Crawl Space Dehumidification

The crawling space is essentially a hollow area between the ground and the first floor of some residential buildings. It is usually about 1 foot to 3 feet high. As its name implies, it is high enough for people to climb in. Houses/buildings with crawling space are common.

Unless the house is lifted from the ground, a crawling space is a very simple and inconspicuous place, usually used to accommodate the "internal organs" of the house, such as air conditioning and heating, insulation materials, pipes, and wires. Because the crawling space has a storage function and the invisible function, the crawling space has some advantages compared with the solid concrete foundation or the basement.

Should We Build a Crawling Space?

If you are building a house and want to know whether you should have a crawling space, the climate of your area will be a major consideration. Natural conditions, such as frost line, soil type, drainage system, slope, and groundwater level, often lead to a different selection of construction best practices.

Benefits of Crawling Space

Generally, the crawling space is better than the concrete slab foundation because it allows you to use all the functions we just mentioned without restriction: pipes, wires, dry walls, insulation, heating, and cooling systems. In this way, if there are insulation, moisture, mildew, or air system problems in this space, they can be solved quickly.

The technical director of a home design and decoration company said: "When encountering problems such as pipeline leakage, if there is no crawling space, the pipeline needs to be dug out from the ground for maintenance, and the cost of doing so will be much higher."

Although the basement also allows you to use these air, heating systems, and insulation materials without restrictions - let alone more useful space - crawling space is a cheaper solution than the basement.

"For a medium-sized house, the price of a crawling space can be as low as $8000 to $25000," said the technical director. This is much less than renting a basement. The rent of the basement varies from $75000 to $150000.

If you live in a humid place where it often rains and is easy to breed mold or termites, the crawling space is better than the basement.

The boss of a house inspection company believes that "a crawling space is most suitable for high humidity areas or coastal sandy areas, where too much water will form pressure on the entire basement and seep into cracks."

Disadvantages of Crawling Space

Generally, the crawling space is limited in internal space, with high humidity and easy to accumulate water. Dampness will cause erosion of pipes, lines, and HVAC systems, and may cause mold or infection. The two pictures above show the wet crawling space.

Maintenance of Crawling Space

1. Keep ventilated

Proper ventilation is crucial for drying the house, preventing mildew, and protecting the integrity of the house, let alone for people's health.

If there is no ventilation solution, the crawling space may have a "stacking effect", which is, moisture moves up from the ground through the floor cracks to the home.

The wet crawling space needs air vents to avoid becoming a breeding ground for mold, fungi, termites, and even rodents on the wall.

To ventilate the crawling space, you must install a vent to draw air from outside through the HVAC system and an exhaust fan to move the air from the inside of the crawling space to the outside.

2. Install a dehumidifier

If your area is particularly humid, you can install a dehumidifier to combat indoor humidity and help it dry. A compact crawl space dehumidifier can prevent spores, mites, mold, moisture, and decay in your home space.

3. Use insulating materials

Adding insulation to the crawl space can also retain the heating and cooling air in the house. In addition, since crawling spaces usually contain pipes, insulating them can ensure that pipes will not freeze in winter.

Preair Hd70 Dehumidifier for Crawl Space

Preair Hd90 Home Dehumidifier For Crawl Space

Preair's HD Series of Dehumidifiers

Preair's HD series dehumidifier is specially designed for crawling space. HD series dehumidifiers are small in size and light in weight and can be installed on the ceiling. They use drainage pipes instead of water tanks for drainage, which fully conforms to the use conditions of the crawling space. The HD70 commercial crawl space dehumidifier and HD103 dehumidifier for crawlspace are machines with high-cost performance and good dehumidification performance. The dehumidification capacity of the dehumidifier is 70 Pt/Day when the temperature is 26.7℃ and the RH is 60%. The dehumidification capacity of the HD90 dehumidifier is 90 Pt/Day when the temperature is 26.7 ℃ and the RH is 60%. The price of the HD series dehumidifier is reasonable and affordable.

In general, because of its spatial characteristics, crawling space can contain many contents to make the living environment cleaner and more beautiful. However, due to its location characteristics, its internal space is easy to become wet, thus causing various hazards. Preair recommends that install a professional dehumidifier for regular dehumidification to ensure that the crawling space is safe.

Post time: Feb-07-2023

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