Franklin TN Crawlspace Inspections in this wet weather

Did you know that your Franklin TN Home built on a crawl space serves as a functional part of your in home air quality?

The weather in Franklin this past few days has been very wet and the ground has become saturated with water. While this does not leave you feeling great about going outside, it is a good time to do a crawl space inspection at your home. Do you know if your house has a crawl space? A very good indication is the location of your heating and cooling vents. Are they located in the floor? If yes, then your house is on a crawl space or it has a basement. So now you just need to go outside and locate your crawl space access door. Hopeful you already know where it is and you sealed it up good when you were closing those vents around the foundation of your home back in the FALL. So locate the door and go inside and do an inspection. You should be prepared for this journey under your house with a flashlight (I prefer a head lamp to keep my hands free), a poking stick, and knee pads or old jeans as you are likely to get them dirty. Once inside look for dripping water as pipes may have burst in these extreme cold nights we have been facing. Check to see that your vapor barrier (thick plastic) is covering the entire dirt floor of the crawl, and where you can maneuver it back to do so. Inspect for a trail of water across the dirt floor or on top of the vapor barrier. If you see any signs of water you should try to identify the source. The saturated ground will allow water to seep into your crawl from between the footers and the blocks. This water once in your crawl space needs to be removed which can be done in many ways, like a sump pump or a gravity feed to a daylight pipe. The daylight pipe is a pipe at the lowest point that allows water to gravity flow out of your crawl space as the last thing you want is a POOL in your crawl space bringing hydraulic pressure against your walls. The other problem with water in the crawl space is that it eventually can lead to the moisture required to generate mildew and mold growth on your building structure. These living things need a food source (wood), a dark place (crawl space), and moisture. So that is why you can make a positive experience out of all of this rain in Franklin. Use this saturated ground to make sure your home is healthy from the crawl space up.

The above photo shows a typical crawl with a vapor barrier.

This photo shows a crawl with moisture and no vapor barrier.

The photo above is of a Franklin TN Home with Encapsulated Crawl Space

To learn more about crawl spaces, contact an expert in residential foundations and if you want a referral contact The Grumbles Team. There are viable solutions to help improve your crawl space and make the air there and in your home better for your family. Many companies opt to seal the crawl space up entirely and to make the air there treated similar to the rest of the home.