Your Home’s Vulnerable Underbelly

11 Mar

The homes along the Southern coastline are more than just beautiful exteriors - they are also built to withstand tropical monsoons and yearly hurricanes. If you’re a homeowner along the Gulf Coast, you’re already familiar with the necessity of a crawlspace. Your home is probably elevated to prevent flooding damage from severe weather. But how much do you really know about the space underneath?

It’s monsoon season. Do you know how your vapor barrier is?

Do you know how to make sure your vapor barrier is properly installed? Do you even know if you have one? When the soil beneath your home is drenched by a long rainy season, it releases moisture into the air above. This leaks into your home and causes stress on the wooden supports and flooring they’re built on. You may notice your floor buckling - this is a common sign of saturation rising in the crawl space below. A vapor barrier is designed to protect the underbelly of your home, but most homeowners neglect this very important feature.

When your crawlspace is exposed to constant dampness, whether from the weather or from faulty sprinklers, plumbing, or drainage, the pristine floors of your home are in peril. You may brush off the crawlspace as separate from your home, but it has everything to do with your home’s foundation and even air quality. An adequate vapor barrier can prevent odors, allergens, and spores from creeping inside from underneath.

The Best Protection Your Home Can Have

A poorly maintained crawlspace can ruin your main flooring or sub-flooring, resulting in costly replacement projects. It can also cause excess humidity inside the home, affecting the integrity of inside walls and surfaces and encouraging toxic mold growth. If left unattended, saturation below the home can result in outright danger, such as weak or rotting flooring. Not to mention, termites and other pests love to munch on well-hydrated wood.

Aside from maintaining the vapor barrier, there are other steps you can take to be proactive about protecting your home from below. Be sure that runoff from your gutters flows away from the house. Check that your landscaping has proper drainage, such as sloping downward from the house, or French drains. When you add mulch or pine straw in your yard, be careful that it doesn’t block drainage away from the home.

Your crawlspace keep your homes safe and resilient. But, just like all good things, you shouldn’t take it for granted! A crawlspace that never receives maintenance and upkeep is no longer a safety measure, but is an outright liability. To keep your home smart and healthy, you must care for all parts of it, especially its crawlspace underbelly.