Do you realize that more than fifty per cent of the air that you inhale inside your home comes from your basement or crawl space? Your vented dirt crawl space is adversely affecting your health and comfort and costing you a lot more than you notice. The air inside the crawl space contains mould spores, dust mites, bacteria, and is highly musty. Humidity in the crawl space also leads to mould growth and dry rot that may damage your home’s entire structure. The main reasons that lead to humidification of the crawl space are the deposition of bulk water in your crawl space due to specific plumbing issues, moisture that evaporates from the ground, the heated outdoor air is entering through the crawl space vents, etc. We can get rid of the structural and health issues caused due to crawling space moisture by completely dehumidifying the crawl space and setting up an encapsulation system for the basement. Sometimes, we feel that if we have removed the humidity, which was deposited earlier, our job is done. But, we must remember that all our efforts will be wasted if the moisture gets deposited again. Hence, we must not leave until we are sure that moisture is not going to accumulate again in our crawl space.
If you want to prevent crawl space moisture, we have listed some steps that you may follow:
Step one:
Create a thick vapour barrier.
A thick vapour barrier is something that can contribute to the reduction of moisture in your crawl space significantly. In such cases, you should be sure that the floor doesn’t leech moisture into the atmosphere as it can lead to severe wet space crawl problems. We must give significant importance to the thickness of the vapour barrier as thin vapour barriers can easily tear. Thin barriers have a very high permeability that can cause trouble in the long run. If you seek assistance from a professional, they will install a crawl space vapour barrier with a minimum thickness of 20 mils to ensure thorough coverage. If the vapour barrier is of this thickness, you won’t have to worry about it in the future.
Step two:
Get a Crawl Space Dehumidifier.
It is vital to dehumidify your crawl space after eliminating the water. If your crawl space’s humidity is very high, it may condense down in your crawl space, which will cause recurring of the same problem again and again. Some crawl spaces may be cool even without a dehumidifier, but it may be mandatory for some to have a dehumidifier. This may depend on the climatic conditions and the nature of the soil present in that region. If your crawl space experiences very high humidity, you must consider installing a dehumidifier to keep the humidity level in control. If you can’t make the decision on your own, you may simply contact a professional; he can do an inspection of your crawl space and give you his expert opinion. You can always go for portable dehumidifiers as they are handy.
Step three:
Ensuring proper encapsulation
If the above methods are proven to be insufficient, you need to ensure proper encapsulation of your crawl space. Encapsulation is something that can be only done by professionals who have adequate experience and skill for carrying out the job.
If, at any stage, you feel that the damage incurred is severe, and it is beyond your scope to repair them, you make always reach out to us for the best professional advice and quick recovery plus future prevention of humidity in your crawl space!
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