The Crawl Space From Hell!!!!


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Old 11-30-13, 11:01 PM
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The Crawl Space From Hell!!!!

OR....

The Crawl Space from 1959

Nothing but trouble here since day one, for sure, but I hear that I may have radon problems because of the dirt crawl. It's got a plastic liner on it, but there have been several floods since it was installed and it's not a perfect seal anymore. It's not efficient as a proper vapor barrier, so I doubt it is even hindering Radon dissipation at it's capacity.

So.... I know that the best solution would be to concrete the 500sq/ft of dirt crawlspace, but that's probably not in the budget for 2014. There are, however, a few things I would want to do even if there was a cement floor in there. I wanted to know what your opinions would be about this.

I want to put those electric pipe warmers on all of my water pipes in the crawlspace. I was wondering if they're reliable for the long term and I can be confident they're working years after I install them.

The "door" to the crawlspace was removed when I moved in during the mold remediation. I've never built a new one. That crawl has been wide open to the rest of the house for 2 1/2 years. A dehumidifier takes care of the humidity likely caused by this during the summer months, but if Radon is a problem, would putting a sealed door there be good enough to keep the Radon from the rest of the house?

My plan is to block the crawl off from the rest of the house entirely. Because my furnace is so shoddy and old, it's pretty damn cold in the house, let alone the basement living space and the dark crawlspace. Since there is no heat going to the basement at all currently, I leave everything open so the residual heat can make it's way down there to combat the cold coming up from the ground. My current rule of thumb is keep the house warm enough to be at least 5degrees away from a busted water pipe in the crawl-space.

Can I sleep confidently knowing that my pipes won't burst with the electric warmers running the length? Also, would I be keeping a ton of Radon gas out of the living area of my house simply by building a sealed crawl-space door?


Thanks again everyone.

This site is AWESOME!
 
  #2  
Old 12-01-13, 03:38 AM
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Radon should be evacuated to the atmosphere outside the house. Have you had a competent evaluation of the presence of radon and a remediation system in place?

The heat tapes work just fine, but you also need to install foam insulation on them completely encapsulating them, leaving no gaps whatsoever for cold air to come in. Yeah, you need a door.
 
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Old 12-01-13, 08:22 AM
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Vapor barrier should have been replaced when mold was cleanned. Lack of or poor VB will cause mold. Not sure why u would want concrete in your crawl. A 6mil VB is the norm. Test your radon levels
 
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Old 12-02-13, 10:39 AM
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With water pipes going through, I would lean toward isolating the crawlspace from the outside rather than opening it up to the outside.

Do you know you actually have a radon issue in the first place?

Also, what have you done outside the house to stop the water infiltration.
 
 

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