Moisture pouring out of my crawl space vents

[RaT]

My house crawl space has visible moisture vapor coming out of the crawl space vents especially noticeable in the morning which is visible as vapor and condensates on the siding. We have hardly had any rain yet, it has yet to get very cold and require much use of our heating but the amount of moisture that is coming out baffles me. Any ideas why? It does raise the humidity level in the house a noticeable amount as well. The worst area is in a portion I cannot crawl to as it was added on with no access. That one also has only two vents. I intend to add some. Out here we never close off our vents like some areas of the country do.

[harleymsn]

Was a moisture barrier installed on the ground under the crawl space?

[RaT]

No, I have not seen that done out here. This house was built in 1951 with some remodeling.

[RaT]

Wow, Countrybynet is pretty darn quiet.

[Pat]

Where is your dryer vented? Check under there for any plumbing leaks. It isn't too late to put a good vapor barier on the ground under the house.

Is the furnace under the house and if so check for a flue leak.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[RaT]

Dryer vents outside. I noticed that the one area that is already moist under the house is also the area that has perhaps the worst ventalation. Why though it has moist dirt versus all the other areas of the house, I am not sure. Everywhere else right now is dry as a bone. Perhaps what little rains we have had in November are being channeled to that area. My two gutter downspouts are located there but both do go to drains. How well those drains work is another question, both are in concrete.

[gsganzer]

RaT,
You already know you need to solve your moisture/ventilation problem. Otherwise you'll be faced with some expensive repairs to your structure down the road. I saw that Lowes's carries some powered crawl space vents. It's a small fan assembly that goes in place of the crawl space vent. I'll be adding one to my crawl space this spring.

I found a plumbing leak in my crawl space a few weeks ago when I was adding some plumbing. The previous "plumber" didn't support one of the drain lines from a sink well enough and the PVC tee (also not glued up well) connection pulled apart. I would have never seen it had I not crawled directly through a "damp" spot that made me start looking around. Man, I hate working in crawl spaces!!