Do you have a wet crawl space? Whether you have general moisture in the crawl space or you’re dealing with standing water under the house, it’s a good idea to find the best way to dry out the area.
In fact, there isn’t just one thing to do when drying out a crawl space. It’s more of a process. Avoiding moisture in a crawl space under your house requires maintenance.
This page explains how to maintain a clean, dry crawl space area and the repair methods that prevent water damage.
Follow these four steps to keep your crawl space dry:
First things first: stop the water in the crawl space from proliferating. Here’s what to do:
The soil surrounding your crawl space foundation contains much moisture. In fact, that’s usually where the water originates, whether it’s standing water or humidity. If your foundation has cracks, those cracks are probably permitting moisture infiltration and seepage.
Inspecting your crawl space foundation regularly is essential, whether or not you’re starting to notice moisture. After all, cracks in your foundation showcase a general issue that may lead to significant problems.
It’s best to consult a JES Foundation Repair expert for a free crawl space inspection. They will identify all foundation cracks, even extremely small ones that are difficult to see, so that you can address them with effective solutions. Professionals have the proper safety equipment and tools to inspect this often hazardous area of your house.
Aside from leaks coming from the soil, plumbing leaks are another big problem you may run into. This can take the form of leaks directly gushing water into the crawl space or leaks in the upper part of your home dripping into the crawl space.
Either way, this can lead to moisture under the house, so you must dry out the crawl space. Repairing these leaks is the first step to ensuring the plumbing doesn’t keep leaking water in.
If you’re not sure what’s creating your wet crawl space, a JES expert can tell you if it’s a leak or plumbing problem. This is a good way to either confirm your suspicions or rule them out.
When pipes carry cold water through your house, they tend to create moisture under your home. The cooling effect can lead to water droplets outside exposed pipes.
How do you remove moisture from your crawl space caused by cold water pipes? It’s simple: insulate them. The insulation will ensure that condensation will not impact the air around it.
It can be challenging to insulate cold water pipes under your house. A JES expert can identify the cold water pipes causing the issues and help you determine how to address them.
The second step is to ensure that the crawl space is dry. After all, you can’t find out how to keep your crawl space dry until you know how to get water out of it. Drying the area under your house is essential.
A wet crawl space needs immediate attention. Here’s how to get rid of water in your crawl space.
There’s a difference between general moisture in your crawl space and having actual standing water in your crawl space. If you have standing water in your crawl space, you’ll likely have additional foundation issues.
Before you can dry out the crawl space using other methods, you must deal with the standing water first. That’ll make it easier to dry under the house.
It’s a good idea to call a JES expert, especially if you have a substantial amount of crawl space standing water. Not only can this expert size up the problems you’re having, but an expert can also build a plan to deal with those problems.
To ensure your crawl space stays dry, it’s important that the drainage and gutters around your home and in your crawl space work properly. Many people have learned how to prevent moisture in a crawl space by avoiding moisture collecting around the home.
That means you may need to fix issues happening above your crawl space before you can fix the crawl space issues themselves. You’ll have more crawl space moisture if you don’t fix these problems.
If you don’t understand how your home’s drainage system works, no problem. Contact JES experts for help.
Once you’ve removed all the water from the crawl space, you’re left with a damp crawl space that may have torn barriers, mold, insects, and more. That means the next step is to clean up the crawl space issues.
It used to be common practice to vent crawl spaces. Many people believed that by letting the crawl space breathe, the crawl space itself would be healthier and actually collect less water.
However, nowadays, it’s evident that these crawl space vents actually allow for more crawl space moisture. Introducing warm air to the crawl space allows for humidity to condense, and these vents can also allow flooding or rainwater into your crawl space.
That’s why many people are now choosing to seal up these vents. If you have crawl space vents, you must contact an expert to seal them properly.
These are the most important things to do for this step. However, depending on your specific crawl space experience, a JES expert may recommend other types of cleaning.
