Ranch style home with crawl space in SC along coast that is five years
old. This crawl space has 28% moisture readings in two or three areas
of the joists. The crawl space has approx. 2,179 s.f. with. The
design of house has two long earthen porches on the front and rear of
house without any ducting to allow venting to the crawl space. The
HVAC ducting is in attic, so this is not an issue. There are no
plumbing leaks in the crawl space. As such the house has no crawl
space vents on front, six on one end, four on opposite end and six on
the rear of house. A building inspector when we purchased the
property (three years ago) recognized this moisture problem and
recommended vapor barrier (plastic on ground) and two power vents.
Vapor barrier probably covers 75% of ground. I have installed a third
power vent and moved the power vents to one end of the house, closed
all the vents on the end with the power vent and opened all the vents
on the opposite end of the house. I was having a problem with high
moisture, mold build up on joists in the middle of the crawl space
against the walls where the porches are, so I modified the power vents
to pull air through the crawl space to avoid those "dead" areas along
the porch walls. The power vents move approximately 33,000 c.f. of
air per hour.
The question is should I cover the remainder of the crawl space with 6
mil platic and have the plastic go all the way to the walls and up
them for 6 to 12 inches to help alleviate the moisture problem?
Any other suggestions on how to alleviate this moisture problem!