Crawlspace that has a musty smell.

Dear Mimi,
My crawlspace smells really musty a lot of the time. I laid black plastic down but when it rains the smell gets worse. Is the plastic not working or do I have a bigger problem?

~Smells in Superior
Dear Smells,
Every crawlspace eventually gets water in it or through it. The real issues are: 1) how long the water stays in the crawlspace; 2) what the water might get wet when it passes through the crawlspace and, in your case; 3) how effectively the black plastic is installed. Here are some additional thoughts. Many crawlspaces also need an effective sump pump that is able to run 24 hours a day. The pump comes on automatically when water goes into the sump pit and goes off automatically when the water in the pit drops below the float. If there is anything in the crawlspace that gets and stays wet, that will give off an odor. If the material is organic - cardboard, wood, paper and the like - it will smell and could create a mold problem for you. Most every crawlspace could benefit by installing a good “vapor barrier”. This is a heavy plastic that covers the entire floor of the crawlspace and goes up and is attached to the foundation walls. If your vapor barrier is not installed properly then, for all practical purposes, you are doing more harm than good.

Mimi

This entry was posted on August 20, 2007 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.