Do we need to blow crawl space air to outdoors during the rapid dryout phase? Watch out: if you start running air moving equipment in a contaminated crawl space (mold, asbestos etc) before those contaminants have been removed, the air in that space is likely to be unsafe. Use a condensate pump and plastic tubing if your dehumidifier does not itself include a lift pump drainage system. Obviously in freezing weather you'll need to direct dehumidifier output to an indoor drain. The rate at which a dehumidifier removes water from the air depends on the size of the unit (how many quarts of water it can remove from air per hour) which in turn depends on the cooling capacity of the dehumidifier, ambient temperatures, the moisture in ambient air, and, very important: the rate at which moist air moves from the dehumidified area (crawl space in this case) to and through the unit.īy placing multiple fans around the crawl area you can increase airflow across wet surfaces (crawl space floor, walls, ceiling).Ĭonnect the dehumidifier output directly to a floor drain or direct the output outside of the building to a location at least 10 feet away and where water will continue to drain away from the building. This means dry out wood framing, subfloor overhead, and the crawl space floor surface.Īt CRAWL SPACE DEHUMIDIFICATION - How to Use Heat and/or Dehumidifiers in Crawl Spaces to Keep Moisture Levels Down - we describe using a dehumidifier to remove crawl space moisture. Step 3: Remove moisture from the crawl space materials and surfaces. Later you'll want to level the crawl space surface so that should water enter it will drain to a single pump location. But if there are significant puddles or multiple low areas, use one or more portable sump pumps to remove that standing water. If the crawl space floor were flat and drained to one single low point, just one sump pump would usually be enough. But depending on the shape of the crawl space floor surface you may need to use one or more portable sump pumps of the type that pick up water from a wet "floor" surface. This process can go on more or less simultaneously with debris removal.Īt HOW to USE SUMP PUMPS in CRAWL SPACES we describe that procedure. Step 2: Remove standing water in the crawl space. Later, when the crawl space has been dried we might also considerĬRAWL SPACE SEAL & SANITIZE. Then we describe CRAWL SPACE CLEAN UP - that means dealing with mold or other surface contaminants. See CRAWL SPACE DEBRIS for details or skip that for now We describe first the importance of cleaning out the crawl area - that means get rid of insulation, junk, debris, There is more cleaning, drying, and sealing work needed first. Step 1: Remove crawl space debris and wet materials - without this step the dry-out will be more difficult, take more time, and be more dangerous.ĭo not try to "dry out" wet or damp or suspect fiberglass crawl space insulation. Photo: droplets of water soaking the under-side of plywood subfloor over a wet crawl area, contributed by an anonymous reader, 4 Here is a Step by Step Guide to Drying out the Crawl Area and Keeping it Dry. How to Dry Out a Crawl Space Quickly in Three Steps We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need. Here we summarize a safe and effective approach to removing water from a wet or flooded crawl space.Ĭompanion articles add details about debris removal, cleaning, and sanitizing a crawl area followed by advice on how to keep the crawl space dry. Three key steps to get water and moisture out of a building crawl area following water entry, storm flooding, or a sewer backup. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website. InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest.
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