Personally I think the best way to fix a crawlspace is to keep the water away from it to begin with. Proper grading around the house with gutters tend to solve many problems. Next step is french drains if grading and gutters alone don't cut it. All you should need at that point is a simple vapor barrier. Full encapsulation with fancy dehumidifiers is a gimmick sold by these "crawlspace remediation" companies.
Commercial dehumidifier in crawl space
- Thread starter RalphVa
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user.69169
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Personally I think dis thread one of them I can write checks to slick contractors bigger den de checks you can. Include a helpin of my DeHu bigger den yer DeHu.
Water comin up and from outside de block walls and he's got a pool liner keepin de water from comin in dat well he calls crawl space wid dang near enough mold to start bailing. Got de DeHu inside de pool liner dat sposta stop de water but dang sure don't as proven by de amount of water DeHu delivers.
Got suckered by Duct Cleaner Inc too.
Yup, it's about braggin on writin checks. Seen such on Long Island after dat Hurricane Sandy left. Dem folks sure dey can stop Laws of Physics wid a big check.
Water comin up and from outside de block walls and he's got a pool liner keepin de water from comin in dat well he calls crawl space wid dang near enough mold to start bailing. Got de DeHu inside de pool liner dat sposta stop de water but dang sure don't as proven by de amount of water DeHu delivers.
Got suckered by Duct Cleaner Inc too.
Yup, it's about braggin on writin checks. Seen such on Long Island after dat Hurricane Sandy left. Dem folks sure dey can stop Laws of Physics wid a big check.
oosik
Epic Contributor
Why would you build a house with a crawl space if you know it's going to have future problems?? High ground water, high humidity, improper or non-existant landscaping. Sounds like a problem being built into a new house.
Sigarms
Super Member
Yes, you're correct, it does sound like a problem being built into a new house. Generally speaking, newer custom homes being built NOW do address these problems with moisture in crawl spaces if a crawl space is used. That said, when I first move to NC I dated a girl from Raleigh. Her brother lived in nice single home cookie cutter development, nice two story homes that had basically 3 models of homes in the entire development that all had gas packs on the outside of them. The flex duct ran under the house into spyder box with flex, that was then run to the second floor.
Since her brother knew I was in HVAC, he asked me about temperature issues he was having upstairs. Issue was he had one t-stat on the first floor, and 10' high ceilings on both floors. I basically told him he was screwed because if you looked at zoning the system, the ductwork would still have a hard time getting the air where he needed upstairs and he'd be spending a lot in labor and materials for a solution that would basically be a long term bandaid (to redo the entire ductwork system properly would cost an arm and a leg in labor alone because you couldn't rebuild the house and had to deal with the structure itself for ductwork). All these homes were built in the mid to late 90's in this development, and I couldn't believe someone would build a nice home like that using the HVAC system / layout they did.
Guess what finally happend in 2009? Read below. Long story short, became code to maintain no more than 4 degree differential in any areas of the home per new building codes pertaining to HVAC (keep in mind, doesn't affect all the homes that were built previously). On a sidenote, this only one of many reasons why a "professional license contractor" in a trade will generally be more expensive that your neighbor who knows a babys moma who lives with a guy who can do the work cheaper:laughing:
As for crawl spaces, welcome to the Southeast. Heck, I didn't really know what a crawl space was living in the northeast. As I mentioned before, I always thought package units were meant to go on a roof, not on the side of a house:laughing:
1 - Being a dumb guy myself, could you post some pictures of houses with a crawl space under the entire home? If a house is raised off the ground at least 3' on flat land, I get that earth can be around the house to act as insulation barrier, I would just like to see the slope and how it would look around the house, as I haven't seen many humidity issues solved that way.
2 - Welcome to at least North Carolina, where HVAC systems in my market run at least 65% in the horizontal position, with what I'd guess 50% of those horizontal applications are in a crawl space. Basements are pretty much a rarity in NC. Eastern NC is really flat, and in my own market, I see more gas packs for residential use 45 mintues east of me, and I'm 4.5 hours away from the NC shore. That old girlfriends brother with the HVAC issue was 2 hours east of me.
