Mine did for our kitchen because he was old and lazy.

It didn't really matter in our case because the floor and subfloor were being redone so I let it go. But I don't think it's standard at all.

Then we had all the drain lines redone and you BET those guys were on their bellies in the crawl space for the whole job--that's why it's there!

That's not helping Fori!! ;) My guy is older too and moves slower than I do. We stripped the particle board subfloor off of the main part of the house down to the car decking because the new site-built wood floor we're planning couldn't be nailed to the car decking. I guess I'm OK with the car decking being ripped open there.

But cutting a hole in the bedroom end of the house where we weren't doing anything to the floors but putting down new carpet ticks me off. I'm easily irritated lately though. I blame the reno process and being my own GC. N-E-V-E-R again.

No clue on standard anything since my experiences are just with our house, but we've replumbed most of our (single-storey) house at this point and have never had holes cut in the floor (except where a pipe was going through and staying there). So it's definitely possible to do it without going that route. (We weren't touching any subfloors anywhere so it would have been a big deal to put a hole in the floor, which may be why it was never proposed to us.) Not super fun to maneuver where we barely have crawl space, but the plumber was good natured about it.

Thanks Artemis. My crawl is quite tall. Every tradesperson who's been under there has commented on it.

Was yours done all at once or in stages?

I'm certainly no expert, but I can tell you that fewer trades people want to crawl under out house, since the worries about hantavirus. It used to be no one minded going under and now, even Direct TV won't do it. We had to have our TV moved to a different location and they insisted on drilling through the wall and running the cable around the side of the house. No more wires underneath the house. Don't know if that's the case with your plumber, but it's so dangerous...I wouldn't be surprised. What does your former GC say about it? Have you asked him?

Thanks Lavender. Haven't had a chance to ask ex-GC as I just found out late this afternoon. I need to talk to him in the morning about the tub deck his framers built too high so we can figure out who's going to pay to have it fixed. I'll ask him then.

And, get this, we have RATS! The plumber is the one that spotted the evidence. I already hired a pest guy to get rid of them. I wouldn't want to crawl down under there myself, but I thought that's why they get the big bucks per hour.

The plumber said the hole was standard practice.

Ours was in stages, but that's not saying too much since we have a little house---only plumbing is a bathroom and the kitchen! But we had the water heater and all the related plumbing done by an HVAC company just before demo---that was the biggest job since they moved it to the other side of the house and put in copper---and then we had our plumber do the kitchen and most of the bathroom. Still have to do the tub at some point, but not worrying about it for now. We live on a hill, so you can stand on one side of the house and the other side (which includes all the kitchen plumbing) is basically up against the dirt.

i just had my galvanized plumbing replaced with copper and there was no floor cutting involved. they did the work entirely in the crawl space. i would freak too if i had a crawl space and someone asked to cut holes in the floor...

Wait, I don't understand. If there is a door to the crawl space, why does he have to cut hole in the floor? We had to cut one when we redid the master bathroom plumbing, but that was because there was NO human-sized access to the crawl space anywhere else (also the crawl space turned out to be only 10" high in spots, so we ended up having to remove the whole floor, joists, and all, and excavate it before plumbing... but that's a whole 'nother story....)

Why don't you post on the plumbing forum and see what they say.

I'm another one that ended up removing the whole floor (joists and all) in the adjacent room to get water to one wall in the new kitchen. Could not go through the foundation as mine is rocks. Had to rebuild the floor anyway, but if we ever have plumbing problems it's going to be a bear to deal with. But we can dig a trench from the cellar if needed.

Being one who has crawled through the cramped attic, having better access points can take a lot of time off the project. Nothing like getting all the way to the end of the crawl and working and realizing you need something trimmed a bit, or a different tool, or the darn battery on your power tool is going dead. After a bit, we added a second attic access just for that reason, but ours is really a convulted mess -

With the crawl space, for me, it would depend on how much headroom you have in the crawl space, and what the ground is like. The only house I had with one, it was about 3' and had a stable crushed rock base, so moving around it was relativly easy. I've seen some that have maybe 18" so you have to crawl on your belly, and it's in all kinds of debrie.

Since you have the floor removed (only going through the subfloor) I'd have no problem with them cutting a hole. I'd probably make it span a few joists just to make the "patch" more stable.

My crawl is fairly tall for most of the house. You can't stand up in it, but you don't have to belly-crawl either. The house is long and narrow so maybe that makes a difference.

Weissman--How did I not think to do that?

Thank you everyone.

Every house is different, so other people's anecdotes may not apply to your situation. You may want to get a second plumber to bid to see if they can do it a different way.

If you do have to have a hole, do NOT cut a hole until the rats are gone! The last thing you want to do is give them an easier way to get into the house.

As a remodeling contractor I have renovated many homes, one of my primary jobs is to make the job of all subs easy and clear. This includes access to difficult areas. Assuming a patch is easy and there are no other implications such as cutting into a finished floor, cut holes where necessary. The plumber's job will be much easier and faster thereby saving you money. Accessing plumbing from a remote access point can be difficult and time consuming. Just because you could do the job without cutting holes, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes there are holes all over my jobs, where ever work is required. Maybe you could also do other things while the floor is open, increase insulation, beef up framing connections if a in earthquake county, run speaker wires etc.

Thanks zinnah. I appreciate your perspective.

Janet--the hole is cut. I should say holeS as he made two. And the rats? With the subfloor torn out to bare car decking, the rats could get in anyway. The car decking has holes big enough for even giant rats to get through.

I'm embarrassed to say I have rats. I live in a nice little suburban area, nowhere near a big city with garbage and dumpsters everywhere. The recent rat problem in my county has even made the TV news. The rat guy says my neighborhood definitely has a problem. My house and yard are well-maintained and landscaped to the point where I was asked to be featured on the county's master gardener garden tour. Rats sound like I live in a slum.......

At least you didn't have to remove the floor joists because they had 6 1/2" of sag in them like our customers here had to.

Huh.
I thought everyone had man-sized holes in their floors!! I've had one here in my bathroom, in the center of the house, since 2006. I don't have mice or rats, but I think that's because I have black snakes. They come up to visit occasionally thru this and a couple of other holes. Of course, they drop out of the ceiling, too. Once, a couple having wild sex all tied in a knot fell out. I digress...

I find it very convenient to use to yell to the people who go in the crawlspace thru it's door. If there's a door, why make a hole, BTW?

I was also able to hear leaks in the plumbing when they broke thru the corrosion. 4 of them tick-tick-ticking drip-drip-dripping. I always joked about how I had to have every single thing DH did redone, so I probably had an ocean in the crawl space & didn't know it. I don't joke about that, either, anymore.

Anyway, I hope it works out. It's nutty to be your own GC. However, it's wise to be the fly buzzing around their head all the time. The minute you're not there, someone will make a decision about a detail you didn't want.

I digress again. I hope your plumbing & floor repair works out. They are fixing it, aren't they? You know, you might find the holes handy....

Christine
Formerly C F Muehling

We redid plumbing/sewer lines under the kitchen, too. Our framer actually cut a man sized hole because he needed to pour cement pads for support for the beam placed to take out the load bearing wall.

Plumber used the hole, too. It was fortunately placed under the cabinet (where they were going to be) so easy to patch and replace without evidence of it ever being there.

Don't know if plumber would have cut it if we didn't need access for cement pads. He had 3 sinks to plumb and extensive pipe to run, so spent quite a bit of time under the house getting dirty anyway. Probably wouldn't have saved him much time since crawlspace is right outside kitchen.