Crawl Space Ninja Show
Welcome to "Healthy Home ABCs with Michael Church," where we dive into the essentials of improving indoor air quality. Learn practical tips for fixing your attic, basement, and crawl space to create a healthier home environment.
Crawl Space Ninja Show
The Pipe That Led Nowhere: A Homeowner's Waterproofing Adventure
Discover the remarkable transformation of a North Carolina homeowner who took matters into his own hands to solve serious foundation moisture issues after discovering a shocking truth: the previous "waterproofing" system was actually directing water INTO his crawl space!
When Ian purchased his Durham home, he knew there were issues with the partial basement and crawl space. What he didn't anticipate was discovering that someone had installed drainage pipes that terminated inside the house, effectively creating a water delivery system rather than an escape route. Even more surprising was finding that his professional home inspector had failed to identify these critical moisture problems or perform basic humidity testing in the below-grade spaces.
Taking a comprehensive approach to exterior waterproofing, Ian demonstrates the proper techniques that have transformed his previously wet, musty space into a comfortable home office. His meticulous work included excavating around the foundation, applying a thick rubberized membrane, installing foam board insulation, and creating a proper drainage envelope with quality materials. The results speak for themselves – nearly six years later, the space remains dry and comfortable with minimal dehumidification needed.
This episode offers invaluable guidance for homeowners facing similar challenges, highlighting the importance of quality materials over cheap alternatives, proper slope for drainage pipes, and verification of pipe termination points. Whether you're considering a DIY approach or hiring professionals, these lessons will help you achieve lasting results and avoid costly mistakes. For those with older homes, mature vegetation, or complex water management needs, exterior waterproofing provides a durable solution worth the initial investment.
Have you experienced water issues in your crawl space or basement? Share your challenges or questions in the comments below to join our community of problem-solvers tackling these common homeowner headaches.
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Hey, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja. I am here with Ian and Ian. I asked you to come on our channel because you reached out to us, decided to take on your own crawl space and you've done a lot of great work and I thought some of the things that you've done should be shared with our viewers. If you want to tell us a little bit about the overview of the project, where you're from all that kind of stuff and let's dive in, we're going to cover some outside foundation waterproofing that you did, but you also are obviously you're in your crawl space. You're going to start working on that. I think you said this weekend. Tell us a little bit about this project that you're working on.
Ian:Again, thank you for having me. It's been really great to work with you. I know I did the consultation with you. That was incredibly helpful, but yeah, this has been a big project. We bought this house knowing that it had some issues and then also found out that it had more issues as we were going along.
Michael Church:That always happens doesn't it, it does.
Ian:We're in Durham, north Carolina. The house is located it's kind of on top of a hill, it's not? You know it does I feel like you know everybody around here always talks about, you know, flooding basements, flooding crawl spaces. It's a lot of clay, it's just, you know, kind of wet and humid and swampy.
Michael Church:Well, interestingly, north Carolina, at least statistically, according to YouTube, is our top watched YouTube state, so there must be a lot of issues in North Carolina, because we get more of our views from North Carolina than any other state. So, yeah, I appreciate you telling us where you're at, because it gives people an idea of the kind of soil and the clay that you're having to deal with, and you know you're in an older home, a lot of mature trees, you know things like that.
Michael Church:So that's another thing that a lot of people don't realize is that if you're trying to do an outside waterproofing project because people always ask me, should I do it from the outside or the inside Well, if it's a brand new neighborhood, you don't have any trees, you might get away with the inside, but I'm looking at a picture of your house and, man, you got a lot of mature vegetation and different things like that. So one of the things I wanted you to share, number one what led you to discovering it? Was it during the buying process that you found out all this, or was it after you moved in?
Ian:It was. It was a little bit of both. We did. I mean, part of what drew us to the house was the fact that it did have a basement and a and then it's like a partial basement, part crawl space and it. You know, it's kind of your, it was your typical. Like you go down there, it's very musty, a lot of flora and fauna inside, and yeah, it was. We knew it was going to be a lot of work. We definitely. I don't know if we saw water in the basement during the buying process, but there was so much efflorescence on the inside of the foundation and you could definitely see evidence of water being in there, right, and we did actually see.
