The Springfield, Missouri News-Leader wrote an article about termites, ants, and pest control and how to help stop them from entering and thriving in a home by preventing moisture.

“Do whatever you can to keep moisture away from your home’s foundation, Schultheis [of the News-Leader] said. Make sure rain is not getting into your crawl space or draining toward your home, he said. If it does, regrade the soil around the foundation by adding more top soil and planting grass. This will eliminate the depression or drainage problem.” Read more »

Posted: June 25th, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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From the Web site of Southface, a non-profit organization with the mission of saving energy, conserving water, and preserving the environment, comes a Top Ten List for Sealed Crawlspace Success.

The list discusses many of the issues that we here at Basement Systems have been addressing for the last 7 years, including the sealing of a crawl space with a thick, impermeable liner (you can’t save the planet if your throwing away a crawlspace full of 6-mil plastic every two years) and then conditioning the space.

You can see the crawl space list in it’s entirety at the Southface Web site, but as it deals with new construction, I have truncated it here to reflect sealing a crawl space in an existing home.

Here’s the list:

1. Moisture can enter the crawlspace when the home is being constructed, creating mold even before the home is completed. Proper drainage, sealing and insulating are important early in construction—before the floor joists are installed. Read more »
   

   Posted: June 17th, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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Rats love to live - and die - in damp crawl spaces.

A damp, musty, smelly crawl space is not the best place for a human to live, but mold, mildew, bugs and various other critters love these environments. To eliminate these unwelcome guests, a home owner needs to change the environment.

Omni Basement Systems the basement and crawl space contractor in Hamilton, Ontario who photographed the dead rat, installs the CleanSpace Crawl Space Encapsulation System to help remedy damp crawl spaces. This is a crawl space vapor barrier system that takes into account the crawl space vents and ventilation, the door or hatch, air leaks, conditioning, and more. Read more »

Posted: May 23rd, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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It costs more to heat and cool a home with a dirt crawl space. If the crawl space is vented, this causes the floors to be cold upstairs which leads to spiking heating costs. The damp air in the crawl space rises. It takes a lot of energy to heat and cool damp air and definitely puts more of a stress on an HVAC system. Read more »

Posted: March 24th, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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