3 - Even if a home has "perfect" drainage around the structure, given time with the Carolina red clay and humidity in most of the state, sooner or later you're going to have mositure issues under the house with homes built in the past.
In a perfect world, everything is built right the first time around. The reality is we learn from our mistakes, and for better or worse, this is one reason why building codes are created for new homes (big thing was vents for crawl spaces in the past for ventilation, yeah, lets bring the hot humid air under the house
). I'm a dumb guy, but I could even tell you that if you wanted to ventilate a crawl space, I'd you would want exhuast air and not intake air for a crawl space under a living structure.A pretty good read IMO on crawl spaces
Taking the Vents Out of Vented Crawl Spaces - Advanced Energy
Please note, I don't like crawl spaces, nor really like to deal with them.
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Sigarms
Super Member
Had to laugh. I was giving your voice a cajun accent reading what you wrote. After reading some of your previous posts as I had to look, just seems like you're making fun of the situation. You're a bigger pompous arse than I am, at least for today :thumbsup:
You remind me of those customers who want a job done, so I take the time, put on coveralls with a flashlight, go under the home, check they entire crawl space for equipment and ductwork (take pictures for reference if the job is a go), come up, work up a price, and then I'm told my price is higher than the other guy. I always ask to know exactly what was quoted if I'm higher (and crap my pants if I'm the lowest LOL), and I get a piece of paper with a number (quoted with a price) on it, and I ask about what the other guy is going to do about the modifications that needs to be done. Generally I get "well, he didn't go under the house to look".
oosik
Epic Contributor
My house is built on fairly flat ground. It has a walk in full basement. The landscaping slopes away from the foundation for about 15 feet. However - recognize we are considered semi-arid and get less than 15 inches of moisture( rain + snow ) per year.
This is the only picture of the house I have in my file. Look past the nose of the Taco Wagon and see the foundation pony wall. About 20" is above ground. There is approximately 4 1/2 feet below ground at that point.
The basement temperature remains a constant 50F to 55F year round. In about a month I will be blocking off the screened basement vents. Keeps the cold winter winds out of the basement.
I built here with a full basement because the original homesteader had his house built at this exact spot also. He spent an untold amount of time hand excavating thru the basaltic lava bedrock to create this basement area. The basement is not a living area - its a dry storage area.
View attachment 672479
This is the only picture of the house I have in my file. Look past the nose of the Taco Wagon and see the foundation pony wall. About 20" is above ground. There is approximately 4 1/2 feet below ground at that point.
The basement temperature remains a constant 50F to 55F year round. In about a month I will be blocking off the screened basement vents. Keeps the cold winter winds out of the basement.
I built here with a full basement because the original homesteader had his house built at this exact spot also. He spent an untold amount of time hand excavating thru the basaltic lava bedrock to create this basement area. The basement is not a living area - its a dry storage area.
View attachment 672479
user.69169
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Sig you woulda loved dem Lonnnng Island peoples.
Dey pretty much direction out wid Up & Down and North South East & west is a language dey never heard, but every dang one quick to tell you dey got a Degree followed by dats outside of my discipline. Dey know everything tough cause dey got checks if you don't take plastic. Funny as all getout, people livin on 1 side de street don't even know let alone talk to people on other side.
Dey all got Mr Code Comppliance on speed dial on dat pocket phone too, and blue tooth. One call Code guy bout de Mexican ripoff contractor backed up driveway livin in his big truck. I never knew I speak dat Spanish till dat day. Code guy calls fer a Spanish seakin cop & I really confuse him some. Sems more nervous I get more coonazz I talk.