Ian:I think I actually sent you some pictures of what looked like somebody had done some work to put in a foundation drain and so we thought, oh, it looks like somebody knew what they were doing. There was some foam board, there was some gravel foundation drain, and so we thought, oh, it looks like somebody knew what they were doing. You know that there was some foam board, there was some gravel and and, yeah, this, uh, this is the sharing here, this is the, this is a port, this is a slab that was poured kind of back in the crawl space area, I think. Whoever was, what we have heard is that the person living in the house in the 70s turned this into kind of a DIY bomb shelter Right and so toward this slab.
Ian:Obviously you can see where there's a lot of water that's been coming in and we would get a lot like we'd have rain that would be standing or rainwater that would be standing in this area.
Ian:Even in storms that weren't particularly like, not even it wouldn't even take a heavy downpour to get water in this area. Even in storms that weren't particularly like, not even it wouldn't even take a heavy downpour to get water in this area, and so we knew, you know, we wanted to use this space and obviously, you know, for indoor air quality issues we didn't want all that moisture down there. So I knew that we needed to keep the water. It was like, well, we need to. Ideally we'd like to keep the water from getting in, and so that's kind of what led to the deciding to do the foundation drain. We decided to wait until we were doing the bigger remodel and I did. It did the foundation drain kind of in two phases, because I had thought that it I did the side first and then the front. Doing the side because we knew the grade it came straight from our neighbors straight into the foundation and then it did slope away so it would drain down the side of the house but it was coming in on that side.
Michael Church:Let's talk about that just for a second Before we get to your neighbors. When you were purchasing the home, I assume you hired a home inspector. We did, yes, okay. So in your opinion, how beneficial was the home inspector when it came to the crawl space in the basement? Because it's kind of hit or miss with home inspectors, right? So did you have one that you felt did a good job of preparing you for what could have been or what needed to be done in the crawl space? No, okay, that's most of the, and I'm not here to beat up on home inspectors, but you know there are some that really take the time to learn about the crawl space in the basement, and then there are some that want to go in. So I always recommend try to find one that you know is working for you not the real estate company or not, you know, not the agent, right? So because this could be a big deal. So did they even go in? Did they test for humidity or moisture of the walls or any of that sort of stuff at all?
Ian:Well, I don't remember them doing any testing. I mean I have some experience in construction so I was able. I mean I felt like I felt like I had greater expertise than what, like the home inspector did not tell us anything that I did not already know from looking at the house.
Michael Church:We did. He should have at least confirmed in some way. And I used the word testing. I apologize, I didn't mean to use that word. I check humidity, check moisture, because that was using meters. Right, they should have pulled out a you know humidistat and moisture meter and all that, but it didn't sound like any of that was in your report that you received.
Ian:I not not that I remember, I think we were. We were also more focused on some of the. We knew there were some structural issues with the house and we did end up getting a structural engineer out to give us a report, because there was some. There was like a con, an elevated concrete slab that had been a deck, and then there was an addition that the house was built on top of, and so we knew that was going to be an issue. So I think that was really more of our focus in terms of buying it.
Michael Church:Well, that's completely legitimate, because you don't expect a home inspector to be a foundation engineer expert. So I just want to be clear. I'm not saying that the home inspector should be a mold expert or a foundation expert, but they could at least whip out their meters and check humidity and moisture levels, right? I mean, that's something within their purview that you would think they would all do, you know. So if there's any home inspectors watching this, please let us know. You know again, I'm not trying to beat up on you, but you know, is there some training that you all went through? Those of you that do focus on crawl spaces, please comment down below and let us know what you did to bring yourself up on this training, because I really feel like it's a disservice whenever they don't check these moisture levels Right.
Michael Church:You can't go by how you feel, you know. I know you mentioned mustiness. You smelled mustiness and all that. Well, unfortunately, not everybody has a good sense of smell, so they can't go by that. You know some people do, some people don't, but you should trust the meters Right. Go by that. You know some people do, some people don't, but you should trust the meters, right. I mean, that's one of the things that I would like to see more of in our process of buying and selling homes is that these home inspectors kind of focus on that moisture because it's all about humidity, right? I mean, you know you got a major water problem and that foundation problem that you're talking about was probably from the water problem, right? Well, I think the foundation problem that you're talking about was probably from the water problem right?
