Dehumidification of crawl space

Published 2017-10-25 in 

It’s important to dehumidify a crawl space to protect the house and foundation against mold and rot.

In Scandinavia, it is common to build houses with a crawl space. That means that the house is built approximately 1 meter above the ground and enclosed on all four sides. But since the crawl space is enclosed it’s hard to know what the house looks like under the first floor. If the crawl space is not dehumidified it can get very wet and the risk for mold growth is high. It may even be so bad that the floor structure has rotted and deteriorated, which can cause the foundation to weaken and become unsafe.

What causes mold growth?
When the humidity is over 70% mold can start to grow. Throughout the year the relative humidity outdoors is for most part over 70%, which makes the air even more humid in a crawl space. Sometimes, during the summer even condensation can form on the floor beams and joists in the crawl space. This is due to the warm and humid air from the outdoors making its way under the house when the foundation is still cool. The air then cools down and the relative humidity increases. Thereof it is very important to dehumidify a crawl space and not only have outside air ventilation.

Prevent moisture problems
It’s not complicated to install a dehumidifier, but it takes knowledge and experience to do so because the layout of crawl spaces may be different from home to home. That means, that all the installations are custom made.

With a DST dehumidifier, it is possible to minimize the energy consumption. This due in part to our proprietary humidistat controller that maximizes efficiency. The humidistat will automatically start the dehumidifier when the humidity is too high in the crawl space and turn it off when the humidity level has reached the desired setpoint, typically 50%. It is possible to connect a control box with a lamp to the humidistat, that will warn if the humidity gets too high in the crawl space. The control box can then be installed inside the home where it can be easily monitored.

Contact us and let us help you protect your house against unnecessary humidity problems.

 

share