Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014
Many homeowners know that they have a dirt crawl space, but I bet most of them don’t know about some of the essential details of a crawl space. For example, what type of foundation walls does your crawl space have? Is one type of wall more at risk for water intrusion than another type of foundation wall?
There are three common types of crawl space foundation walls:
- Concrete Block Walls are the most common and still used today; they are hollow and very porous. Clock walls are the easiest and cheapest material to build a foundation with. They are also the least resistant to water and air going through them since there are so many joints in the wall. To make matters worse, each block has hollow cavities in them and when they are stacked on top of each other, they form one big honeycomb of air space in them. Block walls have been referred to as ‘God’s gift to waterproofing contractors.’
- Poured Concrete Walls are more common in new homes. They are solid concrete and unless there is a hole, crack or pipe penetration, water and air do not penetrate them.
- Stone Walls are common in older homes. They have been known to leakwater and air.
Does your home have one of these three types of foundation walls? If so, you may want to take a look in your crawl space to see if there is any moisture down there causing damage. A CrawlSeal crawl space encapsulation system seals outside air leaks redirect groundwater seepage and conditions space.