Dang notepad things went and put de NEBS Contactors out of business around here. My favorites are de guys whip out der truck insurance card when customer asks if dey insured.. Customer so smart he don't know, but Mr sweet talker gets a check or process de card on his phone. Had one fellow here poured garage floors on fill toped off wid cardboard boxes. For extra he put in a floor drain too. Left de drain half way thru block foundation wall and walk off wid his check.. Clever boy. Whole bunch of block walls blew out when frost did its work, bunch of floor fell too. Professor Know All get real upset when his BMW dangling in mid air cause floor fell too.
I honest can't tell you what comin next wid all de people evacuating de City but some comin my way to der 3 acre farmett. Dey all cuttin deals wid only de best builders who hire 19 year old kids instead of 18 year old kids.
laissez les bons temps rouler sur
Dey pretty much direction out wid Up & Down and North South East & west is a language dey never heard, but every dang one quick to tell you dey got a Degree followed by dats outside of my discipline. Dey know everything tough cause dey got checks if you don't take plastic. Funny as all getout, people livin on 1 side de street don't even know let alone talk to people on other side.
Dey all got Mr Code Comppliance on speed dial on dat pocket phone too, and blue tooth. One call Code guy bout de Mexican ripoff contractor backed up driveway livin in his big truck. I never knew I speak dat Spanish till dat day. Code guy calls fer a Spanish seakin cop & I really confuse him some. Sems more nervous I get more coonazz I talk.
Dang notepad things went and put de NEBS Contactors out of business around here. My favorites are de guys whip out der truck insurance card when customer asks if dey insured.. Customer so smart he don't know, but Mr sweet talker gets a check or process de card on his phone. Had one fellow here poured garage floors on fill toped off wid cardboard boxes. For extra he put in a floor drain too. Left de drain half way thru block foundation wall and walk off wid his check.. Clever boy. Whole bunch of block walls blew out when frost did its work, bunch of floor fell too. Professor Know All get real upset when his BMW dangling in mid air cause floor fell too.
I honest can't tell you what comin next wid all de people evacuating de City but some comin my way to der 3 acre farmett. Dey all cuttin deals wid only de best builders who hire 19 year old kids instead of 18 year old kids.
laissez les bons temps rouler sur
kenmac
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My home has a parcel crawl space. I just had it encapsulated. Price wasn't bad and my dehumidifier runs a lot less. I had already closed off the vents to the outside. and had been looking for someone to perform the work. I'm pretty happy with the results
OP
RalphVa
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Our parcel crawl space just under the family room and laundry room is holding at 50-54% humidity now with the Santa Fe shutting off periodically. Have one fan running in the adjacent utility room. Removed the other 2 fans in the crawl space and will likely sell the run-of-the-mill dehumidifier sitting turned off in the utility room.
Ground slopes away to right and rear of the house. Only source of water is downspout at front of family room. Have it directed by a long line to the walkway in front of the house. There is a rain barrel in that area that overflows sometimes. Have it opened now and a hose out to the fig tree to try to fill out the many figs on it.
Ralph
Ground slopes away to right and rear of the house. Only source of water is downspout at front of family room. Have it directed by a long line to the walkway in front of the house. There is a rain barrel in that area that overflows sometimes. Have it opened now and a hose out to the fig tree to try to fill out the many figs on it.
Ralph
oosik
Epic Contributor
A home built in an area with known crawl space/basement problems reminds me of the YOKELS up in Anchorage. After several years of intense political persuasion/pressure - the local government allowed home building in the flood plains( greenbelt ) of two local creeks.
The homes were built - the creeks iced up, overflowed and flooded these new homes.
Then is a stroke of ultimate brilliance the local government gave hard working taxpayer money to "bandaid" this situation.
This "government subsidy" situation lasted for two or three years. Now it's up to the homeowners to secure the required permits and make correction with their own money.
Life isn't quite so joyous along the greenbelt anymore.
The homes were built - the creeks iced up, overflowed and flooded these new homes.
Then is a stroke of ultimate brilliance the local government gave hard working taxpayer money to "bandaid" this situation.
This "government subsidy" situation lasted for two or three years. Now it's up to the homeowners to secure the required permits and make correction with their own money.
Life isn't quite so joyous along the greenbelt anymore.