July 15, 2025 • 38 mins
Join us for a concise, informative discussion with Brett Hodgdon of Foster Foundation Repair. In this episode, we explore essential foundation and basement care, addressing maintenance, weather impacts, and effective solutions. Brett shares his expertise and practical advice for homeowners. Don't miss these valuable insights!
Contact Foster Foundation Repair:
Phone: (304) 776-6263
Address: 4226 Woodrum Ln, Charleston WV 25313
Website: www.fosterfoundationrepair.com
Contact Foster Foundation Repair:
Phone: (304) 776-6263
Address: 4226 Woodrum Ln, Charleston WV 25313
Website: www.fosterfoundationrepair.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks
Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCCHS it's
employees or WVRC media. Ah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, that's our new thing for the Expert Show.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
How I like that?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, it's a little bit more upbeat, a little bit
more positive.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
You're listening to ask the Expert. I'm del Cooper, Thanks
for tuning in on this Tuesday morning. A little bit
cloudy outside right now. Not much rain in the forecast
for today though, so things should clear up a little
bit later on. You're listening to Ask the Expert on WCHS.
The Voice of Charleston asks our new intro to the program.
I'll put it in last week and this is the
first show that we that we've had that didn't have
a dedicated open of its own for us to play
(01:05):
and kind of like that put me in a good
mood right away.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's not too bad.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
It's a nice one.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, that's not bad at all.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You are listening to a programming where Foster Construction is
in studio with us this morning, and give.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Us a call.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Brett Hodgins is our guest here this morning, owner, and
we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things. You
can help control the conversation if you have any questions
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three z are a four three four five fifty eight
fifty eight. You can also text three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight. But you can you
can control the conversation to point it to whatever direction
(01:36):
you need to when it comes to foundations or basements,
anything along those lines that Foster Foundation Repair can.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Help you with.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
However, we're gonna talk a little bit. We're gonna kind
of have a topic of the morning. We're going to
talk about cross spaces in the environment of the cross
space just a little bit. But before we get to
the business at hand, how you doing today? Uh, Brett,
don't all right?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Doing very well. The rain is certainly creating challenges for
us right now. And the reason for this topic is
or that I thought of this topic is we've kind
of pushed our guys into all our crawl space work
right now to kind of get out of the mud
for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
That makes sense, That makes a lot of sense, and
that's an important aspect. Not only it's your business to
what we have, but also to what we have that
goes around here in West Virginia. Let's talk about the
crawl spaces a little bit because there's really a lot
of I guess a lack of better terms, there's a
lot of science that goes into what crass space does
to your home as far as the dynamics of air
flowing things along those lines.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Yes, the building science community is pushing for changes in
the way crawl spaces are set up to act. Over
the last two centuries, al most every crawl space was
always designed to be a vented crawl space, where you
would have crawl space events around the perimeter and you
would allow the atmospheric air to enter and exit the
(02:47):
building as the wind blew. But now the building science
communities trying to push for unvented crawl spaces that are
brought into the indoor air environment indoor and arm in
of the air to where they're actually conditioned, which is
which is great for new construction. That's it. We can
we can certainly retrofit them, and we do retrofit crawl
(03:09):
spaces to turn them into unvented crawl spaces, but typically
we're doing we're not going to bring those into the
indoor air environment as because there's typically been a moisture
related issue is why somebody is making that investment to
make that change. So we don't want to bring any
more growth that may have grown in the crawl space
(03:29):
into the home the heating coint system. So but yeah,
building science is definitely pushing new construction this direction. It's
in the latest ver latest probably three iterations of the
building code. It was included into that as as a
as the preferred method. State of West Virginia has other
options including that in the building code.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
But so for folks that aren't that that's not in there,
that aren't building a new home and they're in a
pre existing home and they're running into some conditions when
it comes to their cross whether it's there's too much
moisture in it, there's some kind of problem along those lines.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And is.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Cross space one of those things from the ground up,
Like say, for example, somebody is looking to do home
improvements to their house, so they're going to do a
little bit of work, maybe add an addition or do
a remodel of the kitchen or something along those lines,
but they have this problem with the cross space. It
gets very moist in the home or humid or whatever
the problem might be with it. Is it a top
up situation where you should probably address those issues that
(04:27):
you have with like the moisture, your cross space and
things like that before you invest money in doing some
of the other items that are more cosmetic.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, I would say for two reasons. One, if you're
doing an addition, as you suggested, you're building another structure
adjacent to what is it currently there, which means you're
probably you're blocking off whatever events might be there. You're
also creating an additional kind of different spaces where air is
(04:56):
not going to move efficiently from one space to the other.
