— Thinking about building sealed and conditioned crawl spaces in wet areas? "DON’T”! Here’s why! - BiltWise Structures’ Greenwood SC President, Dan Hobbs, spent years building in New Orleans. “There everything is wet and, since much of the city is within levees and below the level of the adjacent Mississippi River, they address this by building on short piers and not worrying about what happens underneath. As part of that, everything except DWV outfalls are either on the main level or in the attic -- electrical wiring, HVAC, supply plumbing, etc. “Any crawlspace foundation, whether conditioned or not, requires either a perimeter foundation drain to daylight (perforated drain pipe in gravel) or a sump pump if the soils are not self-draining (See https://lnkd.in/gqb2Z4jV). So a wet area is inherently not self-draining and, unless you are lucky enough to have a creek or significant fall somewhere nearby, there may be no place to drain to daylight. If you do, then let's have a discussion of a conditioned crawlspace. “Also, even if you were to install a mechanical system for perimeter drainage (which is not recommended -- too much cost and maintenance) there is still the opportunity for the hydraulic pressure of the water to drive seepage into the crawlspace. “When shipping homes to NOLA, we designed the perimeter beam of the floor system and then defined the location of the piers. The builder then poured a grade beam and built the piers at the designated locations. A builder just did the same in Bluffton with one of our homes. Check out the picture of the house in this post. “A final note on insulation in these situations -- use closed cell foam. Since the bottom side of the floor system is open to exterior air and small nesting creatures, it must be impervious and inhospitable. The best way to do that is to set the home, make all connections and then spray closed cell foam. “We can do this in the plant, but we would want to make sure clients will have no post-set penetrations. Otherwise you then have to patch, and that is a pain. Easiest thing is to wait until all penetrations -- line sets, fiber optic, gas line, etc. -- are done and have someone spray.” Solve your building problems with BiltWise. Our staff are the experts with years of experience on how to make your project easier with Modular. Contact us at Info@BiltWiseStructures.com | www.BiltWiseStructures.com #ModularHomes #OffsiteConstruction #WhyModular Gary Fleisher Ken Semler Matthew Cooper Gerry McCaughey Matt Belcher Jim Griffin Eric Schaefer Doug Tollin Mark Wille Nolan Browne Rob Howard Gene Meredith Andrew Seelye Fernando Calderon Jefre Outlaw Larry Brodar Steve Bradley Audree Grubesic Ryan Colker George W. Lodge Randy Brown Jennifer Castenson Jeffrey Cook Tina Holtz Dave Cooper 🎥 Ben Hershey Jake Legacy Bobby Neal Jackson Kevin Polkow Gabe Maser Devin Perry Arezou Sadoughi, Ph.Ds. Assoc. AIA Ari Carvalho Bobby Vance, AIA Darin Zaruba Victor DePhillips
I like the explanation of the use of closed cell foam and the benifits of spraying it on site once the home is set and completed to reduce the potential need for patching.
Samia Bibi
1y
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Business Executive / Real Estate Investor
1yNice house. Currently for sale in Bluffton SC! IM if interested