Mold in crawlspace
I live in Gadsden Al,and we purchased a home and for a couple years its been smelling old,i went under the house and found the mold on the west wall where the flower planter is outside the house and by the pipes coming from the bathroom. I fogged the crawlspace very well with corcodium and I no I have to clean the walls too. But I need to bring the height of my front yard up 1 ft and at a slant to stop the water from ever going back under the house.the flower planter is 11/2 ft high and 12ft long 11/2 ft wide. and has brick on the outside. can I take the flowers out and pour concrete on top of the existing dirt so that water cannot enter the soil?? or do I have to take all the dirt out fill the space with concrete then place my fill dirt in the yard to bring my yard up higher? with the dirt being being covered with concrete and the brick that will have the fill dirt in front of it is 11/2 feet from the crawlspace wall will that stop the mold if water over runs my gutters and drains on the concrete and then runs down to the grass?? Please help!!!!!
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Replies
Weldon,
It sounds like the grade around your house slopes toward the house instead of away from the house. Rather than raising the soil level at the problem area, the best solution is to lower the grade gradually so that the soil slopes away from your house towards a newly created swale. Of course, this isn't possible in some cases, but it is the best way to proceed.
It looks like your house has a brick exterior; I don't know if it is brick veneer or structural brick. Raising the grade near a brick house isn't recommended, because it can block weep holes at the base of the wall, or can keep the bottom of the bricks saturated, leading to rotten studs or joists.
No sir Mr. Holladay, I do not have weep holes, Ive checked, the water when it rains heavy will fill up the flower bed and it drains under the house,, I did tear one down on the other side of the house and when I pulled all the dirt out and pulled the bricks there was a huge hole the length of the flower bed and it was filled up with pieces of broken red brick and the water would just flow through the bricks and under the house, so I pour concrete and made it part of my driveway. But if I pull those bushes out the brick wall of the house will be 11/2 feet away from where I would lift my grade to slope because under those flower beds are the same as the one that was just filled with broken bricks? any other suggestion would be great fully appreciated
Thanks for taking the time out to try and help