No Escape

Did you know that 40-50% of the air in your home came from the crawl space? That’s right, there is no escape from your crawl space. You can close your crawl space up and never go down there and pretend it doesn’t exist. It won’t work; there will come a time that your crawl space will remind you that it does exist. Have you ever noticed a musty odor during or after a heavy to moderate rain? Stack effect is the natural air flow in a home. It starts in the crawl space and moves up through the home. Have you been in your crawl space lately? Pretending your crawl space doesn’t exist does not make your crawl space go away. Out of every breath you take in your home nearly half of the air traveling to your lungs came from the crawl space. Have courage and go in your crawl space and take some pictures. Choose your favorite picture, blow it up and paste pictures of furniture on it. We must all come to grips with the truth that the crawl space is as much a part of our home as our children’s bed rooms or our living room. The best place to start to make sure you have a healthy house is to have a healthy crawl space. A healthy crawl space is a dry encapsulated crawl space. You can run and hide but there is no escape from the CRAWL SPACE. If you would like a healthy crawl space and need a free inspection call 318-828-7897 or visit www.swaincollc.com

DownSpout Extensions-Why and How

For many Indiana homeowners, extending your downspouts away from your home can have many benefits. Especially when installed correctly. One benefit of extending your downspouts away from your home is that it will greatly reduces your chance for potential foundation issues down the road. When downspouts are not extended the water is dumping usually right next to your foundation. This excess amount of water will expand, and erode soil around your foundation, which in return can cause structure foundation issues such as settling. Extending the downspouts can also help cut down on the amount of water or moisture that gets into your crawl space. As mentioned before, when not extended, downspouts allow large amounts of water to be dumped next to your homes foundation. This water can also tend to seep thru the foundation and into the crawl space. To give you an idea of the amount of water your downspouts can produce consider this. One inch of rain on a 1200 sq.ft. home produces about 750 gallons of water. That is a lot of water to be dumping right next to your homes foundation. Also you want to be sure that the downspout extensions your installing are done correctly. A few things to stay from when installing downspout extensions. First thing I would recommend would be to always use a solid form of pipe or tile to extend your downspouts, whether you extend them underground or above. I have seen many houses who have downspout extensions running into a perforated pipe or tile. This still allows the water to seep out next to the foundation. A solid pipe or tile will prevent this seepage from happening. Be sure to extend them far enough away so that the water isn't making its way back toward your foundation. As far as what type of solid pipe or tile to use really depends on your preference. I typically would recommend a solid 4" PVC type of pipe, such as a schedule 40. I recommend this because this type of downspout extension has a few more benefits than other forms of solid pipe, such as flex tile. Downspout extensions can tend to get clogged with roof debris and leaves. With a solid PVC type of downspout extension, they can easily be snaked to relive any type of clog. This is much harder with a solid flex tile. Also, if your downspout extension is going to be installed underground in an area where heavy equipment or cars may be crossing over, a solid PVC type of downspout extension proves to be much stronger as well. To find out more information on downspout extensions and other crawl space issues visit www.swaincollc.com