The crawl space of a home can be one of the areas of the property that will be the most vulnerable to developing significant water damage. Unfortunately, a homeowner may not realize that there are strategies that they can use to help waterproof this area of the home to mitigate the chance of these issues arising with it.
Lining The Walls And Floor With Plastic
Lining the walls and flooring with plastic sheets is one of the most effective options for reducing the ability of water to intrude into the crawl spaces of a home. These sheets will need to be correctly applied in order to ensure that there are no gaps where moisture could seep through. While these linings are highly durable, they can still be damaged by rodents and other pests, which means that you may need to invest in treating this area of the house to minimize the risk of these damages occurring.
Applying A Sealant To The Interior Of The Walls
Another option for reducing the ability of moisture to seep into the crawl spaces of your home is to apply a protective sealant to the interior walls and flooring. These sealants will be able to stop moisture from seeping through the pores of the concrete. While these sealants are extremely effective at stopping this type of water intrusion, they are not suitable for stopping moisture intrusion that seeps from cracks in these walls. Due to this limitation, any cracks in the crawl space floors or walls should be repaired before the waterproofing work begins. Luckily, many crawl space waterproofing services will have the capabilities of repairing small cracks and gaps that may be present.
Installing An Active Pumping System
Depending on the surrounding terrain and the severity of the water intrusion problem that your home is experiencing, it may be necessary to install an active pumping system that will be able to remove water that might overwhelm the waterproofing measures. These systems can be critical for those that live in areas that are extremely prone to flash flooding or that may be in a low area where rainfall can collect into large puddles near the home. In addition to minimizing the amount of flooding that can occur, these systems can also remove any water that may otherwise get trapped in the crawl space. This can drastically limit the ability of large amounts of mold and rot to form in this area of the house.