Crawl spaces in wood framed single family dwellings in Sweden: unwanted yet popular

Abstract

Purpose

This paper sets out to look at the different types of crawl spaces that are found in Sweden and why they are still being used in today's constructions despite the advice of building experts to avoid their use.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature reviews were performed to look at the types of crawl space foundations available as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type and to look at the economic costs associated with repairing a damaged home that could be attributed to a crawl space foundation. Interviews were conducted with engineers with regard to moisture design issues in the Swedish building industry.

Findings

This study shows that there are five traditional types of crawl spaces used in Sweden: plinth, outdoor ventilated, indoor ventilated, unventilated, and suspended crawl space foundations, four of which are currently available to builders. Despite all of the available knowledge regarding the disadvantages and the past performance of the outdoor ventilated crawl spaces, companies in Sweden are still using this design and are still experiencing expensive problems.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is limited to Sweden. The situation in other countries was not specifically examined; however, it appears that other countries are also facing the same problems and this paper may provide some insight into why.

Originality/value

This study shows that there are many ways to construct a crawl space, some of which are considerably less risky than others. The study also indicates that the building industry in general seems to lack the theoretical background or incentive to utilize these variations properly or completely move away from these designs.

Citation

Burke, S. (2007), "Crawl spaces in wood framed single family dwellings in Sweden: unwanted yet popular", Structural Survey, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 51-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/02630800710740976