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condensation under the house
On Sep 28, 8:58*pm, "badgolferman"
wrote: RogerT, 9/28/2011,7:59:45 PM, wrote: "badgolferman" wrote in message ... RogerT wrote: "badgolferman" wrote in message ... It seems there is condensation building up underneath my house on the end near the garage that doesn't have foundation vents. Some of the joists have mold or a fungus on them. ..... I recently went to a meeting where an inspector talked about this condition. He suggested no insulation between the joists or, if there is insulation, to make sure it is unfaced insulation. *.... My house is in SE Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay. *We do not have basements in this area due to the high water table. *The humidity is high in this area. *I have a moisture barrier on the ground and insulation between the joists. *The insulation has backing on the side that touches the subfloor. I think the problem may be that, in your high humidity area, and with between-the-joists insulation that has any vapor barrier (even though it is on the correct side), you are trapping the humidity in the crawl space where it can cause moisture and mold on the floor joists. And, since the outside air is humid, the fans don't change that. *If anything, the fans may be bringing in humid air from the outside and just adding to the humidity (and condensation) in the crawl space. You already have a vapor barrier on the floor, which is a good thing. When someone described a situation similar to yours at the meeting/presentation that I attended-- with faced insulation between the floor joists -- the inspector's recommendation was to remove the insulation altogether. *Removing the insulation, in his opinion, will enable any moisture in the crawl space to dry out. *Keeping the insulation (especially with the facing still in place) keeps the moisture from being able to dry out. This home inspector is also a licensed structural engineer (or something like that -- I forget the exact engineering title/license he has). *Based on everything else he said at the meeting, and the number of years of experience that he has, I was confident that he knew what he was talking about on this crawlspace moisture issue. I moved a fan from the porch area to the area that builds up condensation and aimed it toward the other side of the house that is dry and has a fan too. *That fan blows toward the foundation that has vents. *The fans have been running straight for three days. Hopefully it has dried out enough to remove the condensation by now. I think I will call the company today and have them perform the spraying that kills everything. I think that the disadvantage of paying a company to spray now is that it doesn't correct the underlying problem and the mold will come back. The company tells me what I need is a crawlspace dehumidifier. *They put down new moisture barrier, seal the vents, install a GFC line, dehumidifier and pump all for $3000. *That does not count spraying for the wood destroying fungus. *The dehumidifier is supposed to dry out the area so much that all the mold will go dormant.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Sounds like a lot of money for the above work to me. I'd find out what dehumidifier they are using and then price it. Unless it's something different than the commonly available portable ones, they only cost $200 or so. Keep in mind with that solution you also have the ongoing electric operating costs. |
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