Have you been dealing with crawl space damage? Often, this is due to moisture in your crawl space, whether from storms, groundwater, or a humid outdoor environment. Rising moisture in your crawl space ends up increasing the humidity in your home too. Eventually, this leads to high energy bills. Luckily, our team has solutions to prevent this process from happening to homeowners in Charlotte and Hickory!
What Causes High Energy Bills in Your Home?
There are a few causes for rising humidity in your crawl space – some having to do with crawl space design, and some having to do with natural causes. Here’s what commonly brings humidity into your home and crawl space.
Open Crawl Space Vents
In the past, it was thought that designing crawl spaces with open vents would mitigate the amount of humidity within them. Unfortunately, this idea ended up backfiring for thousands of homeowners, and it continues to affect homes today. Open crawl space vents really allow outside air to penetrate the area below your home. Essentially, if it is humid outside, it’s going to be humid inside your crawl space. After years of allowing humid air to seep through open vents, humidity will rise and eventually get into your home through the floors. Your HVAC has to work on overdrive to balance out the humid air and your energy bills rise.
The Stack Effect
Another cause of high energy bills comes from the stack effect. This phenomenon occurs in all buildings for one simple reason: heat rises. In its default state, your crawl space is generally cooler than the air outside. However, when warmer air is able to enter your crawl space through open vents, the air below your crawl space begins to warm up. Since heat rises, this warm air then travels through the floors of your home and continues to rise throughout the entirety of your home. This constant cycle of warm air rising puts a strain on your HVAC system while it tries to maintain indoor temperature. Once again, your energy bills rise.
Condensation
Just like the stack effect, condensation occurs when warm and humid air enters your crawl space through open vents. Additionally, groundwater that is absorbed into the soil below your crawl space eventually evaporates and causes humidity to rise. In both cases, the humid air mixes with the cool air in your crawl space and causes water droplets to form on wooden beams, piping, and insulation. Eventually, the condensation will evaporate as well and send humid air into your home. Just like the other examples, this humid air forces your HVAC system to work harder. No matter how humidity enters your home, it’s going to cause increased energy bills.
FAQs
Investing in crawl space encapsulation solutions can prevent humidity from building up below your home. Installing different tools such as a vapor barrier or dehumidifier can prevent moisture from growing in your crawl space. Moreover, these tools can also protect the structure of your crawl space, as excess moisture also leads to wood rot or mold – both of which cause damage to the wooden beams supporting your home. Also, be sure to check on insulation within your crawl space and repair/replace it if necessary. Moisture can also cause insulation to become damaged, putting your home at further risk.
High energy bills are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to crawl space problems. Moisture can lead to other issues such as a sagging floor or musty odors in your home. Moisture causes wood to break down, and the majority of your crawl space is made up of wooden beams which support your walls and floors. If these become damaged in any way, so too does your home. If you’ve noticed high energy bills, be on the lookout for mold, uneven floors, wood rot, or stuck doors and windows, and make sure to call a professional immediately.
Maybe you or someone you know has a basement rather than a crawl space. Basements can also be affected by moisture and humidity. If moisture enters your basement through leaking pipes or a crack in the basement walls, this can certainly cause humidity to rise in your home. Just like with a crawl space, the warm air will rise into the other areas of your house. Your HVAC will do its best to maintain temperature and will have to work harder as the warm air travels.
Explore Solutions
Dry Pro has plenty of crawl space solutions to keep the area below your home protected from moisture. Take a look at our various encapsulation tools including vapor barriers, dehumidifiers, sump pumps, and crawl space vent covers. All these solutions work together to actively protect your crawl space from moisture buildup by either removing water or preventing water from penetrating in the first place.
Dry Pro
Crawl Space Vapor Barrier
Charlotte, NC is one of the rainiest cities in the nation. If you don’t have a proper waterproofing solution in place, then your crawl space will be wet and humid.
Dry Pro
Airtight Crawl Space Vent Covers
Dry Pro Foundation and Crawlspace Specialists installs airtight Crawl Space vent covers for sealing crawl space openings near the Greater Charlotte area.
Dry Pro
ExTremeBloc Crawl Space Wall Insulation
Create a dry and energy efficient crawl space in your Greater Charlotte home.
Dry Pro
Crawl Space Dehumidifier
Crawl space humidity is a difficult problem to handle alone. This is why a crawl space dehumidifier is needed if you want to keep your foundation dry.
Call Dry Pro for a Free Crawl Space Inspection
Want to save money and protect your home at the same time? At Dry Pro, our crawl space solutions make that possible so you can focus on doing what you love. Our team of crawl space and foundation experts is always prepared to help homeowners in Charlotte and Hickory with any crawl space needs. Contact us today to learn even more about crawl space solutions and to schedule a free inspection with one of our professionals. We’ll work with you to determine the best course of action based on your individual needs. Don’t let humidity cause unnecessary problems for your home any longer!
