Tuesday, March 29th, 2016
Because crawl spaces are often unsealed from the earth, excess moisture and humidity are a problem. What happens to wood when it has been exposed to moisture and humidity? It begins to rot, get moldy and become weak!
There are two major problems that can arise regarding your home’s infrastructure when your home has an unsealed crawl space with open vents. A house with a dirt crawl space is dysfunctional, and a dysfunctional house is not worth building or buying at any price.
When a home has an unsealed crawl space with open vents, this allows for ground moisture and humidity to take over space. The first thing moisture will attach itself to is the organic materials in the crawl space, such as wood, insulation, debris, storage items, etc.
Most homes have a floor system made of wood. This wood floor system supports and stabilizes the living area of the home above. Most support piers under the home are made of cinder blocks. As ground moisture takes over the unsealed space, the piers can begin to sink in the wet soil. Not only can moisture eat away at your floor system, it can also cause the pier supports to fail as well. These are two problems that should not be ignored by homeowners. Ignoring these problems can result in total floor system replacement and pier replacement support, a costly price to pay for one of your biggest investments.
In order to fix the problems before they become so severe, homeowners will need to correct the root cause of the issue, moisture. Sealing the crawl space, closing the open vents, having a proper drain to daylight or drainage system installed and a self-draining dehumidifier is a correct place to begin. Once the moisture issue has become managed and eradicated, the infrastructure of the home can be fixed.
Tar Heel Basement System can not only correct the crawl space moisture issue but fix the failing floor system as well. To schedule a free consultation with one of our crawl space specialist, call our office today.
