All-Dry of the Carolinas Before & After Photos

When it comes to your crawlspace, protecting it from moister is very important. In this home the crawlspace was taking on large amounts of moister. Not only was moister the problem, but the crawlspace was littered with debris, trash, and an old liner.  To solve this problem, our All-Dry of the Carolinas team encapsulated the entire crawlspace.

When our All-Dry of the Carolinas crew made it out to Rutherfordton, NC they started their job by removing all trash and insulation that was littering the crawl space. The crawl space underwent a total encapsulation with CleanSpace, Drainage Matting, vent seals, an Aprilaire 1820, and a SuperSump Pump. A hole was dug in the crawl space so the SuperSump Pump could be placed into the ground even with the surface. Drainage matting was placed down before the CleanSpace, this is a dimpled matting system that collects water from the crawl space floor and directs it to the SuperSump Pump. This drainage matting is used when crawl spaces take in a lot of water and need extra help getting it from under the vapor barrier into the pump. From there, CleanSpace was installed which is a 20 mil thick liner that works as a barrier to keep ground moisture from the crawl space floor out of the air. The CleanSpace is then wrapped around the floor and piers of the crawlspace, tucking in tightly under the top of the SuperSump Pump. Once the crawl space is encapsulated an Aprilaire 1820 is added to the crawl space to remove excess moisture from the air into the SuperSump where it is then flushed from the area. Interior sealed vents were the last part of the crawl space encapsulation; they were placed over all vents to keep out air and pests.

The “before” pictures show a dirty crawlspace with unwrapped piers and floor. The “after” picture shows where CleanSpace has been wrapped around the floor and piers to prevent ground moisture from getting into the air.

This customer wanted to make sure his mountain home was protected while he was away. It can be stressful enough worrying about a home that you are living in now, much less one that is several hours away. This customer decided the work was worth it for the peace of mind, as well as the quality in products and excellent service that All-Dry of the Carolinas provides to each and every customer. The home was strictly a crawlspace/CleanSpace job. While we installed a few supplementary products such as a Santa Fe dehumidifier and a SuperSump sump pump, the main focus was that of the CleanSpace encapsulation system.

The "before" picture shows what the basement looked like before any of our products had been installed. You can hardly see it, but they actually do have a crawlspace liner already. However, this is not doing them any good. It is so thin and fragile that it can easily rip and tear just by crawling on it. The other thing about this liner is that it is not properly sealed. If you're looking for something to keep your jeans from getting dirty, that might be the product for you, but if you want real protection from moisture and mold, CleanSpace is the product you need.

The "after" picture shows the crawlspace after our crew had installed the CleanSpace Liner. As you can see, the CleanSpace is laid almost from floor to ceiling. While not all customers and jobs have the CleanSpace go all the way up the wall, this customer was encouraged and wanted to. The only part that is left uncovered is a few inches of wood, for courtesy to other professionals like; pest control and termite inspectors.

Foundation issues can be some of the scariest issues that we see and deal with here at All-Dry of the Carolinas. This home definitely did not have as bad bowing walls as many of the other homes that we see here, because the homeowner was proactive about the issues with their home. However, these small cracks will continue to grow if not watched and taken care of quickly.

One of the biggest causes of bowing walls is the pressure that is created on the outside of the home by the earth, as was the case with this particular house. The type of cracking that can be seen in these pictures is a "stair-step" crack, which is one of the more common types of cracking. One of the things that a lot of people wonder about is the duct tape that the crew puts over the cracks. As you can see between the two photos, the duct tape shows how much the wall has moved and came together.

Wall anchors are able to really make a difference in basement walls, especially because they can be progressively tightened. This means that after they are installed, just months later they can be tightened to provide even more support and bring the wall closer to its original position. It can sometimes be difficult to notice how much the wall anchors really do, but the duct tape certainly makes it much more obvious how much the cracks were closed.

Foundation issues are very serious and can lead to more extensive damage to a home if not taken care of promptly and correctly. There are a number of different foundation issues that can plague a home. One of the ones that we see most often are cracks forming on brick/block foundations. These foundation cracks are usually caused by unstable soil that has settled after the home was built. This is an unfortunate situation but the condition will only get worse as time goes on. 

 This happened to be the situation that this homeowner was in when they called, however they weren't aware of it. This homeowner actually initially called to have our Specialist take a look because of high moisture levels in the crawlspace (which we were able to fix for them). During the initial inspection, our Specialist noticed some cracks in the foundation around the back side of the home. Our Design Specialist notified the homeowner about the cracks and what we could do to take care of the cracks and provide a stable foundation for the home. 

While these photos don't show a great deal of change, the transformation that this home has gone through is quite incredible. There were a total of nine push piers installed on the  backside of this home in order to properly stabilize the home and help to take care of the cracks that had formed. In the second photo you can see one of the push piers while the home was being lifted.