Damp crawl space

[jellison]

My crawl space remains damp. The grade of the crawl space is lower than the outside grade. There is a parrall swale, about 10 feet from the front of the house that takes water away from the center of the front to each side. The grade from the front brick veneer wall to the swale allows for fall.

I read the solution that a french drain provides. I would like to avoid this solution.

The foundation and brick veneer,thats underground, does not have foundation a sealer. Would a foundation sealer solve this problem? If I excavate,and seal the foundation does it require termite control?

 

[jheidt2543]

You mention a crawl space, does it have a concrete slab or is it soil? If it is soil, the first thing I would check to see is if there is a vapor barrier over the soil. A crawl space with just a soil "floor" will allow moisture to evaporate from its surface, even if the soil seems dry. So, I would first recommend adding a vapor barrier in the crawl space. Then, I would provide some cross ventilation through the crawl space. This can be done with screened vents or a more high tech solution is to use an attic vent fan through the sidewall, with a humidistat for the on/off control of the fan. Then when the humidity gets to a predetermined setting, the fan turns on.

It sounds like you are conveying the surface water away from the building, so I think your problem is moisture coming up from the soil under the crawl space. Even if you have a vapor barrier, moist can build up in a crawl space that is not ventilated.

 

[Jim6758]

jheidt gave you good advice. If you don't have a "mud slab" over the soil, then you need to install some sort of moisture barrier and ventilate. Concrete is often used for the vapor barrier.