Top 3 Ways To Keep Your Crawl Space Dry

 Spring is right around the corner and for Indiana that means lots of rain as well. Now is the best time to make sure your homes crawl space stays dry. Protecting your crawl space against standing water is one of the best investments a homeowner can do. Standing water in the crawl space leads to expensive wood rot, musty smells and mold growth. Most of the air in your home you breath in comes directly from your crawl space. If your crawl space has standing water issues like mold growth, this mold also makes its way up into the air you breath in. Keeping your crawl space dry and free of standing water not only protects your home but also the health of everyone in it. Here are Top 3 Ways To Keep Your Crawl Space Dry. 

1. Positive Grading. The first step to ensuring your crawl space stays dry is to inspect the soil grading around your homes foundation. There are two type of soil grading around your home. The first being Negative Grading. Negative grading is when the soil around your foundation is sloped toward your house. This type of grading is bad. It allows storm water to drain toward your homes foundation and into the crawl space or basement. The second type of soil grading is positive grading. Positive grading is good. This is when the soil is sloped away from the homes foundation, allowing water to drain away from your home. Homeowners should inspect the soil grading around the entire foundation of the home. If negative grading is noticed, then more soil may need to be added to create a positive grade. Typically, a 5% slope is great for proper storm water drainage around the home. An easy way to think about it is a 5% slope translate to about a 6" drop per 10'. 

2. Down Spout Extensions. The second step to making sure your crawl space stays dry is making sure all your down spouts are properly extended away from your homes foundation. The roof of your home produces a large amount of water during rain storms. In fact, on a 1200sq.ft. roof 1" of rain will produce around 720 gallons of water. That is an extremely large amount of water that flows through your down spouts and into your yard. If your down spouts are not properly extended away from your home, all that water coming off your roof is then dump right next to your homes foundation. This not only leads to standing water issues in your crawl space, but can also lead to major foundation settling issues. Down spouts should be extended away from your home at a minimum of 10'-15'. This can vary depending of the property lay out. Some down spouts may need to be extended further if the yard is pretty flat or if there are negative grading issues. Extend the down spouts far enough away so that the water doesn't make it's way back to your foundation. This can be accomplished many different ways and can be extended either above the ground or below the ground. 

3. Crawl Space Drainage System. The third step to making sure your crawl space stays dry forever is to install a complete crawl space drainage system around the inside perimeter of the crawl space. In Indiana we tend to deal with high water table issues and have soil that does not allow water to drain very fast. Because of that, Indiana crawl spaces can still have major standing water issues even if the down spouts are extended and the soil has positive grade. When this happens the most effective, permanent solution is to install a interior crawl space drainage system with a sump basin and sump pump. This system collects and directs the water to the sump basin and sump pump which then pumps the water away from your house. For most, this is not a DIY project like the first two ways mentioned above. Homeowners who are dealing with standing water issues after completing the first two recommendations above should seek out a qualified crawl space waterproofing contractor to install a complete crawl space drainage system. In Indiana, our company SwainCo. Crawl Space and Basement Repair is the qualified crawl space waterproofing contractor to call for a complete crawl space drainage system. Click Here to find out more about Indy's most trusted crawl space waterproofer.