Dealing with Deadly Mold in a Prudenville Crawl Space
Challenge
When we talk about basements and crawl spaces, we don’t often talk in terms of life and death. Safety, sure, because we’re dealing with the structure that holds up your entire house, and any compromise can be a risk, but thankfully we usually enter the picture before anything truly detrimental happens but sometimes people wait too long to give us a call.
Our customer called us after inheriting his parents’ home on Houghton Lake. His father had recently died after battling respiratory issues, and everything clicked into place when a home inspector found severe mold problems in the crawl space. He was sure the mold had caused his parents’ illnesses and subsequent deaths, and also contributed to his own breathing problems.
The thing about mold is that when it starts growing, it’s invisible. Mold spores are microscopic and hearty; all they need is moisture and a food source (like insulation), and once mold starts growing, it’s difficult to eradicate. By the time you can see mold - think of the eraser-sized dots that you may have encountered - you’re looking at an entire colony. Millions of spores that can’t be killed, and that get in your vents and travel your home and you’re none the wiser that you’re breathing them in.
In a crawl space like this we’re probably closer to billions of spores, and it’s very possible and even probable that the mold problem was a major culprit behind the health issues that have plagued this family
Solution
We needed to address two major problems in this crawl space: the mold, and the moisture that caused the mold. We fogged the crawl space with Mold-X, which neutralizes the mold and prevents it from spreading. This, combined with creating an inhospitable environment in the crawl space, will cause the mold to go dormant.
We began by covering the vents in the crawl space, as vents are a huge culprit for allowing moisture and debris in. We then encapsulated the entire crawl space with CleanSpace vapor barrier, including drainage matting. The CleanSpace effectively “seals off” the crawl space from the outside by affixing to the walls and floor, and also protects the house above from the crawl space. Drainage matting will allow any water that leaks into the space to move more freely between the CleanSpace and the ground, leading to a quicker exit.
Once the crawl space was encapsulated and protected from the mold and the outside, we installed a SaniDry CX dehumidifier to keep the ambient moisture in the crawl space low, which in turn prevents mold from growing and spreading.
Mold is gross, but it’s also dangerous - to your home and to your health. This home’s mold problems were discovered after they’d caused irreparable damage to a family, but we made sure that’s the last of the damage and the home is now safe.
