Any Benefit to Having a Clean Crawlspace?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m on dust alert over here, I absolutely HATE closing the windows and turning on the heat. :sigh: No matter what I do, my daughter’s room still smells dusty to me and I worry about it because of her asthma. I’m also extremely sensitive to dust.

So today I was under the house checking the tape on her ductwork. No obvious holes, but I found a few spaces where there might’ve been gaps. I just slathered duct tape all over the joints.

I also found that our dryer duct had come detached, so I fixed that - there’s lint all over the place down there! It would make a great haunted house, very creepy.

Is there any point in cleaning it up? What about all the dust, dirt, and plain old crud down there?

There’s a sheet of visqueen over the packed earth, it could stand to be replaced (plenty of holes). Is that a good idea?

Would these actions reduce the dust in our house? I have to change our furnace filter every month, the thing turns absolutely gray. I have a good vacuum cleaner that I use 2x/wk.

2

Well, when lint gets built up inside a dryer, it’s a fire hazard. I don’t personally know anything about homes or building codes, but I would imagine that if there’s any potential source of flame, a bunch of lint could serve to spread the flame. If an electrical cord was frayed and sparking, for instance, it could light the lint on fire.

3

Benefits of a clean crawlspace? Easier access to things for repair, and less mess if there’s a flood. Fewer monsters as well.

I’m still not sure why Stephen King hasn’t written a book called Crawlspace.

4

[QUOTE=Sunspace]
I’m still not sure why Stephen King hasn’t written a book called Crawlspace.
[/QUOTE]

Gaaaah! Thanks so much for planting the idea for tonight’s nightmare. :eek:

5

More room to hide the bodies in.

I remember Bob and Tom had a song called “I Got Friends in Crawl Spaces” about Jeffery Dahmer and John Wayne Gacey, to the tune of “I Got Friends in Low Places.”

6

[QUOTE=riker1384]
Well, when lint gets built up inside a dryer, it’s a fire hazard. I don’t personally know anything about homes or building codes, but I would imagine that if there’s any potential source of flame, a bunch of lint could serve to spread the flame. If an electrical cord was frayed and sparking, for instance, it could light the lint on fire.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it’s really good the OP found the loose vent hose; there are 15,000 dryer related fires (PDF) every year. :eek: Lint is extremely flammable; at the very least, you should get up under there with a vaccuum and clean out the lint. I don’t know if there are any other benefits to a clean crawlspace but get that lint up.

7

What’s visqueen?

8

[QUOTE=phouka]
What’s visqueen?
[/QUOTE]

Plastic sheeting. The kind of stuff you’d put over furniture if you were painting, kwim?

9

[QUOTE=fessie]
I found a few spaces where there might’ve been gaps. I just slathered duct tape all over the joints.

I also found that our dryer duct had come detached, so I fixed that - there’s lint all over the place down there! It would make a great haunted house, very creepy.

Is there any point in cleaning it up? What about all the dust, dirt, and plain old crud down there?

There’s a sheet of visqueen over the packed earth, it could stand to be replaced (plenty of holes). Is that a good idea?

Would these actions reduce the dust in our house? I have to change our furnace filter every month, the thing turns absolutely gray. I have a good vacuum cleaner that I use 2x/wk.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve been talking with my neighbor lately about what to do about my crawlspace, since he’s an experienced (over 10 years) residential HVAC technician. It sounds like your crawlspace is similar to mine (although I hope yours is taller; mine’s only 12-18" high).

Anyway, yes, clean up your crawlspace. If it’s pretty icky in there, wear a respirator while you do it. Personally, I use one of those rubber ones that look a little like a gas mask and has replaceable filter cartridges; I don’t think much of those little ‘nuisance masks’ they sell. Wear eye protection, too, regardless of whether it’s icky or not - safety glasses or safety goggles. This stuff is darn cheap compared to getting junk in your eyes or your lungs.

Yes, replace the plastic sheeting. My neighbor says to use 4 or 6 mil plastic (he prefers 6 mil). Make sure there are no protrusions from the packed earth that might cut it before you put it down. Don’t just butt the plastic against the foundation walls, have it overlap up the walls a few inches. If you need more than one sheet to cover everything, he says to overlap by 18-24" and seal the joint with tape. It’s some kind of tape made for the sheeting. He doesn’t like duct tape.

