TALES OF A MOLD WARRIOR

HOME AND GARDEN: TALES OF A MOLD WARRIOR Crawl Space Provides Home by Paul McHam

Once again, I got a call regarding mold in a basement crawl space under an older home.

The basement has a cement floor, but the crawl space was left unfinished with a layer of standard gravel. This was done as standard practice to provide additional storage, while saving cost of installing additional cement crawl space flooring and the rest of the peripheral wall. This helped keep the price of a home lower so more folks could afford to buy their own home.

Prior to 1978, there was less thought given to water patterns, relative humidity, and to just about anything having to do with the home. It did not matter because energy was assumed to be cheap and plentiful.

This changed quickly beginning in the early 70s, due to pressure on the petroleum industry, which quickly spread to include anything using just about any form of energy. I can still remember the common sight of pulling up to a gas station with lines more than 50 cars long that stretched back onto the highway brim.

This experience caused everyone to go a bit strong on energy savings. Houses were tightened up as much as they could be, which created energy savings, but also created conditions where humidity that entered had to be specifically dealt with or mold would grow.

In the case of a crawl space, ambient moisture travels under the footer and is free to wick right up into the crawl space. Once in the crawl space, the moisture is free to raise ambient humidity levels. For situations like this, every single home, of any age, needs dehumidification and air movement, especially in areas like crawl spaces, where there is likely no air movement or temperature control to avoid creating a hidden home for mold.

Paul McHam is a local expert on mold remediation. For more information, visit his website at http://myairxperts.com/ and his Facebook page Moldsporewars http://bit.ly/2E2Fj3y or call 330-658-2600. For a list of his certifications, go to https://bit.ly/2WH19Pt