# Not underpinning pier and beam



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I now live in a tiny house. Actually after living in a camper van this summer it seems huge. I bought a 16' X 24' interior dimensions beauty shop and had it moved to my property. $5,000 total after paying to have it moved. Works out to $13 a square foot...cool huh?! I've been busy painting, patching, scraping popcorn off the ceiling and replacing windows. I think I'll be able to use what is already built in and incorporate it rather than having to tear out stuff.

Walls and roof are insulated. The floor will be insulated and covered on the bottom with hardware cloth to keep out mice as soon as I can get around to it. I've had several folks mention that I need to get it underpinned soon. That got me to thinking. Why?

Every time I've lived in a pier and beam house with underpinning whether a mobile home or site built house.....I've had critter problems. Underneath a nice heated and cooled home with a privacy surround is a perfect home for all kinds of animals. To my way of thinking, at least if I can see under the house I can tell if something sets up housekeeping.

I do plan to use heat tape and insulate the dickens out of the water line coming into the house. There will not be water pipes run underneath the floor, so I just have the run of pipe from the ground up to the floor of the house to worry about. Keep in mind this is in Texas and though we do have freezing weather....it's nothing like up north.

Seems to me that I'll have less trouble with mold, mildew, termites and fireants with plenty of air circulation under the house as well. What do y'all think?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

You have drain lines too? Here we close it all in to keep the wind off but put in plenty of screened vents. It does a good job of keeping varmits out and their tearing everything up under there, another barrier. Gophers and voles, no. We do put baited traps under there for mice and rats but I have never had much problem....James


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

I left my cabin open as I didn't want to build a home for critters. 

Spray foamed under the floor then left it open. Didn't want to put hardware cloth like you're thinking as that would give the mice a place to travel from one end to the other once they do find a way in (and they will).

It's all a trade off. Enclosed means less trouble heating and may look nicer. Open allows for easier working under it and no home for critters.

WWW


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I hadn't thought about the hardware cloth providing mice a home. I figured it would keep them out. I'll have to do some more pondering on that one.

Did you have a company come in and do the spray foam or did you use a do it yourself kit?


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## dirtman (Sep 15, 2011)

We don't have poisonous snakes here but the ones we do have seem to prefer hanging out under decks and things like that. If I had the possibility of a rattlesnake taking up residence I'd like to be able to keep an eye on it.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

TxMex said:


> I hadn't thought about the hardware cloth providing mice a home. I figured it would keep them out. I'll have to do some more pondering on that one.
> 
> Did you have a company come in and do the spray foam or did you use a do it yourself kit?


It was way cheaper to have it done. The floor endwalls and ceiling sides (A-frame) were all sprayfoamed. 

WWW


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

dirtman said:


> We don't have poisonous snakes here but the ones we do have seem to prefer hanging out under decks and things like that. If I had the possibility of a rattlesnake taking up residence I'd like to be able to keep an eye on it.


Rattlesnakes are mostly in west Texas. They aren't bad about climbing. Here we have copperheads and water mocassins for our poisonous snakes. The snakes that are more likely to climb are skinny tree snakes and other non-poisonous types. I'm far more concerned about field mice at this point. Don't blame you though....I don't want to share living space with a rattlesnake!

I'll call around to see who offers spray foam service in this area. Not sure anyone would be interested in doing the underneath of a house that is less than 400 sq ft.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I added it around my house... No matter what you do, small critters will get in, but it's nice to have the underpinning to keep the larger critters out.. 

I just made sure I had lots of vents to allow air flow under the house.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

The only large critter that gets under my cabin. Even rabbits don't stick around under there as they have no place to hide.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Cute large critter! I'm about to have one of those myself of the mastiff variety.


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