crawlspace problem

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cghbuilder86

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Hi, I purchased my first home a few years ago. I had terminix come out within that first year. They said that I had some mold and fungus growth in the floors. They ripped out all the fiberglass floor insulation and sprayed down the wood to kill it. Installed auto open and close vents and put a thin vapor barrier on the ground. Now about two years later it still seems too damp under there to me. I run a dehumidifier inside the house, probably needed due to crawlspace moisture coming up through the floor. I got a price quote on having encapsulation done and they quoted $11,000. Holy crap! I certainly don't have that to spend. I considered doing it myself but I see a list of issues with that also. My crawlspace hasn't even enough room to crawl on my knees, I have to lay flat so it really sucks trying to work under there. It's still pretty expensive if you use insulation. I have some large holes cut out of the block wall due to addition at one point. A good bit of water lines and plumbing pipe are on the ground which would make it extremely hard to properly seal vapor barrier around. I heat and cool my house with nat. gas fire and window unit so I can't easily get ventilation under there. I am very curious about smartvent intelligent venilatiion fan. It auto cuts on and off to ventilate when it is more damp in the crawlspace than outside. I don't have insulated floors which they do recommend, but if hot dry air coming into a cooler crawlspace causes the air to then become damp it can just keep venting it out right? The fan might run all the time but that would be ok. older houses that are high off the ground seem to have less problems. Is that due to so much ventilation that the air cannot become trapped? Almost like the sides are completely opened. It seems having a fan or two would have a similar effect.
Another option I have considered is installing a ventilation unit like EZ breathe. But I am unclear on weather or not the crawlspace is supposed to be sealed with these or not. And since I dont have a central heat and air unit I'm not sure it causing a constant leak of outside air coming inside is a good idea? Plus the fact that you have to have some sort of vent between the inside floor and the crawlspace sounds like a bad idea (bugs, gnats, ants...) Ive been reading up on all this stuff and it's driving me crazy any info or advise on your experiences or what I should do would be greatly appreciated
 
Welcome to the site.
There has been lots of discussion about this here. I am not a fan of incapsuation. But whichever system you decide to go with there are a few things that apply to both like a peremter drain to make sure serface water is not getting in, then a 6 mil polly or better sealed to the foundation and anything that pertude thru the ground like water and sewer pipes. Insulate cold water pipes.
 
Thanks for the reply. Are you saying it would be good to fully seal the side wall and floor with plastic even if the vents are left open? The main reason I dont want to fully seal and encapsulate is that I have no siimple or inexpensive way to circulate fresh air under there. Having very stale sealed air under there seems like it would be bad for the air quality in the house.
 
No, seal the floor poly to the walls, but drainage is your first concern. Yoiu have to get ground water away from the house fiist, that will solve 95% of you problem.
You need to dig around the house and install perferated pipe to pick up ground water and move it away from the house and while you are there run a solid pipe also to handle the down spouts
 

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