Tooley, an expert in diagnosing problems with houses, hopes to show Carolinas home builders better construction methods during a series of workshops over the next four months. Tooley says he intends to help builders avoid construction flaws that he sees again and again in new houses. That often happens, Tooley says, because warm air enters the crawl space through vents and condenses on the cooler ground and surfaces beneath the house. Tooley recommends building crawl spaces without traditional vents, a practice recently allowed by the N.C. building code. Poor grading and drainage that lets water flow toward the house.
Crawl spaces are often lower than the surrounding ground, and that can invite problems.
The crawl space should be as high as or higher than the ground around it, Tooley says. Leaks in heating ducts. In 1994, Advanced Energy studied 100 new houses across the state and found the average one was losing between 15 and 25 percent of its heated or cooled air through duct leaks. Poorly installed insulation. The problems aren't unique to the Carolinas.