Think of the humidity just around our area alone, on the east coast, the humidity levels can be just terrible. The air feels thick and dense. This is exactly how your crawl space is with the humidity. This can cause a lot of damage, especially if you live with in the Delaware peninsula.
Humidity is the moisture content in the air. This means that the higher the relative humidity, the more moisture that is in the air. If your crawl space in not conditioned, or dehumidified, the summer months can be hard on your crawl space. Moisture seeps up through the ground and sits in the air causing mold to grow and wood to rot, and if you have insulation in your floors than it will become wet and lose its R-Value. Even in the cooler months, these signs will still be present and left over. Don’t make the mistake to only look in your crawl space during the fall and winter. You may think everything is fine because the humidity tends to drop in that time of year. But, unfortunately the damage is already done in there. If you have ever been under your home in the crawl space during a humid day in the mid of summer, you would see that your water pipes and your air conditioned duct work is sweating, this is from all the humidity in the air outside getting into your crawl space. The best solution is to remove the humidity from the crawl space air. If there is less water in the air, then there will be less water to get drawn to the cool ducts, and pipes, This will save you money in energy costs and duct repair as well.
Have you ever noticed insulation handing or sagging down in your crawl space? Hanging insulation is the most common problem we see when inspecting problematic crawl spaces. The fiberglass insulation is very light to start and it won’t take much moisture to make it sag. The humidity levels make the insulation sag and it becomes stringy. When you see this , it is too late. The insulation has already lost most of its R-Value from being wet, repeatedly. Sealing your crawl space properly and installing a dehumidifier will eliminate your moisture problems.
Be sure to check your crawlspace often and give us a call for a free crawlspace inspection.