Crawl Space Odor Solved in Jersey City, NJ

Friday, September 25th, 2015 by Sarah Gozick

Challenge

A home in Jersey City, NJ had a horrible smell coming from the dirt crawl space. The floors were always cold, especially in the winter, and the living space was not comfortable. The homeowner called Quality 1st Basement Systems to fix his nasty crawl space! Specialist Collin Peare inspected the house and found a four feet tall crawl space with cinderblock walls and a dirt floor. There were two entrances to the crawl space; one from inside the house, another from a Bilco door. As soon as he took a step into the crawl space, he smelled the musty odor. There was black plastic liner laid down on the floor with exposed dirt peeking through. The dirt was moist, which was causing the awful smell wafting up through the floor joists, into the home.

Solution

Dirt crawl spaces are a bad idea. When the humidity is high, the soil gets moist and becomes a problem. Water vapor moves easily into the crawl space and upwards into the house. The natural air flow in a house is from the bottom to the top. This sucks the moist air and everything in it up into the living areas of the house. Mold spores, odors, humidity and critters create an unhealthy environment. Many people are allergic to these things and it affects their health! The complete crawl space encapsulation system consists of three main ingredients, starting with Drainage Matting. Drainage Matting is a durable dimpled, plastic liner that creates a drainage space under the encapsulation system for water to floor beneath. The second part installed on top of the Drainage Matting is TerraBlock. TerraBlock is a foam insulation that creates a vapor barrier on both sides and insulates the crawl space floor. The third and final ingredient is CleanSpace liner. CleanSpace is used to isolate the home from the earth completely and permanently. The liner is a heavy-duty 20 millimeter thick material similar to a pool liner. Manufactured with a 7 layer polyethylene blend, CleanSpace will never tear. To fight musty smells, it has an anti-microbial additive called UltraFresh molded right into the liner. CleanSpace comes with a 25 year guarantee against rips, tears, and punctures.

In order to remedy the constantly cold floors, Quality 1st installed SilverGlo on the foundation walls and up in the joist bays. SilverGlo panels have tiny particles of shiny graphite that reflect heat. It resists heat conduction and has a radiant barrier which reflects heat back into the crawl space for ultimate energy savings. The final product installed inside of the crawl space was a SaniDry CX Crawl Space Air System. The SaniDry CX is a high capacity, energy efficient dehumidification system. It can take up to 110 pints of water per day out of the crawl space, all while using the same energy as a “40-pint” dehumidifier. The SaniDry CX filters out mold spores and dust mite droppings: common household allergens. Unlike other dehumidifiers, it is designed to be effective at the lower temperatures found in crawl spaces and basements. The homeowner and his wife were tired of looking for a company to fix their crawl space at a reasonable price. They used six different contractors and had to keep spending money on their crawl space. They are now very happy to have their crawl space problems solved for good by a reputable company that has been in crawl space repair for over 28 years!