This is the most general type of crawl space cleaning. Especially if you’ve had standing water in your crawl space for any significant amount of time, you’re probably going to have a substantial amount of debris in there.
For this type of general cleaning, you can probably handle any debris you will find. As a whole, it’s just a bit annoying to handle.
Replacing wet insulation can be a little more tricky. Making sure you install the insulation properly isn’t necessarily easy. You may want to leave that to a JES expert, who will ensure the new insulation performs properly.
This carries a higher level of risk. If you had crawl space mildew or other similar problems, you may have ended up with mites or other insects, which eat the mildew, and rodents, which eat the insects.
If that’s the case, you may need to clean after eliminating the pest infestations. These droppings can carry disease, so we recommend leaving this job to an expert.
This is where it’s truly important to consult a professional. If you’ve discovered mold and asbestos in the area, you could get sick even from getting too close to it. Breathing it in and touching it is even more dangerous.
If you know you have mold or asbestos in the area, or you’re having health concerns that indicate you could potentially be dealing with either of these things, don’t try to tackle it yourself. Even the best DIY solutions will have potentially dangerous results.
In these cases, your best option is to contact a JES professional. That way, you know you’ll have all the mold removed and all the asbestos handled for good.
This is the final step. Once you’ve removed water from the crawl space, it’s time to ensure it stays that way. It’s not enough to just remove the current moisture; you also need to prevent future moisture from getting into your crawl space.
What’s the best option, then? Here are a few things you should do to avoid crawl space moisture for good.
A thick vapor barrier is one of the few things that can dehumidify a crawl space with a dirt floor. In this instance, you want to make sure the floor doesn’t leech moisture into the air, which can cause wet crawl space problems.
It’s important to note that a vapor barrier does have to be thick because thin crawl space vapor barriers can easily tear. Plus, they may have permeability too high to really matter in the long run.
When you get help from a JES expert, the expert will install a CrawlSeal vapor barrier, which is 20 mils thick and ensures thorough coverage. That way, you don’t have to worry about any future issues regarding the vapor barrier.
It’s important to dehumidify your crawl space after removing all the water. If the humidity is too high, water can condense on the inside of your crawl space, leading to the same problems again.
Although some crawl spaces don’t need dehumidifiers, some of them do. If your crawl space seems to tend toward very high humidity, you may want to consider installing a dehumidifier to keep the humidity levels to a healthy amount.
You’ll get plenty of options when you get help from a JES expert. This expert can tell you whether you need a dehumidifier according to the potential problems your house may experience. A professional will also inform you on the best energy-efficient dehumidifier for your needs.
If you have a dirt floor crawl space, you’re going to want to ensure encapsulation of your crawl space. Even if the top of the dirt looks dry, you only have to dig a few inches down to get to moist soil.
In these instances, it’s important to pursue complete encapsulation of the space. This is the only way to avoid wet crawl space problems in the future.
Encapsulation is best achieved by experts. Contact a JES professional to ensure the job is finished properly.
When ensuring a healthy crawl space and home, it’s important to address problems as soon as possible to achieve long-lasting results. Contact JES Foundation Repair for a free inspection to identify and address crawl space concerns with professional solutions. Our experts will walk you through the process and answer any questions you may have. Contact us today to learn more!
Get Your Free InspectionThe cost of fixing a wet crawl space varies wildly between crawl spaces. Every crawl space is different, and a problem that looks absolutely the same on the surface can actually be very distinctly different. The only way to get an accurate cost estimate is to schedule an inspection from a JES crawl space repair expert for your individual crawl space.
There are many ways you can fix a crawl space that has a lot of water in it. You need to remove the existing water, first of all, which might mean utilizing a sump pump or another type of pump. Then it’s important to pursue waterproofing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
No, standing water in a crawl space is not normal and points to groundwater seepage, poor drainage, plumbing leaks, or heavy rainfall entering the area beneath the home. Even small amounts of water can raise humidity and contribute to mold, wood rot, and damaged insulation.