Ian:Well, I think the foundation problem was from the way it was built problem.
Michael Church:It was the way it was built, okay, well, good. Well, thanks for clarifying that. And you have a brick wall and brick pillars and all that sort of stuff, right? So did the engineer do a good job for you.
Ian:Yes, I thought the engineer was great. The report was really helpful. It helped us, you know, get a much better price on the house. Sure, I think actually you can see in that photo it is. This is in the original part of the house. It is a brick foundation with the piers over there. Kind of on the right in the far distance, you see some block. Yep, I see that and that that is. That is a, some reinforcement that was put in as a result of the structural engineer and then the the new part of the house that we added onto is all a concrete block good, good.
Michael Church:Well, do you mind if we switch gears to the outside real quick, because, uh, I love this, this picture in this video that you got going on here, tell me a little bit about. Is this the way the downspouts looked when you purchased it, or is this something you did right here? What's going on there on the right?
Ian:Yes, that is how it looked when we purchased it. So you see the one on the left sorry, not the video, but of the two downspouts oh, I'm sorry right here. The one on the left is underneath the downspout from the gutter, but there's a gap of about five or ten feet, so it's just kind of a suggestion that the water comes through the townspout into the drain, not actually connected so on a windstorm it might blow it into the pipe.
Michael Church:Is that? Is that the way it works, okay?
Ian:I think you would. You would get a few drops into the pipe and uh, and then, and yeah, and then the other, the pipe on the right is. See, I did a little exploration digging there and you see there's some gravel in there, there was some filter fabric and there's that foam board. So I thought, oh, there must be. That looks kind of like what a foundation drain should be. I guess somebody has done this in the past, but I didn't know where either one of those pipes went. They were not daylit and you know, I couldn't really figure it out from raining. And so there you see, I just put a hose down there one day to see. Like you know, maybe if I just run a hose on full blast and see what happens, maybe I'll find out where the water is going. And yeah, as you're pointing to, the water just came straight back up, right, just came right back out.
Michael Church:So is this that section of the house right here? Is that right?
Ian:Yeah, so that middle picture, you see the two drains, you see the downspout kind of in the top of that picture. Oh, right, there, yeah, up here, not not connected.
Michael Church:Well, even if it was it would have done you good.
Ian:You know, we, you know, maybe we might've dodged some more. I don't know how, how well, if it had they had sealed it to that pipe, I don't know how much it would have backed up you know.
Michael Church:Well, maybe they were trying, you know, to force the water to to, you know, dig out the dirt at the end to make daylight. Maybe that was their plan, was to do that. So let me see if I can find another one. Now, this is you digging all that out, right? So tell us about this experience, how many weekends, or how many hours did this take you to take care of?
Ian:So this was, this was like uh, this was less than a week of work. Um, this, I did this during the, during the renovation. Okay, um, and I, we knew our HVAC units were going to be sitting there along that wall and I I realized, oh, I need to go ahead and do this now because I don't want to have to be moving those later.
Michael Church:Well, and that's a good point. So in this picture is that you had to move the HVAC unit.
Ian:Is that correct? Yes, that's the old one out.
Michael Church:And then this is. This is so. This is that pipe that you stubbed, and I assume the downspout was on this wall. So you dug all that out and moved the engine. There's the gas meter, so yeah. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just want to make sure everybody saw what we were looking at. So go right ahead, right yeah, thanks for clarifying so that was.
Ian:It was not really, I wasn't really planning to do it that week. But then, you know, in talking with all the tradesmen, our mechanical guy who we were working with said, hey, I'm going to put this in next week. I know you said you wanted to do some work and I said, well, I guess I'm doing it now.
Michael Church:Well, not everybody else has the luxury of doing this during a remodel. I mean, you may have to remove your HVAC and be without HVAC for a little bit. Were you all living in the home when you were doing this? No, okay, so a little bit more convenient for you not being there, but just another reason why outside waterproofing can be difficult or more difficult. Different problems you got to address, because a lot of times there's obstacles in the way you don't really think about, and HVAC and a gas meter certainly is an obstacle. So it looks like you did a great job. So did you tar that? What did you put the black underneath the gas meter? Is that that stuff you go to Home Depot and buy and paint on? Or is that something different that you put on there?
