Hi! I'm from Ontario Canada.
I bought a house last July, it's approx. 55 ft by 40 ft with a crawl space of 16 inches in height.
There is 2 windows (screens) at each end of the 55 ft length and I was told by the owner to block the windows with styrofoam to keep it warm during the winter time so the pipes don't freeze.
Nothing froze but when I verified the crawl space in the middle of winter while it was about -15 Celcius (5 F.) What I saw was water dripping from the 2x6 and it was very very damp.I believe that this is not good since it will probably roth all the wood.
There is no heat in the crawl space and there is only a plastic that was set on top of the studs which is under the plywood floor of the house.
It's all ground so my question is should I put a plastic on the ground or a heater a fan ??????

Thanks
Rock

RickJ

It sounds like the problem is not weather related.

If a pipe froze, then you'd probably not see dripping: instead you'd see nothing while it's frozen, then gushing when it thaws.

Check it again. If it's still dripping, then follow the trail to find out where it's coming from. Note that the source could be many feet away from where you see it dripping off the wood. (Could be dripping down a pipe, then onto the wood, then running the length of the wood, etc.).

If it's still dripping, you probably have a supply line with a pinhole.

If it's not dripping, then it's probably a drain: go inside and turn on all your water spigots, flush your toilets and run down to check again (or have someone do this while you're under there).

Hope this helps some...

Since this is plumbing related I'll move it to the plumbing board where our resident Plumbing Expert may have more to say 'bout this.

The Rock

Oh! no I'm sure it's not related with pipes because the house is very large and it's the whole basement studs that are covered with dripping water.and I could smell the dampnest and could feel it too.
There was no water puddles either.

Thanks

RickJ

...if you see water dripping and you're over a crawlspace, then it does have to do with the pipes somewhere.

The only way to get to the root of it is to either locate the source yourself or pay a plumber out the nose to crawl under there and find it himself.

The Rock

Thanks for your help.
I will verify and let you know.

skiberger

You should put a vapor barrier over the dirt in the crawlspace and installing a heater in the crawlspace will help in the wintertime. You also should have more vents installed (for summertime ventilation). Minimum net area of ventilation shall not be less than .67m sqrd for each 100m sqrd of under-floor space area.

RickJ

Thanks for the addition, ski. I didn't know a barrier over the dirt is a should have. We've got 300 units over crawlspaces; I'll look into seeing if the benefits are worth the work.

dmatos

Wait a minute, it was -15C in the crawl space, and you had water dripping off the joists? Is there any insulation at all? This sounds like a standard condensation problem. Warm moist air from inside the house goes through your floor, then when it cools down, the moisture in the air condenses on whatever surface is available - in this case the floor joists.

For the same reason you need a vapour barrier in exterior walls, you need a vapour barrier in the floor insulation over an unheated crawl space. Specifically, you should have the vapour barrier right against the underside of the floorboards, and then insulation below that. To prevent condensation, the dew point in the floor has to be below the vapour barrier.

AKoester

If the space is 5F in Wisconsin the water would be iceicles not dripping????

speedball1

Yeah! I picked up on that too. As a Florida transplant from Beloit I remember just how cold 5F can be. There must be a tremendous heat transference from the floor above to keep it liquid.in the crawl space.