25 Year-old Crawl Space Problem
Doug and Stephanie had big crawl space problems on their hands, made worse by the fact that nobody could seem to properly diagnose them. The solutions presented to Doug and Stephanie had all been the same (encapsulate the crawl space, install a dehumidifier, etc.) until The Clean Air Company showed up.
We found that the original drain from an upstairs vanity had been stubbed through the floor and never connected to the main drain line of the house. Imagine, after some 25-years, the damage caused to the wood framing of a house by a leaking drainpipe.
It Gets Worse
These issues were then compounded by a recent upgrade to vinyl plank flooring (VPF). While VPF can be a beautiful, long-lasting flooring option, one of the negatives is that it can trap moisture in the crawl space, allowing it to affect the wood framing of the floor system. Trapped moisture allows mold and wood fungus to attack the floor system, causing rapid deterioration. Fortunately, our inspection uncovered the drain pipe and flooring issues, allowing for a complete solution to get the crawl space back on track.
The problems:
- Leaking drainpipe
- Deteriorated floor framing
- Vinyl Plank Flooring (VPF) installed over an unconditioned crawl space
- Widespread microbial growth throughout crawl space
- Crawl space vents allowing moisture to enter the crawl space
- An incomplete vapor barrier
- No mechanical system for moisture reduction.
The Clean Air Company’s Solutions
Now you might not expect this, but we did the pumping repair to the unconnected drainpipe. Then we removed the microbial growth by soda blasting and applied antimicrobial disinfectant. Once the floor joists were clean, we reinforced the damaged floor joists by adding wood where there was deterioration (sistering). With other crawl space companies, you might have had to bring in a plumbing contractor, a mold remediation company, and a framer, but The Clean Air Company does it all.
Once the water problem, the mold, and the joist damage were fixed, we:
- Sealed the crawl space vents with insulation and decorative vent covers
- Installed a reinforced vapor barrier
- Installed a commercial grade dehumidifier for mechanical reduction of high relative humidity
