Crawl space & mold

[Sibley]

Hey all, hoping someone knows something about this mess.

It appears that I got some water in my dirt crawl space in the recent rain/snow melt that flooded parts of the midwest. A few days after the storm, I got a mold/musty smell in the house. I had poked my head into the crawl (best I can do - I can't actually get out of it, and had no one around to help), but saw no water.

Well, my allergies and asthma would beg to differ. There must have been at least some water, and I'm guessing it reactivated something in the dirt. So, what do I do? I can not go in the crawl right now - not only can I not get out, but with my asthma right now it's a REALLY bad idea to go down there. I like being able to breathe.

[SwordGuy]

We bought a dehumidifier unit and plugged it in under the house.   We had drains there so we just fed the hose from the dehumidifier to the drains.  Otherwise, we would have had to go under there and empty it.

Cleared out our musty smell and mold issues really fast.   I think I paid about $200 on Amazon.

[Sibley]

It would be nice if that would be adequate to fix this issue! Really don't know though. I owe my neighbor a steak dinner, he's going to head in tonight to inspect and see exactly what's going on.

Of course, there's no such thing as a floor drain at my house anywhere, and there's no power in the crawl. So it would be a challenging fix to implement, even if it would be enough.

In the meantime, I alternately can't breath decently and feel really weird due to medicine side effects. Plus, allergies are keeping me congested. Overall, I sound GREAT. /s

[Just Joe]

Filter face mask. $25. Used by people doing some kinds of paint work.

As far as no power is concerned, extension cords get the job done.

Mold erradication.  Have seen on TV  where they blasted a moldy attic with dry ice and then vacuumed up the mold.

[Linea_Norway]

There are cordless dehumidifiers. You'd need to empty those once in a while. Maybe you can put on close to the entrance.

Otherwise you'll need to look at the cause of the problem. Do you need better drainage around your house?

[Sibley]

Status update.

The crawl space is drying out and the mold smell is almost gone now. Which is helpful. Also getting the asthma under control. Given it's a dirt crawl and has the dead grass in it, I'm willing to bet that there's inactive mold in the soil and when you add water it comes back to life.

I strongly suspect the water came from the front corner of the house where I do have a drainage problem. The best solution (french drain) is not one I'm able to implement right now, but I have a 2nd best solution (working gutters with extension piece) in place which works great, until the bottom section of the gutter falls off and the water just dumps there. Which is what happened in the big storm. At least some of the water drained into the crawl.

At this point, since it seems to be self correcting and the electricians are due to come back in a couple weeks and make more of a mess down there, I'm just going to leave it for now. This summer I will figure out what makes sense to do - I needed to do something anyway because the floor was so cold this winter. I can't actually seal the crawl space entirely, there's no way to ensure proper airflow, so I've gotta figure out the next best option.

Re using a mask - I'm guessing you don't have asthma? Mask or no mask, my physical activities are severely limited right now. Assuming you don't have asthma, a way to get a sense of what it's like is to breathe through a drinking straw for a few minutes. I do use a mask when I've gone in the crawl in the past, and will continue to do so.

[AccidentialMustache]

Get a disposable n95 mask. Get it tight so it does its job. Don't reuse it.

It is the sort of thing hospital staff use with TB patients. We have a nurse friend who's visited a place in the country we picked up with the intent of retiring to eventually that has ... issues. He has mold allergies and he said while he can tell it is there (through non-respiratory exposure) it wasn't a problem to dig around it for a while with us.

[LessIsLess]

Long term, you need to take care of the water drainage issue, otherwise you'll be back here posting an update (mold is back!)

[couponvan]

Sibley - long term I have a mister for the FIRE house that I can spray concrobium mold killer with. I used it for my flooded basement and it did make a difference. They sell a spray as well. I still have a few more areas to treat - but any that I have treated seem 99% better.

[Sibley]

All mold smell is gone now, and even better I can breath again! Meds are wonderful :)

Yes, I will work on the drainage issue. I was chatting with my neighbor and he had a really good idea which if it works would help a lot (short of a French drain at least).

It also appears that I can air seal the house from the crawl space, without sealing the whole crawl. So that might be the way to go. Nothing's being done yet - it snowed again, and still have electricians coming next week.

[Just Joe]

Re using a mask - I'm guessing you don't have asthma? Mask or no mask, my physical activities are severely limited right now. Assuming you don't have asthma, a way to get a sense of what it's like is to breathe through a drinking straw for a few minutes. I do use a mask when I've gone in the crawl in the past, and will continue to do so.

This wouldn't prevent the mold triggered asthma for you? Nope, never had asthma myself.

"3M 07193 Dual Cartridge Respirator Assembly,Organic Vapor/P95,Large"

[Sibley]

Re using a mask - I'm guessing you don't have asthma? Mask or no mask, my physical activities are severely limited right now. Assuming you don't have asthma, a way to get a sense of what it's like is to breathe through a drinking straw for a few minutes. I do use a mask when I've gone in the crawl in the past, and will continue to do so.

This wouldn't prevent the mold triggered asthma for you? Nope, never had asthma myself.

"3M 07193 Dual Cartridge Respirator Assembly,Organic Vapor/P95,Large"

@Just Joe For me at least, it's a closing the barn door after the horse escapes situation. Masks will only help with prevention, and I do use them for that purpose. Once I'm dealing with a flare, my lungs are pissed and don't work (tons of inflammation shrinking my airways, plus mucus gumming things up further) so I can't breathe regardless. It becomes, at least for a while, a round-the-clock problem where I simply cannot breathe freely at any point, regardless of the situation and medicines applied. There are short acting meds to keep me breathing (but I can still feel the inflammation), and long acting meds to actually fix the problem, but it takes a week or 2 to do so.

Other people's asthma may work differently, I just know mine.

[Just Joe]

Thank you for the insight.

[skeeder]

I had a crawl at my last house and I encapsulated it.  I'd highly recommend it if your in the midwest.  Vented crawlspaces are a plague, super cold in the winter and nasty in the summer.  I too struggle with allergies.

I'd also check into just adding a small sump-pump (with drains obviously) and cementing the whole thing in, because after I got done insulating and throwing down thick plastic--I'm not sure I saved much money if I had just treated it like a basement and filled it in.

Get a couple quotes and talk to the guys who do this...they really really know their stuff for the area you live in (things that work in the south do NOT work in the midwest).