Ian:It is a paint on it. Is it's much? I went to a different. I went to like a is it's much I? I went to a different. I went to like a specialty supply store to get it. It is I can. I don't remember the exact name of it, but you'll share that with me.
Michael Church:Later I'll put it in the description of the video, so that way everybody knows okay, yeah it is.
Ian:It is much thicker than I mean. I think the the stuff that you would get at like a big box store. I feel like it's closer to a paint right. This stuff was much more like it.
Michael Church:It was very thick like a rubberized, roll it on, brush it on kind of stuff.
Ian:Yes, it was a yes, a rubberized membrane. Uh, I did, I used one of those uh like very large, like masonry brushes, about five or six inches, and it, I mean, you do have to basically toss the brush out afterwards, I don't. You know, I think I did this work in 2019. I mean, if I was trying to clean that brush afterwards, I would probably still be cleaning it.
Michael Church:Well compared to a builder. So if a builder was doing this or you called possibly some waterproofing contractors, exterior waterproofing contractors they would get that really thin stuff that goes through a paint sprayer. Most likely because they're focused on price, not on quality. And I'm not saying all exterior waterproofers would do that, but certainly the ones that I've seen here in Tennessee that are these spec home builders. They just go and they just spray something on. It almost looks like the stuff that they, that they spray on the patch asphalt. You know it's like a to to make asphalt pretty again.
Michael Church:It's, it's just sprayed on and uh it's not even as good as the stuff they use on asphalt, in my opinion, uh, but so as soon as if you get any shifting or anything like that, it it destroys the seal. You know this stuff. If I'm guessing, as thick as you probably put it on, if it shifts it's going to. It's rubberized, so it's going to shift a little bit with the block Right, yes, yeah, yeah, so good job Did you, did you? It looks like you insulated over it too, is that right?
Ian:I did. Yes, I put some foam board up, which I at the time I I only knew to put the foam board up because as a way to protect the membrane from when you're dumping then, because then obviously when you dump the gravel in, you don't want that gravel to then be puncturing that membrane. I think if I were to do it again, I probably would have used a thicker foam board, just given, given the fact that I do actually, you know, want to be able to use the, the basement and crawl space inside. It would have just added a little more r value, right, but I think it's. I mean, this is doing great as it is.
Ian:And then, yeah, so you put the, do the rubberized membrane, put the foam board on the foam board up, after the membrane cures, and then lay the filter fabric inside. You're starting a burrito and that's the. You see it, that's the black there. I just used kind of the like standard on that side. I just kind of used the standard landscape fabric that you get at the big box. I and I did then find, when I was ended up doing the front, I did something called a I think it's like a non-woven geotextile fabric, right which is uh, it has a hang on, hang on, and you cut out on me just for a minute.
Michael Church:You said it was incredibly what oh it's.
Ian:It's incredibly thick. It's like uh, I mean, I think I could probably make a winter coat out of the leftovers, but it does have a very high flow rate and I think I think it would. It seems like that's just a sturdier fabric. It also came in a lot. You could order it in wider dimensions as well, which just make it ended up being easier, instead of having to double up, uh, layers of fabric do you get that from?
Michael Church:like a pond distribution company or one of those kind of places, maybe a golf course people that service your water industry, or the landscapers?
Ian:I think it was actually from a company that does French drains Right, and then they sell the products that they use.
Michael Church:We call it a pond felt. A lot of times when you install a pond, they use it. It's super thick and it's really, really good stuff, Good job and real quick. For those of you that don't know, when you're insulating a basement or a crawl space, in many states you can either insulate the outside or the inside, and it still counts inside and it still count In your scenario. If you would have put an R10 on the outside, that would have counted. You wouldn't have had to insulate the inside. I just wanted to point that out. If you all are thinking about doing an exterior project, it's a good idea, and I'm not saying I wouldn't do both, but you certainly don't need to do both. If you do the outside, Well, it looks great and then you got that white pipe sticking up. Is that your clean out so you can get in there and clean that out if you need to? Or is that going to be what the uh, what the downspout goes into this cap piece right here?
