Comments on: Solving a Crawl Space Water Mystery

By: Irma Lowman

Irma Lowman — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 22:31:40 +0000

My crawl space is wet. There
My crawl space is wet. There is standing water. Ppes to hot water heater came apart. Front yard is higher thsn house. How do I direct water away from my house?

By: Daryl Watters

Daryl Watters — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 03:46:09 +0000

Any of you guys have any
Any of you guys have any recommendations as to how to keep fumes from getting into a home from a crawl space.
Obviously seal the gaps in the floor, but any other ideas such as specific fans or radon mitigation devices? Anyone ever work on such an issue?

The reason I ask is because yesterday I did air quality testing at a home and discovered an unusual chemical odor in the crawl space, and the same odor in the home. I think it was automobile gas related. Once before I found a similar odor in a crawl space and home and testing revealed it to be high levels of auto gas. Someone likely put it in the crawl space years ago to kill bugs, at least that it what an exterminator told me people used to do here in Florida.

By: Tommy Marr

Tommy Marr — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:02:42 +0000

I found an interesting water
I found an interesting water intrusion not long ago involving the masonry weep holes which were actually below ground level. These fill the space between the brick and the foundation to the point that water flowed in a small stream into the crawl space at the door.
The same home had a large flower bed which ran along the garage walls, bordered by the sidewalk which had the neatest little brick dam. this held the water during moderate to heavy rain and actually spilled it through a foundation vent which the
builder had filled the front soil levels to just a couple of inches below. In that case, a drain had to be installed going under the sidewalk to a safe and lower location for dumping that water.

By: Rick Bayless

Rick Bayless — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 07:08:19 +0000

Seems that 90-plus percent of
Seems that 90-plus percent of the time the homeowner is battling water intrusion into the basement, crawl, or downstairs room...it's no more than a gutter, downspout, drain, or surface grade-adjust issue. The rush to bring in the backhoe for expensive foundation wall treatments and french-draining appears to be an over-used recommendation. Checking, cleaning, and adjusting existing systems reveals so many helpful answers and saves the homeowner so many dollars on "unnecessary surgery".

By: geoff hartman

geoff hartman — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 22:30:48 +0000

Smart stuff water! We think
Smart stuff water! We think tracking it's source should be easy. "Water runs downhill" after all. But; "downhill" means path of least resistance, and it's often a challenge to identify the pressure source, because that piece can be hidden from sight. Ever seen an artesian well in the middle of a flat field? Or popping up under a house?

Please emphasis the point that you investigated to find the cause, then resolved, and verified the result did indeed solve the problem, BEFORE continueing with the original project.

How many times have we visited a home, where a contractor (sometimes several) have already "fixed" the problem. In reality, they attemoted to bandaide the symptom, and may have made the problem worse.