space and feeling even part of the house being torn down is enough to want out! Got a ton of insulation out of it before they tore the whole thing down though

Then there was the time in the old house where the crawl was covered in some kind of mold on the ground AND heavily invest with these things:



I felt like I was in some kind of alien movie crawling around in a mushroom forest with giant spiders all around me. They had a huge moisture problem and those spiders love moisture (so did the mold!).

[DOGBOY]

[QUOTE
Also, you mentioned that your "skinny" helper finished the job. That tells me that you need to hit the gym, or something. Maybe hiking when hunting, or walking to work, etc. if you get stuck in normal crawl spaces.

Just sayin', not trying to be harsh, but that's reality. I am almost 50 years old, and I have never been stuck in a crawl space. And trust me, I have been in every kind of crawl space in my career.[/QUOTE]

I have a 32 waist with no over hang and I have gotten stuck in a crawl 2 separate times. The first I was on my side and I could put one foot up on the floor joist and push myself in, however I had no way of pushing myself back out as i was between the furnace and a wall. The second time it was a real tight crawl and When I was finished at far end I did not have enough room to turn around so I started scooting out feet first. Only problem was my coveralls bunched up and caught on some wood and had me pinned. I did get very anxious and do have a bit of claustrophobia now. Dude there are tight crawls out there and not everybody is going to be jr. high skinny when in there 40's - 50's.

dogboy

[HVAC/Stud]

Thanks for the response, dogboy.

As long as I can still see "my little buddy", I'll still do the crawl spaces.


STUD

[calubeda]

been in a wall. thigh but not stuck. senior tech is claustrophobic. I came out covered with dust from head to toe.

[Cosmicmuffin]

M.R.I.? Wait till you have one of these then! Yes you do learn something about yourself in a big hurry!

[butternut]

I remember getting a bit flustered when getting stuck on the job but never panic. I will tell you when I did panic and that was over 30 years ago on the opening day of bow season. Totally dark and I started climbing a tree with a climber stand. I am going up and suddenly I got this feeling that I was too high. That feeling turned into panic and continued into darn near hysteria. Well I am huging this tree to the point of where my joints are aching and I have my fore head against the tree, afraid to even look down. and hour later it is light enough that I dare to peek down toward the ground.

I was less than 10' off the ground.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Sounds like some of guys ought to be packing around a bucket of Crisco.

Haha

No but really, I'm young and in pretty good shape, 5'11" and 180.... and I've felt that bit of panic before when there's so little space between your back and the floor joist that it feels like you can't even move. Just have to regain your wits and shimmy on outta there. Just like if you've ever gotten stuck in deep, thick mud. The more you struggle the more stuck you feel.

36" waist isn't small in our industry! I'm a 40!!

We got a guy that we just let go that couldn't put on his shoecovers anymore. I was watching him one time in disbelief thinking to myself.... you poor bastard....

I don't really understand how techs get out of shape... it's really a pretty demanding job. Unless all you old timers keep a young helper with you on every call!

Those hippies out on the west coast don't know what it's like for us East coast guys.

They have 3' crawlspaces compared to our 1.5' crawls

Us hippies out here in the PNW can all agree there is not much truth to that statement.

Unless you're only referring to California... of course they gotta make it easy on those cupcakes...

All in good fun....

[billygoat22]

I remember a dirty jobs episode where he did a crawlspace encapsulation. Looked like he was going to cry w/ all the insulation, low space, dead critters, etc.