Under the floor
Crawl space repair in Hoover
Repair means fixing what moisture has already done under the house and stopping the cause. It may be a morning's work, such as pulling down soaked insulation, or it may involve drains, a pump and new lumber. The right repair depends on where the water is coming from, so that is where this page starts.
Call (205) 555-0115Drawing
Six ways a crawl space gets wet
- Rain running to the wall. The yard tilts toward the house, or a downspout empties beside the foundation.
- Water under the footing. It soaks down, passes below or through the wall and collects on the dirt inside.
- Open vents. Warm, humid air comes in and cools, and its moisture settles on whatever is colder.
- Bare soil. Uncovered ground gives off moisture all year, wet weather or dry.
- Insulation. Fiberglass between the joists soaks it up, gets heavy and drops.
- Cold ducts and pipes. Air conditioning ducts and water lines sweat and drip onto the soil and the wood.
Standing water or mud
Look at the timing. Water that shows up a few hours after rain and drains away over days is coming from outside, through or under the wall. The outside causes come first because they cost little to change: gutters that overflow, downspouts that stop at the wall, soil or mulch banked against the house. Yard drainage covers those.
If water still gets in, the repair moves inside. A shallow trench is dug along the wall where it enters, a perforated pipe is laid in gravel, and the pipe leads to a basin with a sump pump. On a sloping lot the pipe can sometimes run by gravity to open ground downhill instead, with no pump at all.
Water that appears with no rain is a different matter. A supply pipe, a drain line or a condensate hose may be leaking, and that is a plumber's or a heating and cooling technician's repair.
Insulation on the ground
Batts that have fallen will not go back. Wet fiberglass loses its loft, holds moisture against the wood and gives mice somewhere to live. The repair is removal and disposal, then a decision: new batts with proper supports, which will fail again if the space stays humid, or rigid foam on the foundation walls as part of encapsulation. Ask the company why it recommends one over the other for your house.
Damp, stained or soft wood
A company should measure the wood with a moisture meter and tell you the readings, joist by joist if they vary. Wood that is merely damp can dry out once the source is dealt with. Wood that has gone soft cannot recover.
Carpentry under a floor usually means one of three things. A weakened joist gets a new one fastened alongside it. A rotted section of subfloor is cut out and replaced from below or above. A girder that has sagged gets extra support posts on proper footings. Ask to see photographs of each spot before and after, since you will probably not go under there yourself.
Cracked or leaning foundation walls and piers that have sunk are structural work for a foundation specialist or an engineer. A waterproofing company may point them out, and you should want it to.
Repair, or seal the whole space?
A repair fixes what is broken today. Sealing changes the conditions that broke it. If the only fault is a downspout and one wet corner, repair is enough. If the same crawl space has had insulation replaced before, or the smell returns every summer, the pattern says the space itself is the problem. It is reasonable to ask for both prices on one proposal, with the repair items listed separately so you can see what you would be paying for either way.
Worth asking
- Where is the water coming from, and how did you work that out?
- What were the wood moisture readings, and where were they taken?
- Which joists or beams are being replaced or reinforced, and with what?
- Is old insulation removal and disposal included?
- What will stop this from happening again, and is that part of this price?
Crawl space repair questions
Can I just lay plastic on the dirt myself?
Loose plastic helps a little with ground moisture and nothing with water that runs in or with humid air. It also hides puddles. If you put some down, pull back a corner after rain and look underneath.
Are sagging floors always a crawl space problem?
Often, but not always. Floors also sag from undersized joists, a missing support or old alterations. Someone has to look from below to tell. If the wood is dry and sound, moisture is not the cause.
Do I need to be home?
Someone should be there at the start to show where the access door, the electrical panel and the outdoor faucets are, and at the end to see the photographs.
Is the smell in the house from the crawl space?
It can be. Air moves upward through a house, so some of what you breathe on the ground floor has come from below. A smell that is stronger in humid weather and near floor vents points that way.