Hi! Out of Curiosity, what would cause so much condensation on my air handler (for Heat Pump) and pipe leading out of the house? When I looked under house i was surprised. Is there a cure for this? Is this normal.? Don't want no mold forming under the house... TIA
Spend no more than 32 cents per square foot (less if you already have some of this to do the following): 1) Hire a company to remove/remediate the mold 2) Lay a FULL vapor barrier (I forget the latest spec thickness, but they all should have it) 3) Foam-seal and foam-board your under-house vents, and foam any gaps between pipes and floors while you're at it 4) Install a commercial-sized/underhouse dehumidifier and drain line 5) While you're at it, make sure your underhouse french drain is visible and flows outside of the house on the foundation wall, and make sure you don't have cracked or missing mortar between any brick in your foundation and at least rip out the old insulation, and replace sooner than later (but you don't have to right away) Ask me how I know. I did all this for around $5k. You will get quotes for $10, $15k. They will try to tell you to "encapsulate." Not necessary. Crawlspaces are the DUMBEST idea since......the dumbest of ideas. Especially crawlspaces where some utter GENIUS in NC decided years ago that covering 3/4 of a dirt floor was sufficient to keep your house from rotting. The other genius idea is putting a french drain with a hole going out your foundation wall UNDER THE DIRT with nowhere for it to flow easily. That dovetails with the dumb idea as a homeowner to not maintain your drain from obstructions (guilty - I never knew I had one for 10 years, because the first owners clearly never did anything to keep theirs clear and visible. Any crawlspace should come from new as part of the new home with all of the above, including a dehumidifier. I think when I build a house, it will be concrete block on a foundation. South Africa style, self cooling, self-heating. If 20 and 30 somethings knew how disposable and fragile wood framed houses are, they would demand better. Luckily it will never happen, so I will just keep watching my property value go up up and up until I can build my own (modest) fortress.
I LOVE this post! And how TRUE! I’ve never understood why the building codes are not more stringent when it comes to crawlspaces. They can just slap up a house with a dirt crawlspace, and leave it all up to the homeowner to ameliorate when moisture issues occur. And between keeping your roof in good shape, AND your crawlspace moisture-free in a ridiculously, high humidity environment, these are issues that a homeowner needs to keep on top of all the time! And wood, in general, left to the elements deteriorates faster here in the South than anywhere else, so why it’s used so often in building construction is a head-scratcher. I’m with you, Lawnboy, I’ve often dreamed of building a simple, but solid, concrete-block structure that will last, rather than these over-priced, stick-built structures that look nice for a while, but decay quickly, and require tons of maintenance. In fact, I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but there’s this new 3-D concrete “printing” technology out there that will “print” a solid, well-built, concrete house in a matter of days, that looks intriguing. I’ve seen them built in modern styles, as well as more traditional styles, and these houses aren’t going anywhere!
And with our climate and moisture issues here in the South, it would be the perfect place to construct these types of homes, while also saving on our natural resources that are getting more expensive as time goes on.
Of course, the crawlspace was the "solution" for slab construction where termites could enter through hidden cracks. What is the Purpose of a Crawl Space? A home built over a crawl space sucks up water vapor from the earth and allows it to enter the home. Crawl spaces were built to provide a buffer between the house and its inhabitants and the damp, wet earth below. This seemed to make sense for many decades, especially since they were also a convenient place to put utility cables and ductwork used to circulate conditioned air throughout the house. Today, however, we understand that a crawl space, instead of serving as a buffer, actually collects water and serves as a repository for humid air. This humid environment introduces a number of hazards, including mold and mildew growth, musty odors, and moist sills and framing that can lead to both structural damage and pest infestations.
Interesting. I’m just wondering HOW in the world our local, residential building industry managed to get away with constructing these types of crawlspaces! Most of the older homes in JoCO were thrown up like sheds over dirt crawlspaces, which should be illegaI, but aren’t. I suppose they thought that most people wouldn’t live in them for very long, thereby “kicking the can” down the road for somebody else to deal with. I’m not sure if a 3-D printed, concrete home built on a slab foundation would solve any of the typical moisture issues that we contend with in the South, but it appears that this technology would address some of these issues, if not eliminate them entirely, especially when the use of lumber is limited in the construction and the interior finishes.
Honestly, if I built a house today, I would be looking at ICF. And go as thick as I could afford to. You can easily get R-30 out of the walls without doing anything else, and it will survive a Cat 5 Hurricane.
I would think the effect of water vapor sucked up from the wet earth would have demonstrated its ability to create nasty mold and funk smells a couple hundred years earlier in American construction. Sounds like a great way for builders to get the most dollar from "new advertising," "Termite-proof homes all yours now!" Let's devise a way to keep the termites out, that may rot the wood. BTW, termites love wet, rotting wood the most. If this was such a great idea, why didn't it change when they decided we needed termite inspections for "termite-proof" crawlspace homes? Most builders - especially around here, from what I have seen - and probably in most cases and places - want to throw the house up as cheaply and quickly as possible, and disappear. It's about making money today, consequences be damned after the 1 year new home warranty is up, for your biggest investment, that you will pay for over 30 years. I have watched neighborhoods go up, and it's just amazing to see how flimsy the structure looks. Concrete block pilings, pine wood, some insulation, and some vinyl. That's your "structure." Oh, and the whole inside is flooded soaking wet during storms, before it's enclosed with the roof and walls. And pollen and pollutants. Do you think they do anything to clean it or dry it out? You never really think about it until you.... think about it or see it. I discovered rotting plywood under my floor after the hailstorm. Never would have known otherwise, until the door frame had to come out. I would surmise someone had too much cerveza, else it got too dark and they knocked off and didn't see it, but they didn't flash that one door underneath at all. Incredible. The housing "inspector" even missed the wood that had to have begun to rot underneath when I bought the house. If I were buying a wood-framed house now, I'd demand all the crawspace mods I mentioned, plus plan to schedule 3-year inspections of everything nobody tells you to check. RE: ICF, Jesse, I have talked to others who said the same. It's an interesting idea.
I have seen similar things. The change from plywood subflooring to OSB or worse particle board. The old houses built on stone pillars outlasted the ones built on the ground or using stumps as support. No insulation to spray foam. When my son built his new house the crawl was completely spray foamed and sealed inside and out once the breaks in the foundation were sealed and then backfilled. He has a large "cellar" in the center which is also sealed and insulated but with its own sump for back up as it is deeper than the crawl space.
In our old house the only intrusion of termites was where the slab cracked in the far corner of the garage which allowed egress into the house. We discovered the problem after a neighbor had a similar problem. There was no intrusion in the crawl space because it could be monitored and the foundation was sealed at the top with metal flashing.
ICF built homes are also very interesting, and because of their documented resistance to Category 5 hurricanes, would present a strong selling point, especially here in the South.
Good stuff. Also, for any first-time buyers homebuyers out there, just a note to beware of realtors who work in conjunction with local home “inspectors”. Do not let your realtor refer you to a home “inspector”. These “inspectors” will deliberately miss problems on the property in order to help the realtor make a quick sale.
