Crawl Space Moisture Control And Repair

Written by Bob McGuire on November 29th, 2008

Mold In Crawl Spaces

Mold and mildew causes a damp, musty smell.  Mold, fungus, and radon gas may be present in your crawl space. Mold spores, the seeds of mold, are in the air everywhere.  Mold is found on absolutely every surface.  Mold thrives and spreads in damp environments (such as a crawlspace ) by producing millions of airborne spores that drift upward as the air rises in a house. Mold infestation in your heating/cooling system means your entire house is mold polluted.  Mold growing on floor joists in a crawl space destroys the joists because they are organic materials the mold feeds on them.  Mold spores, odors, humidity and critters create a very unhealthy environment since mold does require a warm dark and moist condition, and nutrients for optimal growth. Mold has a much better chance to grow when these conditions exist. Mold thrives and reproduces in these high humidity levels by producing airborne spores by the millions.  Mold can be found in the ductwork of cooling and heating systems.  Mold, insects and structural damage are the consequences of moisture intrusion.

What does Oakbridge Construction do about all this?

The main focus is to dry out the crawl space. If there is standing water there we have to drain it out with pumps. In this case we have to do it in other seasons than winter. Otherwise we dry out the crawl space with fans and dehumidifiers as possible. We have to also install a perimeter drainage system. That would drain into a new sump pump. After that we install the encapsulation system which consists of special plastic sheeting with all the seams sealed.

Below is a video of our mold sprayer in action. It is very good for musty basements and crawl spaces. We always spray crawl spaces before we waterproof them.