Air movement into crawlspace

I'm working on encapsulating (insulation and wall/floor vapor barrier) a small dirt-floor crawlspace. It's about 160 square feet, and 4' tall.

My basic plan is to ventilate it into the basement and make it part of the basement airflow wise. But it's a old, thick stone wall separating the basement and crawlspace, so I can't create a large hole to move the air.

On one side, the basement can be opened into the crawlspace by removing a few 2x8 blocks that were put between the floor joists. On the other side, I was going to make a small-ish hole and add a small fan to push or pull air into the crawlspace. My thought is the two openings on each side will move enough air to keep the space from getting stale or overly humid.

Thoughts, suggestions? Sound reasonable or crazy?

 

You might look into getting a couple 6" in line duct fans (example) to put through the wall, (maybe one blowing basement air in and one blowing crawlspace air out). They are pretty inexpensive, quiet and usually found in the aisle with the ductwork and hvac. You'd want to put a hardware cloth screen over the ends just to make sure nothing gets sucked into the fan blades

 

Additionally, you're going to want a vapor barrier over the dirt to reduce humidity.

 

In what area of the country are you? Is there any chance of radon?

 

Thanks all! I was thinking about a fan, but a pair of them (one blowing in and one out) seems like a good solution. And the duct fans look like a good solution to that.

Absolutely, that's the main reason I'm encapsulating it. It was a mess with moist insulation and the floors above were always cold.

Ugh, I need to update my profile! I'm in PA and already have a radon reduction system in place for the main parts of the basement. The basement tested at 11 pCi/l before we moved in, and the radon piping/fan got it down to 1.7. Since the crawlspace is such a small area, I wasn't going to bother with another take-off point there. But maybe I should (?).