How to Ensure You have a Healthy Crawlspace

For most people, the crawlspace is where you stash your lawnmower and the paint from the previous owner, and you never want to go into it for fear of some critters jumping out at you (a valid concern).

Your crawlspace is valuable to your home's health; neglecting it can lead to issues. Particularly in the humid climate of Upstate South Carolina, this will be smelly, moist air quality issues.

Before describing these issues and how they can be remedied, let's define a crawlspace and its practical purpose. Crawlspaces were originally rather basic, just a handful of roughly hewn rocks to elevate the house off the ground and allow a builder to level it. The crawlspace is where utilities are often stored, such as a water pump or HVAC unit, and accessible for repair, as well as the foundation that bears the structural load of a house. It also serves as a barrier from the elements (more on this later). To summarize, the crawlspace is the structure on which the home is built. And yes, a place to store your lawnmower.

While the crawlspace serves a purpose, it's not where you'd like to hang out. Thus, any problems that manifest can go weeks, months, or even years unnoticed. These issues can impact your day-to-day life, and they can also affect the sale of your home and the equity you gain from the sale (due to deferred maintenance needed at the point of sale).

All issues in a crawlspace can be traced back to three things: moisture, structure, and air.

1. Moisture

   • Ideally, homes are built to eliminate the possibility of water getting under the house and alleviate the minimal amount that does get under it. Those little grates you see around the crawlspace around your home are meant to allow the house to "breathe," exhaling any moisture out of it into its (theoretically) dryer exterior. However, anyone who's spent a summer in South Carolina and had the experience of taking a shower, drying off, walking outside, and immediately becoming soaked again knows it can be humid here. Thus, most houses need to be equipped to handle this level of humidity, no matter the venting.

   • Not only do the outside elements create moisture, but ductwork can also create an issue. If the crawlspace is already high in humidity, HVAC ductwork pumping cold air through it can create condensation, thus increasing humidity. We have also seen that dryers vented to the crawlspace vent hot, moist air.

   • Once moisture is introduced to a crawlspace, this can lead to compounding issues like termites, wood rot, mold, and mildew (more on how to spot this in a bit).

2. Structure

   • Over the years, structural code has evolved to (this is a broad generalization) overengineer a home rather than do just enough to be safe. This is a great thing, but it means that older homes, or homes that have been remodeled or even have larger appliances than they were 50 years ago, can lead to deflection. Deflection causes the plates in the china cabinet to rattle together when you walk through the room. Over time, those spans that were once up to code have started to sag, creating a little bounce in specific parts of the home.

   • If you're having an issue like this, a contractor (ahem, Owners Choice) can usually handle it by reinforcing the structure in the crawlspace. If the problem is significant, you might need to bring in a structural specialist.

3. Air

   • This one is pretty straightforward. Most people don't replace (or even inspect) the ductwork when they replace an HVAC system. You can probably Google "dirty ductwork" to see what this looks like, but I wouldn't recommend it. A moist crawlspace and mold on the ducts can compound this. The ductwork then pumps the air from the system into your home, thus hurting air quality.

Take a deep breath. While these are common issues in crawlspaces, there are straightforward solutions to inspect, prevent, and, if needed, remedy them.

Inspect

The next time it rains, wait until the storm has passed and go into the crawlspace, and do the following:

1. Inspect for current moisture. Look around for standing water and/or soggy dirt.

2. Check for past moisture issues. Look and smell for mold and mildew. Examine the beams holding up the house and around the exterior. Examine the insulation. One telltale sign of moisture issues is if the insulation in your flooring is hanging down and looks like Spanish Moss. Also, this seems obvious, but if your crawlspace smells like anything but dirt, there might be a moisture issue.

3. Inspect the utilities. Take a look at the plumbing pipes and, in particular, the toilet flange (where the toilet attaches to the floor…a common leakage spot). See if you have any wood rot.

Prevent

A straightforward way to prevent moisture problems in the crawlspace is through encapsulation. As the word suggests, you close up all the vents, lay a waterproof barrier on the ground, and install a dehumidifier that constantly removes moisture from the air and stabilizes the crawlspace temperature. While encapsulation is a solution we as a company opt for as it does remedy the issue, there are other options that can also resolve the issue to varying degrees of success.

Remedy

No crawlspace is beyond rescue, although deferred maintenance can lead to compounding issues and higher repair costs. Encapsulating a crawlspace is a lot easier than replacing rotten floor joists and HVAC ductwork. If you have concerns about your crawlspace or want to have an expert come out and take a look, our team is ready to serve! Follow the link below to schedule an inspection!