What Your Crawl Space Might Say About the Rest of Your Home

A crawl space is arguably the most overlooked room in your house. Perhaps it is used for extra storage or maybe you avoid it at all costs if it is musty, damp, and even wet. What homeowners don’t realize is that problems that they may be experiencing in others areas of the house or possibly even health conditions suffered by those that live in the home could be caused by what’s happening in their crawl space. 

Older homes and old school builders used vented dirt-floor crawl spaces when building homes.  This type of construction is now considered inefficient and ineffective.  However, regardless of the age of your home, you may still have a dirt-floored, vented crawl space because they are still permitted.

Poorly designed, vented crawl spaces contribute to many problems throughout the structure.  If you are experiencing some of the following problems it could be due to a poorly designed crawl space:

• Damp, wet, or even flooded crawl spaces
• Musty or mildew odors in the crawl space and even throughout the rest of the house
• A lot of pest problems, especially ants, termites, camel crickets
• Wildlife infestations in the crawl space
• Peeling paint on the outside of the home
• High humidity throughout the home 
• Drafty, cold first floors
• High radon levels in the home
• Those in the home suffer from chronic allergies or asthma
• Poor air quality
• Mold and mildew growth in the crawl space or basement

Experts agree that up to 40% of the air we breathe comes up through the crawl space. If your crawl space is an uninviting, damp and musty area it could be leading to poor air quality and unhealthy conditions throughout your home. Scientists refer to how the air flows through a home as “The Stack Effect”.  Air is sucked up from the ground and into a house through the basement or crawl space. Indoor conditions cause it to continue to move up through the home, working much like a chimney does. Moisture and humidity present in your crawlspace allow mold and mildew growth. This damp, polluted air is then drawn up and into other areas of your home posing a threat to its structure, leading to expensive but necessary repairs and causing unhealthy living conditions. 

The good news is there are solutions to your crawl space problems. It is possible to turn your damp, musty crawl space into a clean, dry space where mold and mildew cannot grow thus improving the conditions throughout your home and making the air you are breathing healthy again.