PROBLEM:
Bought house knowing there was a moisture problem in the crawl space but not sure what else. Upon inspection, Marcus found a light dusting of mold on the floor joists, and water on the bottom corners of the walls. It was muddy around the edges and the walls were dark with moisture. There was an old plastic vapor barrier in place, but wasn’t doing much good, since it was crumpled and not held in place.
SOLUTION:
- Dry Otter removed the fiberglass insulation from the ceiling of the crawl space since it was in such close proximity to the light mold that was on all the joists. Then we cleaned the mold off the joists. We installed French drains in the crawl space that allowed the water to drain via gravity, since the home was built on a steep slope.
- Then we attached 2 inch thick foam board insulation to the walls, which included covering the crawl space vents. Next we wrapped the columns with thick plastic and installed 20 mil thick white plastic on the floor and up the walls, all of which was overlapped and taped down.
- We then installed an AprilAire dehumidifier and a condensation pump to remove any remaining humidity out of the air. Now the relative humidity will remain below 65%, which creates an environment that mold doesn’t grow.
