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Clean Space Encapsulation

There are only two primary ingredients needed for rot and mold to thrive: one is organic material, like the wood beneath a home, and the second is water. Replacing the wood in a house is practically impossible, so the only avenue to preventing structural damage and those musty smells is to eliminate the moisture.

Previously the tactic was to add vents to a crawl space, which were supposed to allow the moisture to dissipate. These vented crawl spaces, instead of becoming less damp, end up being more wet for several reasons. The stack effect, a house’s natural tendency to draw air in from the crawl space and lower levels upward into living spaces, means that instead of letting moist air out, a house sucks more moist air in! Another problem with venting a crawl space is that it allows all kinds of bugs and critters direct access to a home.

The biggest issue with adding vents is that it does not address the main problem – moisture from the dirt beneath a home – so venting a crawl space isn’t even addressing the actual problem.

Even if a crawl space is not flooded or visibly wet, that additional humidity can spell trouble for your home – and your health. The fungus responsible for rot and mold not only eats away at the structure of a home, but spreads by producing millions and millions of airborne spores. These spores are a prime suspect for aggravating allergies and many people don’t even know what it is that bothers them when they are at home.

There is a solution, however, to all of these problems. Instead of struggling against nature to remove moisture from a crawl space, Basement Systems developed the CleanSpace Crawl Space Encapsulation System, which seals a crawl space off from that moisture coming up from the dirt and from the damp air outside.

CleanSpace Crawl Space Encapsulation System
Rather than let the moisture in and then try to get rid of it, CleanSpace isolates a home from the earth entirely so the humidity never gets in there to begin with. This strategy also stops bugs and other critters from getting into a crawl space while reducing, or sometimes even eliminating mold growth and rot.

The key to the CleanSpace system is the patented, 20-mil thick liner material. It is a tough blend of seven polyethylene and polyester cord reinforcement layers, designed specially for crawl spaces. Since the side you see after installation is bright white, it really brightens a crawl space and lets you know that it is free of mold, insects and dirt. The liner is so tough you can crawl on it and use your crawl space for storage without worry of putting holes or tears in it. And, of course, it completely stops moisture from getting in and ruining the underside of your house.

Crawl Space Dehumidifiers

Even after you have encapsulated your crawl space with CleanSpace, dampness can collect below a home. Houses naturally draw air in from the lower levels, bringing in air from the outside through your crawl space. This is known as the stack effect, and it can bring up the relative humidity levels throughout a whole house. Up to 40% of the air on the first floor can come from the crawl space below.

This is a huge problem in the more humid summer months. Every degree that air cools raises its Relative Humidity by 2.2%, so when warm air is pulled into your cool crawl space the additional moisture will condense on your air conditioning ducts, CleanSpace system and even the floor joists. Wood and water are a bad combination, since all it takes is a little moisture on an organic material for rot and mold to take over. To add to the problem, that humid air is also drawn up and into a home via the stack effect – and brings any mold or musty smell up into living areas with it.

There are only two ways to remove the damp. You could heat the air to lower the Relative Humidity – and pay the money for your air conditioner to fight the heater in your crawl space (while the moisture STILL condenses on your cold ducting) – or you can attack the problem directly with a sophisticated and appropriate dehumidifier.

Most dehumidifiers, however, are simply not up to the job. The small coil of a regular dehumidifier is inefficient at pulling moisture from the cooler, crawl space air, so it has to run longer and work harder. Additionally, many dehumidifiers are horribly inefficient in their own right and do not deal significantly with filtering the air.

The Right Equipment
The clear solution is a dehumidifier that is designed specially for a damp crawl space. After dealing with this problem for nearly 20 years, Basement Systems developed an amazing dehumidifier system to meet strict Energy Star requirements while maximizing the amount of water pulled from the air – the perfect solution for crawl space moisture. The end result The SaniDry Crawl Space Air System can pull almost three times as much water from the air as its leading competitors – all while using less electricity! The SaniDry also has a two-stage filtration system that handles particles all the way down to two microns in size, cleaning your crawl space air while it sucks out the moisture.

To learn more about the SaniDry dehumidifier, contact Ameri Care Services, Inc. today for a FREE estimate and copy of "Crawl Space Science," which explains more about the system, relative humidity, and dehumidification in general.