Is Water in A Crawl Space That Big a Deal?

If your crawl space has a dirt floor and vents, you may feel that standing water can resolve itself. After all, it’s no different than the puddles in your yard, right? On the contrary, water in your crawl space can have a long-term impact on your main home, your health, and your bills.  

• Damage to Your Home  

A crawl space contains all the inner workings of a home from pipes to electrical work to even the HVAC system. This means that any problems happening inside of a crawl space will eventually impact the rest of your appliances and may even lead to a fire. The longer standing water remains, the more wear and tear all the structures within will experience. This could even lead to mold and rot, which work away at your health and the health of your support beams. 

Standing water means higher moisture or humidity levels within the home, which is the perfect food for rot and mold to spread. Once a home is infested with rot or mold, it spreads quickly and becomes difficult to fix. If it manages to get into your flooring and walls, it could require massive repairs and take a toll on your family’s health in the meantime.    

• Energy Bill 

All homeowners have to contend with an energy bill, whether they want to or not. However, there are ways to bring that expense down or keep it from escalating out of control. Removing the standing water from your crawl space is a prime example. The longer you allow water to stay in your crawl space, the higher your electric bill will climb, and that can be paired with repair bills as your appliances begin to die off. 

Of course, a higher energy bill is one of the first hints that standing water is present in your crawl space. That can make it a helpful ally that clues you in to the problem, so it can be solved early. As long as you take it as a sign to check your crawl space and invest in an immediate fix, your energy bill should only have to rise once; not every few weeks as the water comes back.