Hey there. Michael Church. CrawlSpaceNinja.com.
And we got a great question from Ben in South
Carolina, and he has purchased some our DIY
products and is lookin' to encapsulate his
own crawl space, but it seems like the dehumidifier's
havin' trouble keepin' up with controlling
moisture, and he was just wantin' to make
sure he did it correctly, so stay tuned.
Okay, Ben.
I see that you wrote and asked us, does the
vent fan make the dehumidifier run more often,
because I guess it sounds like your dehumidifier
is having trouble either keeping up, or it's
running all the time, or somethin' like that.
And just keep this in mind: Whenever you put
a dehumidifier in the crawl space, whether
you completely seal up all the vents or whether
you do like we do with the hybrid crawl space
encapsulation system.
When you start to drop that humidity, the
excess moisture that's in the wood is going
to start to come out.
This time of year, it's August.
All right?
So we've got wood moisture levels that are
50 plus percent, where they should be between
nine and twelve.
So it is going to take a long time for that
moisture to just eventually evaporate out
of that wood.
So it could take three, four months, really,
to reach equilibrium.
But, at the same time, the more gaps that
you have in the foundation like you had mentioned
in the question that you hadn't sealed up
the rim joist.
All right?
So there's probably gaps and airflow through
the rim joist.
If your door has gaps, it's got air coming
in.
So again, even without the vent fan, you are
still going to be fighting outdoor humidity.
Okay?
And the way I like to pose it is, when you're
watchin' the news and the weather person has
a low and a high, I think the high follows
the low.
Right?
Well, that's the way it is in your crawl space.
When you drop that humidity down to 55%, and
in South Carolina, you've got 85%, 90% outside,
even though you've got everything sealed up
real nice, that 85% to 90% is trying to get in.
And it will find a way in, which is why dehumidifiers
are always needed, even if you spray foamed
a crawl space from top to bottom, you're always
gonna have a humidity issue.
So hopefully that'll help.
Number one, give it three to four months.
Let it dry out and see how ... Maybe not that
long.
Maybe three to four weeks, and see if it helps.
But sometimes, depending on how wet it was
before you even got started, and how big the
crawl space is and all that kind of thing will
also have an effect on how long it takes to
dry out as well.
So thanks again for your question, and hope
in South Carolina to have a Crawl Space franchise
out there one day, so if you're in South Carolina
and you're interested in helpin' us help others,
we hope you'll contact us down below.
And my name's Michael Church with Crawl Space
Ninja, and we hope you make it a happy and
blessed day.
We'll see ya later.