Generally nasty conditions in a crawlspace
In the top left corner you will see an open vent, these are great for letting the humid summer air into the crawlspace. The insulation then soaks up the moisture and sags or allows mold to grow. On the ground you will see a shabby thin plastic liner. This liner does very little to control humidity and water. It is basically a way to keep your knees semi-clean when crawling around.
Loss of storage space
Many people store things in their crawlspace. Spare siding, patio bricks, or other home and garden supplies are very often seen by DryZone inspectors. After the CleanSpace system is installed, homeowners will start to store holiday decorations, beach gear, winter clothes, and other seasonal items in the crawlspace. Think about all the extra space you could have in your home or garage if you didn't have those things taking up space. Holiday decorations and beach gear are really only used once or twice a year anyway, why not tuck them away under the house. After CleanSpace is installed it will be dry and clean.
Up close on the wood under your home
This is a great picture, for one thing it is very hard to get a decent photo without the flash making it worthless. All the black stuff is probably mold. I say probably because I'm not a biologist. But if you subscribe to the "looks like a duck and quacks like duck...must be a duck" theory, then you will most likely agree with me. Imagine the damage that this stuff does to your home as it spreads. If you lower the humidity and get rid of the water, the mold won't grow.
Not just mold damage on the wood
Bugs and critters thrive in a moist environment. High humidity and puddles of water will attract termites and other damaging insects. In this picture you can see the waste and husks that bugs leave behind. Once they get into the wood it is hard to get them out, costly too.
Wood rot in the crawlspace
You should never be able to strip a piece off of a support beam using only your thumb and fore finger. This wood is so wet that very little effort is needed to pulls of a piece. If this is allowed to progress, the wood might become completely rotten and have to be replaced. Luckily the homeowner caught it in time and the wood was salvaged and will dry out over the next several months. It will never be like brand new, but it will still function the way it was intended when the house was built.
Things are growing on the wood
Ever see a log in the woods with moss and fungus growing on it? It didn't start out looking like that. The moist and nasty environment under your house is a lot like a rain forest at times. This beam has some sort of fungus or mold growing on it. If the moisture is removed, then the gross stuff won't grow anymore. This sounds simple, and the principles are very simple. Implementing those principles is is not nearly as easy.
Hanging insulation in the crawlspace
Big sections of insulation can fall to the floor very easily when they get too heavy. The only thing adding weight to them is the water in the air that they soak up. When a DryZone inspector sees this kind of thing, it prompts him to test the humidity in the air again to confirm that it is really high. This piece of insulation is completely ruined, so there is no way to save it. Some homeowners choose to pull all of the insulation down and start from scratch with a clean and dry crawlspace.
Starting the task of cleaning and drying the crawlspace
The installation crews like to start with the walls and the piers. This is mostly because they are smaller and more detail oriented than the large floor liner sections that come later. Also, the floor liner will overlap on top of these pieces so that water coming in through the walls is directed under the liner.
Installing CleanSpace vapor barrier
Once the piers are wrapped and the wall liner is attached the floor liner can be installed. This heavy crawlspace liner is cut to fit and rolled out in huge sections. The crew will position it right and smooth out as many wrinkles as possible before taping it down. Once the entire system is completely it should look a lot like one big piece.
The seams are barely noticable
If you look closely you might find a seam, but its very hard to see at first glance. The idea is to have the seams flat and without gaps. If water comes in from the ground it will make the liner float a little like a water bed, then it will drain back into the dirt.
Finish the crawlspace off with a high quality door
The old metal crawlspace door is flimsy and rusted. The EverLast door by DryZone is made of heavy vinyl and will never warp or rust. The DryZone crew actually measures and cuts each door on site so that it is custom made for your home. These doors will seal out most of the air and keeps those pesky animals out, too.