Ian:yes, that one. I I think that that is the clean out. Yes, uh, and then there is. It might be blocked, but there are two. I do have two separate pipes in there One, the perforated pipe that's at the very bottom, and then, and with that, has a clean out. And then there's the separate pipe that you see there close to the top, right next to the house, that is for the downspouts.
Michael Church:Well, that's a great point too. So this picture on my left this is the old perforated pipe that got clogged, and I'm glad you brought that up. You don't want downspouts to go into this pipe, you want that pipe to capture groundwater, and then your downspouts need to be in a solid either sewer or drain, sewer and drain pipe, wall sewer and drain pipe or a four-inch. If you want to spend the money, it's a lot more expensive for the four-inch sewer pipe. So do you go with the sewer and drain pipe or do you go with the four-inch, the thicker pipe, pvc? I think it was sick almost five years ago, so I'm asking you to remember a lot.
Ian:I yes, I, I, I don't, I don't think I'm, I don't think it was the sewer and drain pipe. Okay, it was a thicker stuff. It was. I, I know, going with the pvc. In general, it was more expensive than the, than like the black corrugated, right, but what, what I had been told was it's like the corrugated is going to slow down the water and in this application, because it does that, right, right. And in this application, you're trying to get the water away from the house as fast as possible, right, that's right.
Michael Church:One of the things that you could use also with this is the Hydraway. Obviously, I didn't know about Hydraway in 2019. We didn't have a relationship with them, but Hydraway could also be put up against the foundation or replace the perforated pipe that you used, and, since it's a cavity system, it will remove water from the foundation really quickly. You just can't use it as a downspout pipe, so it's got to be a closed system. Anyway, it looks like you did a fantastic job. That was how long ago. That was 2019. And I can take your child off of there if you want me to. I apologize for showing that picture. How long has it been and is everything working smoothly?
Ian:Yes, that's right. So I did that work in 2019. And then obviously a lot of things happened in 2020, including the birth of our child, so things kind of slowed down a little bit. But the and I also had not done the work on the front because I thought that there was a foundation drain, but then we continued to learn. The water issues in the basement got better, but they were not definitely not fixed this wall right here.
Michael Church:This is this front part that's got the green board on it. Is that correct? That's correct. That's this view. Your downspout that you corrected was at the far end of that corner because you thought this wall was done properly because of that pipe, that newer pipe that was sticking out. Is that right?
Ian:that's correct, yes, and I and I didn't. And when I had put a hose in there and put let water go down it, the water did not come back up and I still didn't know where exactly it daylit. But I was like, well, I, I hope it's working, um, but anyways, we found out it wasn't.
Michael Church:Uh, because, as pictured on this side, all that felt and is that the pipe did it? Did it make a? I don't know what that is.
Ian:But no, that is just uh, that is the, that's the felt. Um, okay, that is just uh. Just, it's so wet, it's just kind of bulging out. But yeah, you can see they did not. They didn't continue it anywhere.
Michael Church:And then it just dubbed it in right here. That was it that was it and then there's your board that they put to make it look like they did something right, To give you that false sense of security that they waterproofed it properly.
Ian:Right. Well, they had dug it out all the way down to the footing. They filled the entire thing with gravel and it was wrapped in the felt. They had the board on there, but then, as you see, on the right, the piece of pipe that is left there, that is where it stopped. And then you see the concrete that's poured on top of the footing like a dam, and then that pipe goes into the crawl space and then it slopes uphill. So that's where all the water was going. It was draining into the crawl space.
Michael Church:All right. So just real quick, you get what you pay for. Probably I'm I'm guessing that was probably the cheapest bid, but not always We've. We've replaced some jobs that were very expensive. Word of advice Don't let them cover the pipe until you see where it's going. Right, would you? Would you agree, ian?
Ian:I absolutely.
Michael Church:Yes, you just, you just never know what they're gonna do. I bought a house and they had a downspout and then they had a great drain and it was the same thing. The downspout and the grape drain were that far from each other so the downspout was just draining into stubbed soil and the grape drain was literally six inches. They could have very easily just attached it. I don't know if they just didn't want to drive the Home Depot and buy the fitting or what, but it's nuts, you know.
