Anyone have luck detecting crawl spaces?

[TCosbyJr]

Due to the excessive heat lately in my area I have been looking for alternative MD locations; however, the heat is even worse in the new locations. I noticed two large areas, crawl spaces, in my basement and detected them. I was curious if anyone has tried MDing crawl spaces or found anything?

Here are two photos of the areas I checked in my basement area, but may recheck as I have a much deeper finding MD now. In these areas the MD is set the smallest length, and used while I sit or lay on my side. In some spots the space is really tight and others I can work comfortably - either is dirty and hot work with a flashlight required.

All I found was countless nails, some old plumbing, a pristine pull tab, and the bottom of a glass jar. The jar bottom has me intrigued to a possible cache - or at least what was one before it was possibly removed (the house is early 1900's). It was found in the first photo in the enclosed area -- there is no trash in this area/room, and the only finds in there were small limestone slabs and bits of lead covering some pieces of old brick.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Yes, I've done good under some crawl spaces, but usually not single family homes/dwellings. More like commercial ventures. Like places that used to be saloons, stage stops, RR platforms, old-board-&-batton store-fronts, etc.... The coins could be there from prior to the current structure (back when early western towns were tent-cities, etc...), Or there are many reasons why coins made it through the floor: old veranda porches would/could have slats/wide spots between the floor boards. And prior to the age of modern refrigeration, back when stores, saloons, etc.... had the old floor model ice-boxes (where you had to put a block of ice in each week), it wasn't unusual for proprietors of establishments to put a drip grate under the portions of the kitchen, or bar, or counters, etc.... And at the end of the night, would sweep up, and coins could get through.

One time, under a place where a bar had been, I got about 150 coins in an area the size of a kitchen table (mercs, buffalos, wheaties, a few walkers and SLQ's, etc...). Turns out the spot had been where one of those old floor-model soda machines had been, and a drip grate had been put underneath it. For 20-some years, persons apparently removed their bottle caps, and threw them through the grate, to throw them away. And obviously, coins would accidentally make it through as well. We had to sift the pile of material, because it was thousands of rotting-crumbling caps, but got all the coins easily from the mess

 

[TCosbyJr]

Yes, I've done good under some crawl spaces, but usually not single family homes/dwellings. More like commercial ventures. Like places that used to be saloons, stage stops, RR platforms, old-board-&-batton store-fronts, etc.... The coins could be there from prior to the current structure (back when early western towns were tent-cities, etc...), Or there are many reasons why coins made it through the floor: old veranda porches would/could have slats/wide spots between the floor boards. And prior to the age of modern refrigeration, back when stores, saloons, etc.... had the old floor model ice-boxes (where you had to put a block of ice in each week), it wasn't unusual for proprietors of establishments to put a drip grate under the portions of the kitchen, or bar, or counters, etc.... And at the end of the night, would sweep up, and coins could get through.

One time, under a place where a bar had been, I got about 150 coins in an area the size of a kitchen table (mercs, buffalos, wheaties, a few walkers and SLQ's, etc...). Turns out the spot had been where one of those old floor-model soda machines had been, and a drip grate had been put underneath it. For 20-some years, persons apparently removed their bottle caps, and threw them through the grate, to throw them away. And obviously, coins would accidentally make it through as well. We had to sift the pile of material, because it was thousands of rotting-crumbling caps, but got all the coins easily from the mess

Glad to hear you had some luck on your crawl space digs. Thanks for the tips I will be sure to keep an eye out for such places, as it would likely be the most untouched locations in the area. Awesome story, makes me want to go digging some other locations.