Cleaning your gutters is a vital step in lowering the humidity in your crawlspace and entire home. Mold spores are everywhere and they are waiting for the right conditions to grow and give off spores that cause us breathing problems. 70% relative humidity is enough to activate dormant spores. A damp smelling crawl space has at least 80%.
A home that has had the gutters overflowing has likely had many hundreds of gallons of water enter the crawl space. It can take years, if ever, under these conditions, for a crawlspace to dry out enough to stop mold growth. Building engineers estimate that thirty to as much as fifty percent of the air you breathe in your home has passed through the crawl space. This air may be picking up some undesirable things in its journey.
There is a simple way to check if your gutter drains are plugged up. Simply insert a water hose into the drain or gutter and turn it on. Water will back up if there is an underground blockage. However, this will not tell you if the drain is broken alongside of the foundation footing and pouring water into the crawl space.
Someone needs to inspect the inner edges of the foundation from inside the crawl space for signs of water entry. Walk around your house and look for sunken areas of lawn right beside the house. These depressed areas are almost always caused by water movement or rodent tunneling.
Crawl Space Portland, and our parent company Nature First Pest Control, has over30 years of experience in diagnosing these issues.
Stop the musty smells in your home. It may be easier than you think!