Michael Church:And when people are like I can't believe y'all are more expensive. This is, you know, if you're paying cheap for something, I guarantee you that contractor is going to find some way to cut a corner somewhere and you may not notice it for years, but it's you. You gotta make sure you're paying for quality labor, because there's a lot of crazy, crazy things that I've seen over the years and it's hard for me to justify, you know, when I'm three or four thousand dollars more expensive than my competitor, you know. I've literally seen like mold treatments where where they only treated the mold facing the door because they didn't think the homeowner would crawl in and look behind the joist. I mean, I've seen stuff like that. It's crazy. Just do the job, right. I mean I don't understand, right. Anyway, I'm sorry.
Ian:Yeah, it's like I mean, you know, it's like this is a seven process and it's like they got. They got six of the steps. It's like why just?
Michael Church:they were so close and then they took it in the crawl space and went uphill. Is that what you said? Is that this one? Yes, all right, so they stepped. So this is that wall on the inside. They stubbed it into the crawl space and now the pipe starts going uphill, is that?
Ian:correct. And then it just kind of they just they ran it, you know, maybe 10 feet inside the crawl space and then just buried the whole thing.
Michael Church:So they're dumping your outside water in to the crawl space.
Ian:Yes, which explains a lot of the moisture issues that we were having.
Michael Church:Holy mackerel, that's, that's just man, that's criminal. I mean, I don't even know how else to say it. That's not neglect or stupidity, that's just outright malice. That's all, that is. Yeah, so anyway, it's probably his brother-in-law.
Ian:Maybe it was. Maybe it was part of the design of the bomb shelter that they need a water source. Yeah, it was like fallout.
Michael Church:We're going to get rainwater into the bomb shelter through this muddy, nasty perc pipe and then we're going to filter the mud out. Yeah, maybe.
Ian:Oh man, filter the mud out. Yeah, maybe, oh yeah, yeah, that's I mean I don't you know what. Uh, you, we were talking about the structural engineer earlier, uh, who was very helpful, but uh, his, he did have a great joke. He said I, he was like I, I'm happy to lend my expertise, but I think you probably need either an anthropologist or an exorcist to explain some of these things oh, oh, and I'm sorry, I'm laughing.
Michael Church:This isn't funny, I apologize, it's funny now. I bet it wasn't funny. When you found this out, I bet you were pretty hot.
Ian:It was. No, actually it was kind of a relief. No, Because it just kind of, you know, it was like oh, all this makes sense now. A lot of questions were answered.
Michael Church:I bet it was. That's a lot of gravel. Is that what it took to do this?
Ian:This is the front of the house right, that is the front, yes, and that is actually the second load of gravel. Oh wow, it was. You know I did have to dig out a lot and it is kind of tough. You know it's tough to put it back. I think I have a couple pictures somewhere showing I kind of used some.
Michael Church:uh, yeah, you see that that's where that the the one on the right, that entire area was filled with gravel same membrane as you used on the other side same rubberized membrane and all that, and then you put foam board up against it and then you put a felt over the foam board. Is that what I'm looking at?
Ian:here. That is right, yes, and then, kind of, you know, taped up the, just taped the felt to the foam board to try to keep it up while filling it in. Sure, and that's not the final design that I went with. There for the. In that the picture with the block. There for the in that, the picture with the the block. I was just trying to give myself a visual indicator of where the, the drain, the sewer drain and the water line came into the house, just just in case we ever had to dig it out sure again, it makes sense.
Michael Church:That way, you know exactly where it's located at right. So, yes, and this is the. Is this the final product?
Ian:this is the before and the after yes, or and almost almost after. I guess I hadn't been totally finished cleaning up and filling everything in there looks like you had to take your deck out. We did yes it, well. It took it. A. We did yes, well, a lot of it had been built with non-pressure treated wood.
Michael Church:I'm guessing that was the lowest bid. Probably too lot of.
Ian:Seemed like there was a lot of DIY solutions and probably things that were not inspected.
Michael Church:I got you and this is the other side before and after with your new HVAC and all that sort of stuff. Is that right?
Ian:Yes, correct Yep, and so that I brought the gravel all the way up to. I just didn't want to take any chances. I wanted to make sure that any surface water and then any groundwater was going to get into that gravel and then get into the drain.
