Crawl Space Encapsulation Fixes Crawl Space in North Charleston, SC

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 by Michael Connolly

Challenge

Mary R. of North Charleston, SC called Lowcountry Foundation Repair with a problem; her crawl space was wet. Mary smelled mold in the house and discovered mold in her crawl space. The insulation hanging from the subfloor was heavy with water and some of it had already fallen from the underpinning. After seeing an ad in the newspaper, Mary called Lowcountry Foundation Repair and scheduled an inspection of her foundation.

The inspection revealed high levels of wood moisture content and humidity in the air. The mold was present in multiple locations. Lowcountry Foundation Repair recommended encapsulating the crawl space to reduce humidity and remove moisture, preventing wood rot and making it an inhospitable environment for mold to grow.

Solution

The earth, support pillars and most of the foundation walls would be sealed off from the earth using a product called CleanSpace liner. The project would require 2,720 square feet of CleanSpace liner to reduce moisture and humidity in the crawl space. CleanSpace liner is a cross woven 20-millimeter thick vapor barrier.

The crawl space vents were sealed to prevent warm humid air from entering the cool crawl space. A SaniDry Sedona dehumidifier was installed with a condensate pump to remove water vapor from the air. The droplets of water are pumped to a SmartDrain, returning the water back to the earth, away from the crawl space.

The project took three days to complete. The results were noticeable after a week and the homeowner was thrilled!