Quote:
Originally Posted by zakthor
The crawl space smells like a … 3 year old parking garage. There’s concrete smell in the air after I climb in. It’s not moisture smell but like concrete that has eaten all the water and wants more, and it’s caustic to my sinuses. Concrete dust.
The room, when it’s left for a week without dehumidifier… smells wet. Not mold, no dank, just wet air, maybe a bit like wet latex paint. My wife and kids can’t smell it but my father and I can. After dehumidifier runs it smells like nice wood and cheap carpet, and a bit of oil paint on window trim still drying after 25 years.
Good idea about the plastic on concrete!
The rooms windowsills are on the top of the foundation wall, and at ground level. Inside they’re about 3ft above the subfloor. So foundation wall is 6’ of dirt against it. Weird topology outside the dirt slopes steeply down away from the windows, maybe that’s why there isn’t high water pressure forcing water inside. But I’ll do the plastic test and see. It all looks crazy dry. Like I said above the crawl space looks and smells new after 55 years.
I went back down and I’m pretty sure the crawl space is drier than the room above. It’s like being in desiccant. Like cement dust is still active.
I’m going to keep the guest rooms door closed a few days with dehumidifier off and see if it stays dry. Normally it’s always open and folks often leave garage door open.
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Is this foundation wall concrete/cinder block? and on the outside dirt is piled up sloping away? If so the moisture may be coming through the wall not from below, especially if the crawl is as dry as you say.