Crawl Space Moisture Control And Repair

Written by Bob McGuire on January 1st, 2010

Do I Need a sump pump to waterproof crawlspace?

Hi, I got this question and it is not easy to answer. A big problem in a crawl space is moisture in the air. Before any treatment is done the humidity is usually around 85 to 90% saturation. After the treatment the humidity is much less. There are usually many jobs done in the crawl space before we are finished. The sump pump is one of them. All the jobs are done in order to reach the goal of much lower humidity. The sump pump’s job actually is to lower the liquid water on the floor and lower the water level in the dirt as much as possible.  Less water equals less evaporation equals less humidity. There is a lot of jobs that should be done before the sump pump is installed and several things you could do afterwards in order to help the project along. All things have an effect and add something to how well it works. To answer the actual question as to weather you will need a sump pump depends on the condition of your crawl space at the worse part of the year. Around here that would be around the first of March when the snow all melts at one time while we get 2 or 3 inches of warmish rain. Those days we get up to 20 calls per day for work. If you have any water in the crawl space you need a sump pump. A sump pump by itself would not be a system but it would certainly help. – Bob 248 522 1516