Evening
I’ve been in our sub-floor / crawl space quite a few times over the last couple of years, but was alarmed a couple of weeks ago to find that it was particularly damp. There’s always been a small area (the deepest part) which is damp and has some standing water, but a couple of weeks ago the area with standing water was three times as large. It was raining heavily that day so I put it down to that, but went under again today (dry ish for 1 week +) to find there’s even more standing, up to about 2 inches in some places.
I dug a few holes in some of the (shallower) areas without surface water, and they filled up fairly quickly. This, and the absence of smell in the water, has led me to think that it’s groundwater.
I’ve looked and listened for pipe leaks and found none. A few months back I installed a new air brick and connected to a drainage pipe to encourage more ventilation, but there’s no sign that this is a source of water coming in.
I guess I have two questions:
1 – any logical reasons why it would be rising in a dry spell, and higher than I’ve ever seen it before even in winter?
2 – should I worry? It’s a couple of foot from DPC, but so much standing water can’t be great for the timbers.
3 – any views on laying polythene sheets above surface ground water to protect timbers from associated condensation / humidity?
Any suggestions to explore would be very helpful. Going to check the levels again in a week.
Thanks
Bainth
I’ve been in our sub-floor / crawl space quite a few times over the last couple of years, but was alarmed a couple of weeks ago to find that it was particularly damp. There’s always been a small area (the deepest part) which is damp and has some standing water, but a couple of weeks ago the area with standing water was three times as large. It was raining heavily that day so I put it down to that, but went under again today (dry ish for 1 week +) to find there’s even more standing, up to about 2 inches in some places.
I dug a few holes in some of the (shallower) areas without surface water, and they filled up fairly quickly. This, and the absence of smell in the water, has led me to think that it’s groundwater.
I’ve looked and listened for pipe leaks and found none. A few months back I installed a new air brick and connected to a drainage pipe to encourage more ventilation, but there’s no sign that this is a source of water coming in.
I guess I have two questions:
1 – any logical reasons why it would be rising in a dry spell, and higher than I’ve ever seen it before even in winter?
2 – should I worry? It’s a couple of foot from DPC, but so much standing water can’t be great for the timbers.
3 – any views on laying polythene sheets above surface ground water to protect timbers from associated condensation / humidity?
Any suggestions to explore would be very helpful. Going to check the levels again in a week.
Thanks
Bainth
