How To Properly Maintain and Take Care of Your Crawl Space

1. The Fundamental Flaws Regarding Crawl Space Designs

The conventional, dirt floored, ventilated crawl space design is seemingly an okay idea for home builders for a couple of reasons.

• Firstly, builders can save a lot of time and money by cutting corners when building a crawl space. After all, who is even going to look down there?
• Secondly, builders may not even be aware of how to properly waterproof, insulate, and seal a crawlspace; all of which require specialization and experience.
• Lastly and most importantly, home codes and requirements actually don't care as much about crawl space adequacy! Evidence for crawl spacing code being flawed is seen in homes everywhere, yet little has been done to change them. 

Whether your home's crawl space was built poorly because of cost-saving efforts, inadequacy, or flawed home code requirements, there's still hope to save your crawl space.

2. So What's Wrong With The Conventional, Dirt Floored, Ventilated Crawl Space?

Your crawl space is supposed to serve as a buffer between your home and the earth, which contains moisture. However, as seen with most crawl spaces, they actually often times attract moisture. The problems with conventional, dirt floored, ventilated crawl spaces are described below:

• Dirt floors leak moisture up into the crawl space.

Water vapor is very dangerous for a crawl space, considering all the organic material in a crawl space that can grow mold and rot, (Think wooden beams and fiberglass insulation). This musty, moldy air then moves up through your home through a process called the stack effect. Dirt floors also allow for bugs and critters to easily enter a crawl space. 

• Ventilation attracts wet air when it rains or when its humid out.

Warm air always looks to move to less condensed, cool air. When this happens, relative humidity shoots up, causing condensation in your cooler crawl space.

• Ventilation also propels warm air out of your crawl space when its cold outside, resulting in high energy bills and cold floors.

It can also cool your air ducts in your crawl space significantly, causing even higher energy bills. 

• Inadequate water proofing systems in conventional crawl spaces can also cause pools of water to sit on your crawl space floor, causing further moisture issues. 

Foundation waterproofing requires a high amount of expertise and highly advanced products, which most crawl spaces do not have. Even if they do have a waterproofing system, most times they fail or clog. However, some crawl spaces can get away with this step.

3. The Steps We Suggest Home Owners Take When Implementing A Crawl Space Solution:

• Fix Water Leakage Problems if There are any

 Whether water is coming from groundwater or plumbing, it is imperative you stop it from pooling up in your crawl space. This should be the first step taken, otherwise the other steps become obsolete. Here at The Basement Doctor, we normally like to dig a trench around the interior perimeter of the crawl space where the water is coming in if its groundwater problems. We then place perforated piping in the trench and backfill around the pipes with gravel. We then hook it up to a sump pump at the lowest part of the crawl space, and discharge the water safely away from the home.  Our expertise and advanced products are two things you should look for when hiring a contractor to waterproof your crawl space. 

• Isolate the Earth From the Crawl Space

We like to use our CleanSpace liner to encapsulate the entire crawl space. CleanSpace is a 20 mil thick plastic liner, similar to a pool liner. CleanSpace will never break when crawled upon, unlike thin liners. We also like to lay down a dimpled polyethylene membrane under the CleanSpace along the entire floor. It acts as drainage matting because it creates air space for water to flow to the sump pump under the liner. Even if you don't have a sump pump, the drainage matting makes the crawl space softer and more durable. Encapsulating a crawl space also means you have more room for storage under your home thanks to its clean, soft, bright nature!

• Seal the Vents and Other Outside Leaks

Now that the crawl space is encapsulated and no moisture is coming from the earth, there is no need for vents! We make awesome vent covers here at The Basement Doctor that won't rust or rot, and they are air-tight! It is also recommended to seal all other outlets for air by either using spray foam, caulk, flashing, or any other type of method. We also have a wide selection of access doors that allow for easy access, and they won't rot or rust.

• Condition or Dehumidify the Crawl Space Air

Even if everywhere is sealed in a crawl space, there will inevitably still be tiny gaps that air can enter. This is why its so important to have a proper dehumidifier. Here at The Basement Doctor, we use a SaniDry Sedona dehumidifier. This efficient and effective dehumidifier has everything that big box store dehumidifiers don't have. Firstly, it has a giant fan than can move over 300 cubic feet of dry air per minute around your crawlspace. It also has a giant cooling coil that can remove up to 100 pints of water out of the air in a single day. They also drain automatically when hooked up to a sump pump and are incredibly energy efficient. When looking for a dehumidifier, be sure to consider these qualities! 

• Insulate the Crawl Space to Save on Energy Bills

If you have taken the steps above, then you are already significantly ahead of where you were before in terms of energy efficiency! However, there is still room to grow! We like to suggest our insulation products that have been tested for years, providing the highest return on investment. They are also made of inorganic material and can not grow mold! You can finally rip out that moldy fiber glass!