Crawl spaces aren’t for army boot camp, and they certainly aren’t for infants learning to walk.
A crawl space is a one- to five-foot (hence “crawl” space) buffer zone between the dirt ground and your home that can provide access to your plumbing, electrical wiring, and HVAC ducts.
You can use a crawl space for storage, but unlike a basement, a crawl space isn’t habitable. In fact, under poor circumstances, a crawl space can be dangerous.
A wet crawl space ranges from dampness to flooding and can come from various sources, such as the ground, drainage systems, or plumbing leaks.
Is It Normal to Have Some Water in Your Crawl Space?
A small amount of water in a crawl space after heavy rain can be normal as long as it drains away.
But when water enters your home’s crawl space and stays for the long run, several problems endanger your home and your family’s health.
You can take some actions to remedy and prevent water in your crawl space, but it’s best to contact an experienced professional for more severe or urgent problems.
Let’s dive into the problem.
Why Is Water in Your Crawl Space a Problem?
A flooded crawl space is no fun for anyone—unless you’re a moisture-loving pest.
That’s because the water in your crawl space can lead to a slew of problems that go beyond the underside of your house.
Here are some of the most serious problems that can creep up from crawl space flooding:
- Mold: Water that evaporates from the surface of large puddles or condensation can lead to mold, which thrives in dark, damp places. Mold and mildew that reaches air ducts release spores that can degrade your home’s air quality and present health risks to your family.
- Structural deterioration: Moisture can rot wood beams and joists (support beams that run parallel to your home’s floor), erode your house’s foundation, and cause the flooring to sag.
- Increased energy costs: Damp air takes more energy to heat and cool, so your utility bills may go up with high moisture in your crawl space.
- Pests: Humid environments attract dust mites, snakes, rodents, flies, and other pests that can damage or disturb your home’s foundation, wiring, air ducts, and insulation.
How Does Water Get in Your Crawl Space?
Identifying where the water came from is the most important measure you can take to prevent future leaks in your crawl space.
Let’s look at the main reasons why your crawl space gets wet.
Interior Water
Interior water refers to moisture that enters your crawl space either from or as a result of the inside of your home. Leaky pipes from crawl space plumbing and condensation from damp air settling on cold surfaces like air ducts contribute to unwanted water under the house.
Old pipes, corrosion, and pressure from your house settling can also cause a leak in your crawl space.
Fortunately, an active leak is an easier source of water to deal with because all you need to do is find the problem pipe and repair it. Your house’s main water line, the wastewater lines, and even your appliances all have pipes that are possible culprits.
Surface Water
Any water that comes from above ground outside your home is surface water, including rain, hose water, snow, and ice. Surface water isn’t usually a threat to crawl spaces due to gutters and the downspout (the vertical pipe that redirects water from your house).
Still, unfavorable conditions can lead to water seepage in your crawl space, including:
- Blocked gutters: If leaves and other debris back up your home’s gutters, rainwater can overflow onto the ground and leak into the crawl space.
- Damaged or misdirected downspout: The downspout should push water away from your home but can direct water toward your crawl space if it malfunctions.
- Melting ice and snow: Winter snow and ice that sits on top of the ground outside of your crawl space can contribute to crawl space water damage once it melts.
- Altered grading: Your home’s landscaping is graded at a certain slope so that rain and other sources of water flow away from your house. If you improperly change your home’s grading, surface water can pool up around your crawl space and seep in.
- Overwatering plants: Water may find its way into your crawl space if you overwater your plants near your home’s edges or leave your garden hose unattended.
Groundwater
Groundwater in your crawl space comes from the dirt that your house sits on if that dirt does not drain well, there is heavy rainfall, or there is melting ice.
A foundation is the lowest part of any home, and it supports the weight of the main structure either above the soil or underground. If your home’s foundation has cracks, groundwater can gradually seep into your crawl space. Without the proper action, the water will worsen the cracks over time and potentially even allow surface water to also enter, until it becomes a major stability problem.
