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Since everything begins with the foundation and is supported bottom to top, let’s start with that. Behind me is the block wall that separates the crawl space under the home from outside. This outside wall is supported by a large concrete footing that goes around the entire outside perimeter of the home. That’s what we call the foundation.
In our profession, we do like to distinguish between the foundation footing that supports the outside of the home and the internal structure of the crawl space.
The foundation itself is made of concrete and completely underground so if you have a foundation problem, you usually are able to see cracks in the brick, cinder block, or even the walls inside on a perimeter wall that indicate you have a foundation problem.
One common mistake people make is to confuse foundation cracks with swollen lintils. We’re not going to get into that right now so if you’re unsure be sure to have a foundation repair professional like one of our inspectors diagnose the cracks properly if you have any.
Let’s talk about how crawl spaces flood. If your crawl space is below grade, meaning the ground in the crawl space is lower than the ground outside the home, we do often times find that water entry is a problem. It is common but it is not a good thing. Water can find it’s way under a house through the walls, leaving stains like we see here, or even from underground due to something called hydrostatic pressure.
The moisture from water entry with crawl space flooding can cause significant problems for the health and integrity of the home and should be addressed separately from other moisture solutions like vapor barriers or encapsulation systems. We actually installed a French drain with sump pumps in this crawl space.
So let’s move on and take a look at the internal structure of the crawl space.
In a crawl space… the floors, the walls, you’re whole living space, and everything up to the top of the roof line is being supported by the crawl space structure. And once again, everything is supported bottom to top. So if we have problems down below, we do often times see these issues inside the home also but not always so that’s why it’s important to always keep an eye on the crawl space.
These footings do however sink sometimes for a variety of reasons… maybe they weren’t poured properly to begin with, maybe they are supporting more weight than they can handle. The ground underneath could be washed out and undermined from ground water or the soil could even move due to the shrinking and swelling of the soil with a higher composition of clay.
The bottom line is, if the individual footings are moving or dropping, they need additional support.
If a cinder block is destroyed or damaged it is usually due to negligence or they have been purposely damaged to accommodate a utility line or plumbing line.
Next, we have the beams, also known as girders which could be 6x6’s like we see here but there are many other size variations of beams.
Beams are made of wood which is vulnerable to moisture problems. With long-term exposure to moisture, any wood framing in the home can experience: mold or fungal growth which is not healthy for the home and can cause further damage to the wood… wood rot occurs, which often needs to be repaired or replaced by an experienced specialty carpenter like our production teams… the structural support diminishes, which can show up as bowing, sagging, bouncy floors, or wall cracks are pretty common… and we also see compression which is where the wood is wet and weakened and starts to shrink and compress under the weight of the home.
Floor joists experience all of these same problems with moisture and so can the subfloor, sill plates, or the band board.
Big picture, I’ll sum it all up very simply. Movement of any kind is not good, whether it’s with the outside foundation, the cinder block piers, beams, joists, or anything else. Rule of thumb says, if something is moving that shouldn’t be moving, it needs additional support. Makes sense right?
Next to movement, excessive moisture is bad for the home. It can create a nasty environment for the health of home and cause lots of damage to anything made of wood. Moisture from water entry should be addressed separately from moisture from the damp earth and separately from moisture from humid conditions outside, especially if you’re in a humid climate like we have here in Hampton Roads.
Our company offers free inspections from highly trained inspectors if you live within 50 miles in any direction from our VA Beach location, so if you’re in the area, please feel free to give us a call if you have any concerns about your crawl space, foundation or basement, and we’ll take great care of you.