A tarp or plastic sheeting to lay and slide on.

A good flashlight. Sled or wheeled dolly will not work. Cell phone to take pictures of anything that comes up. Tape measure and pad & pencil or voice record on phone.

painter's suit with hood, gloves, mask, safety glasses and the above advice - take pix and measure.

Great suggestions!!! What do you do if your route is blocked by pipes and ducting and can't seem to go around?

Oh, and I forgot to mention the most important thing.

Check the Vermin Traps the previous owner set in the crawl space. Be particularly careful when checking the venomous snake traps - those critters can live a long time without eating and when you reach in they can get you... and don't even get me started on the spider traps.

If your crawl space is done properly, there should be plastic on the ground for a vapor barrier, and there shouldnt be debris laying under there. I am assuming your inspector has already been under there and checked things out??? Is there a reason, you are going under there now? What are all those wires laying by the opening??

@Stax - "check vermin, snake... spider" - you left out "Creature From The Black Lagoon" which I'm sure is also just waiting for an unsuspecting homeowner. Probably was just an oversight.

Cell phone, knee pads, dust mask, broom to knock down cobwebs, tape measure if you need it. LED flashlight (so the bulb doesn't go out when you drop it).

Have fun.

1. Yes, oversight. lol
2. Also, did not include Jimmy Hoffa search.

PS Dust Masks are not available as far as I can tell.

"I’m not looking forward to trashing my clothes clawing through debris."

Me neither. I don't think you'll have much fun down there. I know I wouldn't.

Fortunately, the only house I have with a crawl space is a rental, so I have a good excuse to hire people to go in there for me. :)

A sled or dolly will be more trouble than it's worth: it may get stuck, get in your way, and decrease the working space between you and the underside of the house. For stuff like this I wear a mechanics one-piece suit or a thin tyvek suit that you can get cheaply at a safety supply store. Also a hoodie so I can rest my head on the ground without getting crap in my hair, and a full face shield, or at least goggles for the stuff that will inevitably fall on your face as you're working. Lastly, a good, high-power LED head lamp so your hands are free, and a cloth sack with handles so you can drag your tools with you easily.

I get claustrophobic just looking at your pictures. I don't like elevators either.

I'm guessing you wouldn't do well on a Submarine!

But no snakes nor other vermin - hopefully!

Thanks for the replies! I’m going under to mount a dryer exhaust out of the house, so I gotta go under and hand the duct from the joists. The wires are old internet lines from when they had Verizon cable. Pen and paper is brilliant, because I’m gonna find a lot of cable paths that have been confusing down there.

I trust you will not have the dryer exhaust dumping into the crawl space!