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This time of year people are always telling us that their floors are cold. They think that cranking the heat up is the only way to make things better. Then the electric bill comes and they get upset all over again. SilverGlo crawlspace insulation is a great and efficient way to correct this problem. Stopping the cold air from entering the crawlspace to begin with will warm the floors quite nicely.
Ocean Pines is a pretty large community on the Eastern Shore of MD. DryZone is frequently doing work on homes there. This home is pretty typical of what we see in that area. Its got a bare dirt floor which is mostly sand, falling insulation, and a musty smell. A lot of the homes in Ocean Pines are 2nd homes or weekend beach homes, so they aren't opened up everyday like a lived in residence. This causes a nasty smell to linger inside the home if the crawlspace is musty and stinky. Once we install our crawlspace vapor barrier and other crawlspace moisture control elements, the smells go away and the home is fresh and pleasant to the nose. In this particular home, the owners decided to pull the insulation out after we left to save a little money.
Most people think that a dehumidifier is all they need to lower the humidity in their crawlspace. While it will help, its not the only thing needed. Think about it...if a dehumidifier solved all your crawlspace problems, why would we use anything else? Here you can see a pretty standard household dehumidifier vs. our SaniDry air system. Regular dehumidifiers can remove 70-90 pints of water or moisture from the air, our SaniDry CX model can remove up to 109 pints. The SaniDry also removes airborne particles like mold, mildew, and other allergens from the air. With a SaniDry you are not only getting a great dehumidifier, you are also getting an air scrubber all in the same unit.
Many older homes have the sump pumps tied into the main sewer pipe. This is very bad for a couple reasons. First of all, it is not legal. Secondly, the biggest reason why it's a bad idea is that a sump pump forces water out and if it's in the sewer pipe then that pipe becomes pressurized. Can you imagine what would happen if the added pressure of a sump pump caused the seals to break on a sewer line? It's a nasty mess that everyone should want to avoid.
What you see here is the proper way to discharge a sump pump. Our patented IceGuard system is a special fitting that keeps the pipes from freezing, allowing the normal sump pump discharge to flow back out of the basement. After all, a sump pump is just returning ground water back outside and into the ground.
This crawl space was damaged from standing water. The DryZone crew went in and installed a 6 Mil liner. The liner will help with any future flooding and keeping the crawl space insulated. Doesn't it look so much better?