Crawl Space Repair Case Studies: A Sinking House and a Caustic Crawlspace

Challenge

"The house is sinking. Look at these cracks in the drywall." Homeowners in New London stated, pointing at the large splits between their ceiling and wall. The floor had a sloping pitch toward the center wall of nearly 3 inches. When their kids dropped a ball, there was no question as to where it would roll too. 

When our crew came and crawled into the darkness of their crawlspace, the causes of the floor failure became clear. Standing water had rotted the log supports below the center load bearing wall. Humidity and condensation had soaked the insulation until it fell and caused extensive mold and organic growth on the floor joists. Years of moisture damage made the wood spongy and the floor joists sagged. 

Solution

The only solution these homeowners had been given was a radically expensive and disruptive complete foundation rebuild. 

However, our crew at Sure-Dry found a different method. I designed a system to lift and stabilize the floor support beams and joists using over a dozen of our SmartJacks and Supplemental Beams.

Next, we put together a solution for water control and a permanent vapor barrier using our Clean Space Encapsulation System, Smart Pipe, and a Triple Safe Sump.

Finally, an Aprilaire 1830 Dehumidifier completed the project, drying out all the sub-floor wood and preventing future mold growth.

For half of the cost of total foundation replacement, we were able to take care of these homeowners in about a week and they didn't have to leave the comfort of their home.