Mellow how big of a crawlspace are sq ft wise is this dehumidifying? I have two main 670 sq ft areas Im going to need to dehumidify at a cabin that we only use during the weekends and most of the summer. There is an old cabin and a new expansion area. Small 3x3 opening between each building area. My indoor humidity during the summer is upwards of 80+%. As you can imagine, wood becomes an issue. I installed T/G paneling in my expansion during the winter/spring, and when summer came all of my boards expanded and pulled away from the walls a tiny bit. For shorter runs like between windows close together, the pieces expanded ALOT and pulled the window casing from the walls! I thought I properly gapped things to accommodate, doing some experiments/research online but apparently not. I still have half the place to do, plus Im plan on putting down hardwood floors.
My plan is to insulate the walls with 2" rigid foamboard cut into pieces of course, spray foam between the joists where they meet the sealplate(spelling?), but I would leave between the joists free of any insulation. In the old cabin, they insulated between the joists then stapled plastic up. Well that all fell, mold everywhere. When I did my research, it was explained to me that I should seal off all the crawlspace vents, vapor barrier, insulate walls not joists, then condition the space. Here's the issue, I really want to get rid of this big old oil burning furnace. Our place is small so Id like to maximize on real estate, so conditioning the crawlspace is going to be a challenge unless I go with another forced air system. I also did not extend the duct work from the old to new area. I am considering going with mini splits in the future. We have no air conditioning other than two window air conditioners, one in the living room one in the bedroom.
I know I have to vapor barrier this entire place, and it's going to be a HUGE pain in the old cabin as it's only 2' space between dirt and floor.
To say that mold is an issue is an understatement. If you get a bright LED flashlight and shine it along the base of the walls, you will see white mold along EVERYTHING. We store ski/snowboard boots on the floor and they get it too. As well as ANYTHING that is stored on the floor like boxes with decorations in them etc.
Wifey wants me to finish the expansion and put a proper kitchen in before she stops making breakfast for me. But once that area is done Im going to tackle the next project which is to put in DIY mini splits. Then put in the insulation/vapor barrier immediately after that. And then if the mini splits cant tackle the humidity as we will likely keep them running on non livable bare minimum settings while we arent there, Im considering a dehumidifier under the crawl space to run as the primary means of dehumidifying.
