Princeton - Need help please - Crawl space what it the better way to go? Concrete or plastic to seal off? (houses)

[houndmomma]

We're looking to move down to start retirement - the house we were going to bid on, as I'm signing papers I find it has a crawl - it wasn't listed on any papers - or the listing and I didn't notice it on my walk through.

This is all I know about it - . Vapor barrier, yes, sump pump in crawl yes, 1108 Sq. ft., any water seepage goes to sump pump., never water pipe freezing, gravel floor, one time water, when sump pump failed.

It's next to impossible to find information online about what is the better way to go - and what the cost would be either way. And you can't call any businesses for price highs & lows - they all want to set up an appointment to "come see" - even when I try and tell them I don't own the house yet - If I go to a Concrete website - they say that's the best way - if I go to one that does crawl space encapsulation with plastic they say their way is the best. I don't own the house yet and depending on what they tell me I might not. I'm not looking for exacts - just high & low range - and the best cost effective way to go.

I need to find this info BEFORE I put in an offer as it's an expense that wasn't planed and as this is our retirement house - we can't make a mistake.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on which of the two ways we should go please. I'm about as frustrated as can be.

Thanks in advance for anything you can offer.

[cpm55]

I'm not an expert, but I can tell you we looked at houses with both and finally found one with a full basement we liked. However, houses have both and I think both are fine.

Now, what would I prefer: concrete. The reason is if plastic barrier was so great they wouldn't put concrete on your basement floor. I also think concrete is easier for sliding things on like holiday deco boxes etc.

Note: we did see a really cool house one that installed a trap door that a kid could get access to a crawl space club house with. It was concrete finished (the floor) but it was really cool! The room was a giant toy room with the crawl space area with a small TV and lights.

[whakru]

I agree that concrete is better. For all the reasons listed above and I have been told that it also reduces the radon levels in the basement/crawl.

We have concrete and made ours into a playroom.....not as cool as described above! Just laid out carpet remnants on the floor and adding shelving for toys.