AND he doesn’t like duct tape on your ducts. Despite the name, duct tape will always fail. Remove the duct tape when you’re ready to replace it. He uses fiberglass mesh tape covered with mastic, applied generously to ALL joints, whether they appear to have gaps or not. Anything with rot or rust holes should be replaced. If your crawlspace is not heated, he’d insulate the ductwork. It’s hard to say if this will eliminate your dust, as there could be other sources. You could also already have a lot of stuff inside your ducts. But it might decrease the dust and should reduce your heating bills.

10

Thanks for the heads-up! Now I see what I’ll be doing for the next month while the kiddoes are at school. Husband plants flowers - I repair/replace ductwork. :stuck_out_tongue:

3acresandatruck, do you have any suggestions as to insulating material?

I’d seen notes about mastic, it sounded like some kind of rubber cement to me, I didn’t realize it was a kind of tape. But guess what was already ON our ductwork? Good old gray duct tape!

And speaking of creepy crawlspaces, here’s a story I’ve been following from another messageboard (I’ll box it 'cause it’s pretty gross):

I didn’t find anything like that in MY crawlspace :shudder:.

11

[QUOTE=fessie]
Thanks for the heads-up! Now I see what I’ll be doing for the next month while the kiddoes are at school. Husband plants flowers - I repair/replace ductwork. :stuck_out_tongue:

3acresandatruck, do you have any suggestions as to insulating material?

I’d seen notes about mastic, it sounded like some kind of rubber cement to me, I didn’t realize it was a kind of tape. But guess what was already ON our ductwork? Good old gray duct tape!

[/QUOTE]

I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. The mastic is a kind of glue/cement that you apply over a wrap of tape made of fiberglass mesh. So, you wrap the connections with the tape, then schmear it with the mastic using a medium-width putty knife. For the insulation, you can find ‘duct wrap’ style insulation (rolls of fiberglass that you can wrap around the ductwork) from CertainTeed, Johns-Mansville, Owens-Corning and probably lots of others.

You might want to check where the ductwork attaches to the registers, if it’s accessible, to make sure the connection is sealed up tight. Are your floors insulated from the crawlspace?

12

[QUOTE=fessie]
I didn’t find anything like that in MY crawlspace :shudder:.
[/QUOTE]
:eek:

I’ll never make a crack about Stephen King again.

13

[QUOTE=3acresandatruck]
I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. The mastic is a kind of glue/cement that you apply over a wrap of tape made of fiberglass mesh. So, you wrap the connections with the tape, then schmear it with the mastic using a medium-width putty knife. For the insulation, you can find ‘duct wrap’ style insulation (rolls of fiberglass that you can wrap around the ductwork) from CertainTeed, Johns-Mansville, Owens-Corning and probably lots of others.

You might want to check where the ductwork attaches to the registers, if it’s accessible, to make sure the connection is sealed up tight. Are your floors insulated from the crawlspace?
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your clarification!

Some areas of the floor were insulated by the immediate previous owner (house is 38 yrs old). The ducts are tucked in between the floorboards, but there’s enough clearance to reach around them so I could wrap something. I was just hoping to avoid fiberglass, may have to get a real mask after all (for my recent adventure I’d just tied an old cloth diaper around my head) (doggone those things come in handy).

The duct doesn’t fit tightly in the floor opening, I need to tape that, too. Just call me Red Green!

I also put those filter things in the registers but they’re not getting dirty so I don’t think they’re doing any good.

14

[QUOTE=fessie]
I was just hoping to avoid fiberglass, may have to get a real mask after all (for my recent adventure I’d just tied an old cloth diaper around my head) (doggone those things come in handy).

The duct doesn’t fit tightly in the floor opening, I need to tape that, too. Just call me Red Green!

I also put those filter things in the registers but they’re not getting dirty so I don’t think they’re doing any good.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I hate working with fiberglass, too. My neighbor gave me a couple of disposable TYVEK coveralls to use; you might see if you can get a few. You can get them with hoods and feet in 'em. You look like you’re wearing some kind of EPA suit, but it keeps the fibers off your clothes. I’ve never seen register filters, but I’d think that if they aren’t working, they’re just an unnecessary restriction and I’d get rid of them. (Just my opinion there)

Remember, we’re all in this together. :slight_smile:

15

If you don’t want to go as far as the tape/mastic combination, they make HVAC tape that works quite well. It’s a metal adhesive tape. Ask at the hardware store. Around here, it’s called “silver tape”, but I don’t know what they call it elsewhere.

Don’t use “duct tape” on your ducts, though - it really, really doesn’t do a proper job, despite the name.