Bloomington Crawl Spaces Repair
Years of scary films have brought us up to presume that every house is built on top of a basement. Otherwise where would all the scary monsters live, right? In reality however while there are plenty of basements out there and we do plenty of work on repairing them there are two other key ways of underpinning a property. The commonest is actually a concrete slab these days, but the other bottom layer to a building is the crawl space which provides a barrier gap between the building and the ground while still offering access to the plumbing, wiring, and gas hookups when maintenance is needed.
Check Ups and Clean Ups
The very best maintenance and repair program is preventative so we are more than happy to come round and advise you on how we can improve your crawl space and its resistance to water. The crawl space offers a lot of advantages especially with its relative ease of access (relative because it’s called a crawl space for a reason). It is, however, more open to the elements and so when there’s heavy rain or continued damp usually due to poor groundwater drainage then problems build up. We will come and clear up that mess, including pumping out pooling water before we inspect to see if the floor, or prolonged damp have caused damage to the pilings that underpin your property. We clean it up because that’s the first stage in getting to work on making it better.
Ventilation
There are two types of ventilation for crawl spaces: they can either be hooked up as part of the building’s AC system, or they can be ventilated with air vents along the foundation walls. Crawl spaces without AC or ventilation are just brewing up trouble for damp and mold so you’ll have one or the other. Open ventilation has the downside that is uncontrolled, AC must be correctly installed and we can check on both to ensure they are doing their job or make recommendations for improvements.
Vapor Barriers
In combination with ventilation a vapor barrier sealing the crawl space can make all the difference when it comes to combating water build up. We choose our heavy duty plastic sheeting and encapsulation solutions so as to hold back water while making sure that the air movement in the space itself will be optimised to clear out moisture and keep your foundations safe.
Support Jacks
Sometimes there’s nothing else for it but to go hard and go heavy. Crawl spaces typically rely on a post and beam construction to keep that space open and your building on the level and in place but for a number of reasons that can need attention. In some cases the underlying soil shifts, often simply through the compression caused by the building’s own weight, in other cases through water movement. Some beams are made of wood and rot after the years, particularly where damp is an issue. Whatever the cause it is not uncommon to find that the crawl space ceiling, and therefore your building’s floor level can become uneven or sloping. We can correct that with steel support jacks which, in combination with heavy duty plastic sheeting for encapsulation, can create a dry, safe crawl space for your property.
If you need crawl space repair in Bloomington, IL call us today.