What Does Water in Your Crawl Space Look Like?
Water makes up the majority of our planet, so it’s no surprise that it occasionally makes its presence known in your crawl space.
Infrequent water that drains back into the ground after a rainstorm is acceptable, but some signals point to a concerning level of water—the main one being large standing puddles on the ground.
Usually, more than a couple inches of water that stands for more than 24 hours is problematic.
The following are other signs that indicate you have a water problem in your crawl space:
- A musty odor in your crawl space or home
- Increased levels of humidity in your home
- Mold growth on and around crawl space surfaces
- Drooping or soft floorboards above the crawl space
- Pests and their feces, eggs, or other droppings
- Peeling wallpaper or paint above the crawl space
- Discolored wood in the crawl space
- Green- or yellow-tinted standing water in your crawl space
Any of these signs should motivate you to safely investigate where the water is coming from so you can fix the problem.
How Do You Get Rid of Water in Your Crawl Space?
A crawl space with standing water or one that’s fairly humid won’t self-remedy.
After you realize you have a problem, the next steps are to find and fix the causes of water in your crawl space. For your safety when inspecting a crawl space, it’s crucial to wear gloves, closed-toed shoes, long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and knee pads to protect against sharp objects that may hide from view.
Whether you proceed with a DIY solution or a professional water remediation company depends on how severe your problem is and where the problem came from.
You may also need to hire a professional to fix the source of the problem, like a pipe leak, so the problem doesn’t continue after you clear the water.
Who to Call for Water in Your Crawl Space
If you don’t have the proper equipment, enough time, or the physical capability to do a DIY solution, it’s best to call a professional water remediation company to dry out your crawl space.
Look for a company that has good experience, favorable reviews, and the appropriate services—not just the one with the lowest price.
DIY Wet Crawl Space Solutions
If you prefer to tackle home projects on your own, there are several ways to approach the problem.
In order from easy to difficult, the following are solutions to remove water from your crawl space:
- Suck up the water with a wet and dry vacuum: As long as you have enough room to maneuver, a wet and dry vacuum, or shop vac, is one of the easiest ways to remove excess water pooling in your crawl space.
- Use a large fan: A simple, powerful fan may be all you need for crawl space drying if your water problem is relatively small. You can also install a fan made for crawl spaces and basements that gauges the temperature and humidity levels.
- Install a dehumidifier: A crawl space dehumidifier like one from AprilAire is a good way to decrease the humidity in your crawl space to prevent mold, pests, and wood rot.
Preventing Water in Your Crawl Space
If you have had water problems in your crawl space or just want to be proactive, here are a few preventive measures you or a professional can take on top of the solutions we listed above.
- Install a sump pump: A sump pump (made of a hole, a pump, and a drainpipe) is useful for severe flooding in your crawl space. Water enters the hole, activates the pump, and then travels through the drainpipe to the outside of your home.
- Encapsulate your crawl space: Vapor barriers, or vapor retarders, are sheets of plastic material that you can install in your crawl space to help block water vapor from settling on surfaces like wood.
This action is called encapsulation because it seals off your crawl space entirely from the outside, ensuring moisture doesn’t build on wood or other organic materials.
Encapsulation can be expensive—on average about $15,000—but it comes with safety and lower energy costs for your home. - Fix your grading: If your yard allows water to pool up, you may want to hire a professional landscaper to fix the grading so that water slopes away from your home before it enters your crawl space.
What Are You Wading For?
Your safety and health are more at risk the longer your crawl space is wet or humid. From mold to pests to structural rot, the results are frustrating and dangerous.
But if that’s not enough incentive to dry out the underside of your home, selling a house with water in your crawl space is a challenge. Your home inspection may fail if you have poor crawl space conditions, and you may not be able to sell your home.
With so many issues that can arise, don’t let your crawl space endure a wet environment.