Can a Crawl Space Dehumidifier Help Reduce Wood Rot?
Having high humidity level can lead to serious wood rot in your crawl space. As we all know, high humidity level is the best environment for the growth of microorganisms in your crawl space. Those microorganisms are the major cause of the wood rot for your crawl space. Without having proper dehumidification, wood rot caused by moisture will ruin your crawl space in long term.
Before we start looking at ways to combat wood rot in crawl space, we should first understand the basics of wood. Wood consists of 3 major parts, namely lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses. Wood rots occur when fungi attacks those three parts by digesting the wood cells.
According to our studies, in the present of adequate oxygen, moderate temperature (usually between 42-98 degrees) and excess moisture, wood in crawl space is very likely to decay in a pretty high speed. If you decided to ignore the problem, studies show that the decay of wood in your house can result in 12% of decrease in the property value of your house.
As a result, it is very important to get rid of the moisture problem in your crawl space before it is getting too serious. Proactive action is playing an important role here. You should always check your house to make sure there is no excessive condensation of water moisture on window or discolored wood surface, because it is usually a warning sign of having excessive moisture in your house. If you continue to ignore the problem, you will realize the growth of mold spots and musty odors all around your house and your crawl space. Once you are certain that the moisture problem has to be fixed,
what you should do is to figure out the source of the moisture. Check for any kinds of leaks and cracks in your house that may lead to condensation of water moisture. This will allow you to prevent any unnecessary moisture from coming in to your house.
You should consider buying a crawl space dehumidifier it the problem still exist after fixing all those leaks and cracks. For the sake of the value of your house or the health of the household members, it is important to control the humidity level in your house in a moderate level to prevent the growth of mold or decay of wood.