Flood zone

[DOBIED]

My house is almost two years old. The house replaced one that was damaged by Hurricane Isabel. The house was built to comply with the present flood code. The house is single story 1900 square feet, 4 feet off the ground and has 7 16X32 flood vents.
I now have serious mold problem on the floor joists. I have checked various web sites such as Advanced Energy' crawlspace.org and agree with the concept of an encapsulated crawlspace. The problem I have is how to do this and still comply with federal flood codes.
Was your system used in areas flooded by Katrina and Rita and what were the results? Is there a web site or other source where I can research the results?
Thank you for your assistance.

[richard]

DOBIED,

I can't say I know of any installations in the Rita and Katrina path. But the CleanSpace (http://www.basementsystems.com/crawlspace/crawlspace_products/crawlspace_vapor_barrier.php) Crawl Space Encapsulation (http://www.basementsystems.com/crawlspace/) system can be installed in your crawl space. It would just require cutting the liner around the flood vents -- so the system would have some air leakage, but it would help prevent a lot of water vapor from entering the crawl space. A SaniDry (http://www.basementsystems.com/dehumidifier/) dehumidifier (http://www.basementsystems.com/dehumidifier/) would also greatly help lower this relative humidity.

Give us a call at 800-638-7048 and we'll get you in touch with your local CleanSpace dealer. Or fill out our contact form (http://www.basementsystems.com/dehumidifier/) online.

-Richard