Michael Church:Did you cover the gravel with anything decorative or did you leave it like this?
Ian:It's been like this. We may cover it at some point.
Michael Church:It looks great. I'm not complaining, I just didn't know if this was the final picture as it stands today.
Ian:Got it. No, there's grass growing now that we're not running heavy equipment over it. Sure, it's about 18 inches wide, I think. Well, you know, we have a few plantings, have some bushes and stuff that we may just let that be around the house. But yeah, I think they didn't want to put anything right up on the foundation either.
Michael Church:Well, and I like this picture because it shows you mentioned it when we first started this conversation about how close your neighbor was, and this is a good indication of all of their water dumping on you and your water dumping on them, and it's just kind of hard whenever your houses are that close together to do it correctly, so I bet you're probably still getting a lot of water from them that you're having to redirect.
Ian:Oh, yes, definitely Lots of water.
Michael Church:Yeah, well, it looks great. Ian, good job. And this weekend you're going to tackle your crawl space, is that correct? So you bought some products from our DIY store and you decided to spend your three day weekend working. And you decided to to spend your three day weekend working.
Ian:That's right. Yes, I know I was. I was trying to get I get more of it. We filmed this. But I yeah, I mean honestly, I mean why it's been so long since that I haven't done the crawl space is because doing doing this work on the foundation drain on the outside. It solved.
Michael Church:So many of the issues that I can. I mean I this, this is my office now, right? Yeah, I remember you telling me that when we first talked right, that's your office.
Ian:I mean it's comfortable. I have I mean I leave my computer down here, I run a. I have one, just one of those kind of like small dehumidifiers that runs in the summertime and I don't, I mean I don't even have it hooked up to drain it because it. I mean I only have to empty the container, maybe once every couple of days or so.
Michael Church:Well, if you don't mind, we'll end on that. You did a lot of work on the outside. You did it great and all that, but you still needed a dehu in the crawl space, and I assume there's still something going on down there. Or maybe you're just finishing the crawl space just to, just because you want to make it look nice, so, uh, so did the outside 100% fix everything and control all the moisture in the crawl space, or are you still doing the crawl space because there's just a little bit that needs to be addressed on the inside?
Ian:Yeah, there is just a little bit that needs to be addressed. I mean, the crawl space is just the dirt floor and I'm sure I mean you know where it's a concrete slab. I'm sure it was not. I'm sure there's no vapor barrier under it. So there you know. And also I mean I do leave this door next to me. I mean I leave it open mostly when I'm working, just because it's pleasant. So we're in North Carolina, it's humid, so there's a lot of humidity coming in here. But I mean I do want to just be able to use a space, uh, create, keep it more like, um, more like, you know, uh, a regular living space, uh. And so that's why, that's why I'm doing sealing up the rest of the crawl space and, um, yeah, using using the dehumidifier to just keep it a little more comfortable.
Michael Church:Now, are you using that space in the winter too, or are you comfortable enough down there in the wintertime?
Ian:It is. Yeah, it's a I do. I mean I have a little space heater that sometimes I use, but it's, it is also. I mean it's I, I, but it is also. I mean I've removed the insulation in the joists and our first floor HVAC is down here, so I'm sure there's a little bit of leakage that we're getting to keep it more like the conditioned space.
Michael Church:And you're going to insulate the interior walls? Yes, so it should even be more comfortable once you get that done. I would guess.
Ian:Right, yeah, because the wall behind me is not, it doesn't have it's all above ground and it doesn't have there's no vapor barrier on it. So yeah, I mean whatever, there's definitely moisture coming through it.
Michael Church:Sure, sure, absolutely Well, ian, this is great, thank you. Thank you for taking this time to walk us through your exterior project, and I love the fact that it was almost six years ago, because it just shows when you do it right, it'll last for a long time. So good job and kudos to you for doing that. That's fantastic and, if you don't mind, send me some pictures. Uh, after you get done with the crawlspace this weekend, I'd like to see it yeah, absolutely, I will definitely send them okay, great.
Michael Church:Well, I'm michael church with crawlspace ninja here with ian from durham, north carolina, and we hope you make it a happy and blessed day and we'll see you later.