Maintenance Tips After Crawlspace Mold Mitigation

8 min read

Mold is notoriously challenging to get rid of. For one, mold spores are naturally present in the environment. Spores from outside the home end up indoors, and if your home has damp and dark spaces, these spores grow into visible colonies and threaten both the integrity of your Phoenix home and the health of your household.

If you have mold in your crawl space, a company specializing in mold remediation in Phoenix can help. They will identify the source of the mold, remove it, and take steps to prevent future growth.

Whether you’ve just battled mold in your crawl space through professional mold remediation and want to keep it mold-free or avoid that fight altogether, there are steps you can take to maintain the area and prevent mold from coming back.

Why Does Mold Grow in Crawl Spaces?

Crawl spaces provide the perfect breeding ground for mold because they often have factors that favor its growth. These include the following:

Lack of Maintenance

Many homeowners only think about their crawl space when they need to store something or if there’s an issue with the home’s plumbing, wiring, or HVAC systems. As a result, crawl spaces, while an essential part of a home, are often overlooked.

As a result, mold, when it has taken hold in the crawl space, is often left free to grow unchecked due to lack of maintenance.

The Presence of Moisture

Groundwater, soil moisture, and outdoor humidity can easily seep into crawl spaces through foundation cracks, vents, or poorly sealed doors. This constant influx of water creates the perfect environment for mold, which thrives in damp places.

Other causes of moisture in crawl spaces include leaks and plumbing issues due to faulty appliances and broken pipes, as well as problems with sump pumps, drainage systems, and sewer lines. These can result in pools of standing water and moisture pervading your crawl space.

Poor Ventilation

Proper ventilation is crucial for crawl space mold prevention. In an inadequately ventilated crawl space, air cannot move freely and becomes stagnant. If the humidity in the crawl space is high, condensation may form, resulting in an even more moist environment.

Source of Food

Mold spores need food to grow, and their sources are organic material. One primary example is cellulose, a substance found in common building materials like wood, insulation, and drywall. When these materials become damp, they further encourage the growth of mold.

The Risks of Mold Growth in Crawl Spaces

Crawl space mold can proliferate and seep into other parts of a house. When mold is present in your home, it poses risks to both the property and the health and wellness of the people and pets in it.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mold may cause health problems. Mold can produce allergens that trigger unpleasant hay fever-like reactions in sensitive individuals, like sneezing, runny nose, and itchy eyes. Additionally, some molds may generate irritants that could aggravate existing respiratory conditions or cause skin rashes.

Mold not only affects humans but also pets. Dogs, cats, and other companion animals can experience symptoms such as difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing, and lethargy if they inhale mold spores.

If left unchecked, crawl space mold can spread and cause damage not just to the home itself but also to its contents. As mentioned, mold feeds on organic matter, and many building materials and structural components contain such.

Additionally, mold can grow on personal property, such as important documents, carpets, and furniture. Mold can be challenging to remove from such items; often, the only solution is to dispose of them.

Basement and Crawl Space Solutions: Tips to Prevent Mold Growth

The following are some ways you can help keep mold from growing in your crawl space or basement.

1. Clean Your Gutters

Gutters work by diverting water from your roof away from your home and its foundation, thus helping protect its structural integrity. However, gutters can become clogged due to debris like leaves, small branches, twigs, and dirt. When this happens, water flow through the gutters and downspouts is interrupted.

Water can spill over the sides, soaking your roof, siding, and foundation. This can lead to roofing leaks, cracks, and water stains in the walls and even flooding in basements and crawl spaces.

To prevent this, regularly have your gutters and downspouts inspected and cleaned by a gutter cleaning professional. While you might be tempted to perform this step yourself, remember that cleaning gutters requires working at height, which could be dangerous.

You may also want to consider having a gutter guard installed. The most common types of gutter guards are made of a screen or mesh material that prevents leaves and other debris from falling into and clogging gutters.

2. Declutter

Always try to keep your crawl space or basement free from unnecessary clutter. Piles of boxes and old furniture encourage mold growth and provide a food source.

Also, too much clutter can make it hard to spot the early signs of an infestation. Instead of keeping unwanted or unused items in your crawl space or basement, consider putting them in a storage unit or a well-ventilated attic.

3. Check for Cracks in Below-Ground Walls

Inspect the foundation walls on the outside of your home as well as the ceiling of your crawl space or basement for cracks and holes. Even the smallest ones can serve as an entryway for moisture. Contact a foundation contractor for a professional assessment and repair if you find any.

4. Check for Leaks

Leaky pipes and HVAC ducts can cause water to accumulate in your basement or crawl space. Grab a flashlight and check the lines for leaks and unusual noises, such as rattling sounds, that could indicate a problem with a pipe. If you spot any leaks, the next step is to contact a plumbing professional or HVAC technician for repairs.

5. Invest in Crawl Space Encapsulation

One of the most effective basement and crawl space solutions for mold is crawl space encapsulation. Also called a vapor barrier, an encapsulation system improves the environmental conditions of a crawl space, making it inhabitable for mold.

Crawl space encapsulation involves installing a high-performance vapor barrier, typically made from polyethylene, on the walls and floor of a crawl space. In some cases, the ceiling of the crawl space may also be sealed.

This vapor barrier helps prevent the entry of moisture from the outdoors, the ground, and the foundation, significantly reducing the humidity levels within the crawl space. In turn, this helps mitigate mold growth.

The company you choose to install the barrier may also recommend using controlled ventilation systems to help air circulate more efficiently, further preventing the buildup of moisture in the crawl space. Dehumidifiers may also be used to remove moisture from the air.

Apart from helping prevent mold growth, crawl space encapsulation offers other benefits, such as:

• Pest Control: Many pests, like rodents and insects, like to enter and nest in crawl spaces. These pests may carry harmful diseases and damage your property. Additionally, if a rodent or other pest dies inside the crawl space, it could result in an unpleasant odor that could migrate into the living area above it.

Crawl space encapsulation seals your crawl space and eliminates possible entry points for pests.

• Energy Efficiency: The added insulation layer on the crawl space walls acts as a barrier that reduces heat transfer between the ground and the living space above. Meanwhile, the vapor barrier installed on the floor serves as an additional insulating layer. This minimizes heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

Additionally, because crawl space encapsulation eliminates air leaks, your HVAC system won’t have to work as hard to keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This results in reduced energy consumption.

Basement and Crawl Space Solutions: What to Do if You Find Mold

What if mold is already present in your crawl space or basement, or, despite your best efforts, you spotted signs of mold growth in these areas? The next step is to contact a trusted crawl space mold remediation professional.

Mold remediation is the process of identifying and removing mold infestations from a property. It involves many steps, such as:

• Professional inspection to determine the presence and extent of mold growth
• Testing the air to measure mold spore levels
• Identifying the source of moisture
• Containing the mold growth to prevent it from spreading further
• Removing mold using specialized equipment, cleaning solutions, and techniques
• Using dehumidifiers to dry up the crawl space

Keep Your Crawl Space Dry and Mitigate Mold Growth With the Help of Restoration 1

Restoration 1 is Phoenix’s go-to provider of restoration solutions. We offer crawl space encapsulation, mold mitigation, and other services to help protect your valuable investment: Your home.

Contact us today to learn more about crawl space encapsulation or to book an appointment. We are available 24/7 to meet your needs.