How Does Standing Water In My Crawl Space Affect My Foundation?

Crawl spaces don’t get much attention from homeowners, which is unfortunate since it’s the entire house’s foundation system. If the foundation fails, then so does the rest of the house. Although standing water in a crawl space is common, it doesn’t mean that it’s healthy for a foundation. 

There are a few ways the existence of standing water in your foundation contributes to the structural deterioration of your home, so it’s in your best interest to stop it from happening in order to avoid the following problems:  

• Uneven Floor 

Crawl spaces do not get much sunlight, so if there is any humidity in the air, there’s a high probability that mold will grow. Mold growth in your foundation is detrimental to your health as well as the health of your home. It’s dangerous for you because long-term exposure to mold can cause mold poisoning. Even while in the foundation, mold spores have a way of rising up and mingling with the air in your home. Besides that, the wooden joint in your crawl space can get infected with wood rot. 

Wood rot is when wood starts deteriorating because of a fungal infection. The fungus eats away at the mold and either makes it soft or breaks it down to the point where it can no longer support your floor. If the floor joists are deteriorating, then your floor will begin to sag, feel bouncy when you walk on it, and overall look and feel very uneven.  

• Material Deterioration 

Besides the destruction of the floor joists you have in your crawl space, standing water is dangerous because it contributes to the material deterioration of the space. For example, water is able to displace the soil that surrounds the crawl space support posts, causing them to shift. The soil in Charlotte, NC contains quite a bit of clay in it, so it expands when saturated with water but shrinks once it isn’t. Because of the loss of volume when the soil shrinks, the erosion results in uneven floors. 

During the winter, the water in your crawl space freezes and turns into ice. When water freezes, it expands by 9% and the pressure from the expansion also displaces the soil. If there is any moisture in the crawl space materials, such as the wood and concrete, then they will also deteriorate due to this freeze-thaw cycle. The micro-tears created by the expansion cause materials to break over time, resulting in expensive foundation problems.