Got Springy Floors?
There might be an issue with the structure supporting your floor, just above your home's crawl space.
In previous blogs, we discussed the health, comfort, and energy saving reasons why it makes sense to encapsulate the dirt crawl space under your home (click here to read the previous blog). Today, we will discuss one more important reason: preserving the wood structure supporting your floors and interior walls.
Signs of a Crawl Space issue:
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Sagging Floor
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Gaps between the Floor & Walls
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"Springy" Floors
Arizona Foundation Solutions has carved out the leading reputation for foundation repair using things such as helical piles, push piles, micro piles, and innovations such us the concentric smart pier for crawl space supports, a revolutionary pile that allows the piles to hydraulically driven under a crawl space.
Most people start to realize they have problems with the supports of their crawl space with there are sags of the floor, gaps between the floor and walls… and “springy floors”…. Floors that move up and down as you walk over them. We have built a great service to replace old non engineered supports with engineered ones. This works great…. But sometimes it is about more than just the vertical supports and soils.
Quite often the wood framing is not able to span between those vertical supports…. For a variety of reasons. Sometimes the joists or beams are not substantial enough or their spacing from each other is to far to support the loads above. Our engineering teams measure those carefully and calculate the needed requirements for long term performance. We can then send out our in-house carpenter or suggest a licensed carpentry contractor.
Damp crawl space air allows for the perfect condition for mold, mildew, fungi, termites, carpenter ants, beetles and a host of many other organisms.
Sometimes after calculating what should work, it becomes clear that that it is deflecting and unable to span despite what the calculations say. What gives? Usually this is the result of wood rotting from the attack of wood eating organisms. And this can be fixed with additional reinforcement or sistering of those wood elements. But what about preventing future crawl space damage?
Now we return to the subject of moisture in the crawl space. By venting in wet air, that same air when it comes into contact with wood condenses and liquid water forms on the surfaces of the wood; similar to when water condenses on a cold coke in a humid environment. It is that humid environment that is the perfect condition for mold, mildew, fungi, termites, carpenter ants, beetles and a host of many other organisms.
If this happens on a continuous basis, your wood is fighting a losing battle with time. If in fact this continues, the cost to repair or replace all of that wood superstructure and floors is catastrophic. The solution is to encapsulate the crawl space, sealing out that moist air… and all of the organisms from the microscopic to the macroscopic, preserving your structure for the future!
In summary, preserving your home's crawl space will add value and storage space to your home as well as prevent future water damage.
