Trouble in Paradise...

You can't tell from here that the crawlspace in this home is costing its owners extra money in heating and cooling costs and is rotting the house from the inside out... all because of a dirt crawlspace.

On paper, in theory and in reality, exposed earth contributes a lot of water vapor into crawl space air. The earth is damp, and as that damp soil dries into the house, the water vapor moves upward into the house. In most climates where there are dirt crawl spaces, you can never dry the earth, and this invisible stream of water vapor from the exposed earth in a crawl space goes on forever.

There are several other ways water gets in a house. Groundwater seeps, leaks, and even rushes into many crawl spaces. It enters under the footing and the walls, right through the block walls, and through cracks in poured walls. After it seeps in, it just lays there in puddles, slowly evaporating upward into the house.

Many homeowners know their crawl space is nasty, so they never go down there. They shut it out of their "places often visited in my house" list, and say "Hey if I don't go down there, what do I care? Right?" Well we say "Wrong. Very wrong"

Moisture inside your crawl space is bad for whats in your home.

The following is a list a a few negative effects of a wet or damp crawl space:

1. Dust mites (the #1 indoor allergen)
2. Sticking (swollen) doors and windows
3. Smelly damp carpets
4. Buckling hardwood floors
5. Condensation/rotting/mold in your attic
6. Frost or condensation and mold on the inside of windows in cold weather
7. Increased cooling bills
8. Increased heating bills
9. Mold upstairs
10. Decreased life of roof sheathing and shingles
11. Decreased life of the paint on the outside of your house
12. Aggravated asthma and allergies.

The damage in the crawl space itself is obvious. The above list represents many of the effects that can happen on the main level and upstairs that you may not associate with your wet or damp crawl space.

For more information on damp/wet crawl space, call one of our experts today at Healthy Spaces by Swat Pest...812-476-9708