If there is an inexplicable smell invading your Columbia home, then there’s a chance that it’s coming from your ventilated crawl space. Because of the stack effect, most of the air you breathe in your home comes from the crawl space. Hot air from the outside enters your crawl space, and, because hot air is lighter than cold air, the air rises into your home from the crawl space. If there are openings from which air is able to enter your crawl space, then it’s not a stretch to say that water is able to seep through as well. A wet, ventilated, crawl space will not have a pleasant smell, so keep that in mind every time you have trouble finding the source of odors around your home.
If there is humidity in your crawl space, then there will also be mold. Mold can grow in various corners of your foundation and can influence how “clean” the air smells down there. Crawl spaces are also excellent places for animals and insects to build nests in since they’re open, covered, unoccupied by humans, and full of moisture. Dead animal carcasses, cockroach eggs and exoskeletons, and animal droppings are all things you can find in crawl spaces. You can attempt to clear out your crawl space all you want, but, unless you waterproof and ventilate it, it will be a continuous problem.
To stop water and animals from entering your foundation, you need to cover up any holes or vents and encapsulate the space. Crawl space vent covers are a quick way to do the first step, and encapsulation can be done with a vapor barrier. For insulation, you need a material that is capable of completely trapping air in the space so that none of it reaches your home. We recommend AquaStop ExTremeBloc, a reflective insulation material with an R-value of 11 that is more than capable of keeping your crawl space air from escaping.