Hints for Crawling Under the House

Wear a pair of good old coveralls. They not only keep you a bit cleaner, they are also easy to slip on and off as you switch from crawling under the house to going in to get a cold beer.

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It is very dry under your house, and you're going to stir up fine dust crawling around. It's probably full of terrible bacteria that's been dormant for 40 years. Wear one of those dust masks or you'll be picking black boogers out of your nose for a week. (n.b.: This hint originally erronously referred to "buggers" instead of "boogers". G.R. Zempel kindly corrected me. I have not had any buggers in my nose for some time now.)

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It is really hard to carry stuff around with you under there. Limit yourself to the absolute bare minimum of tools - nothing if possible. If you have to carry some tools, try to use cheap stuff - you are highly likely to leave something under there and you really won't want to go back to get it.

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I have best luck with a drop-light on a long extension cord. A flashlight is just awful, unless it's small enough to hold in your mouth. I recently acquired a kind of flashlight thing you wear on your head, which not only gives me hands free crawling, it also keeps me from bumping into as much stuff with my head.

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Try to keep the dogs from following you in, as they are likely to find dead rats.

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Be careful to avoid the skeletal remains of the cat that found the dead rats.

More Stories From Under The House!
Visit Tales From The Crawl-Space!

Lots of people have volunteered to share their experience, strength, and hope about crawling under the house. Protect yourself. Learn from the mistakes of others! Contribute your experience! If it's sufficiently nasty, I'll add it here.

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