And to your other point, Yes, if you're going to
do any type of remodeling, you definitely want to manage water,
get your water vapor situation addressed before you go put
in new hardwoods or new flooring, because over time, if
you don't address that and then you go and you
(05:16):
install that new material, and then down the road you
reduce the moisture levels in the home, that's going to
cause changes within your new finishes that were just installed.
So ideally those things are addressed. The moisture is addressed first,
and then you let all your new building materials acclimate
to the conditions as it's been corrected.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I know that.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
For example, in my home where it was built, I
did the mess of remodeling on it during the wintertime,
and so I think from November till late December there
was just a ton of work that was done on
my home. And it was fine, everything was all right.
But I noticed that when the summertime came back around,
like pocket doors, different things like that, there were some
things that are a little bit of skew because the
house is slightly different can figuration in the summer than
(06:01):
it is in the winter, and it caused some issues
with that stuff.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Yeah, your home is a leaving breathing thing. It's going
to definitely change seasonally. That is very true.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
And so when we're talking about cross spaces in general,
Then what are some of the things that that a
homeowner out there might identify as symptoms to know that
they might have some problems with their cross space.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
So backing up just a hair, the two primary conditions
that are going to create poor cross space environments are
liquid water and water vapor, and those those have to
be handled very differently than one another. A system that
is designed to handle liquid water does not fix a
(06:43):
water necessarily does not fix a water vapor problem, and
the same is.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
True for water vapor.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
But things to look for to see, if you know,
just poking your head in a cross space hatch to
see if you have you might see evidence of a
moisture condition, whether it be liquid water or water vapor. Obviously,
liquid water is pretty simple. You see staining water on
the floor, you know you got a liquid water problem.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Water vapor issues are a little you know for a
little more difficult to identify. But things to look for
would be stringy insulation, floor insulation, the pink insulation, fiberglass
insulation that's kind of looks like it's becoming stringy and
hanging down. That's evidence of water that there's moisture condensing
in the insulation, and the insulation is becoming heavy. Stains
(07:30):
on the on the on the wood joists, mold or mildew.
Everybody calls the different things, and they're all they are
a little bit different. But mold, mildew, my chrobial growth,
and fungal growth are things to look for. Musty odors
are definitely something that a lot of people notice. And
(07:52):
I'm not nearly as sensitive to odors as others. My
father can't smell. I was with a gentleman last who
said he couldn't smell, so a lot of people that's
they're very sensitive odor. So if they're noticing those and
they have a crawl space, there's a very good chance
that's where it's originating. And the reason for that is
(08:13):
approximately fifty percent, and it varies very greatly from house
to house, but approximately fifty percent of the air in
the home has originated in the crawl space, and that's
the result of what it's called stack effects. So it's
just like a chimney. Hot air is going to rise up,
so as air in the crawl space warms, it rises
(08:33):
to the under side of the floor and then eventually
it finds a gapper or crevice to make it its
way in the house, or more often than not, that
is where the original HVAC system was installed is in
a crawl space, and your return duct system is under
negative pressure, so any leaks in that system will actually
pull air from the crawl space and then introduce that
(08:55):
into the indoor environment.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Is there any special consideration? We talk about the styles
of homes that over in Kannas City because I live
over there all the time, and I'm thinking that I
have like a combination. So the front part of my
house is a full basement, and then the back part
of my house, which was an extension or an addition
well before I built it is on a crawl space
and it's on dirt floor. In the back part of
the house, it's a partially finished basement on the front
(09:17):
part of the house.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Do you just treat those two things separately.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You have a basement and you have a crawl spacing
and you deal with it just like that, or is
there some special consideration when you have that kind of configuration.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Most time they're probably going to be treated separately. I
can think of a situation we have coming up where
we are going to encapsulate a crawl space, and it's
a very small crawl space but currently has a door
between it has interior access to the basement. So we're
going encapsulated and we're just going to leave the door open.
It's small enough to where I feel comfortable there will
(09:48):
be enough airror movement in there to where there won't
be an accumulation of any water vapor, and it will
just the heating and coin system will handle that area.
So yeah, normally I I would say they're going to
be treated separately. But again, on a situation like that,
you've got an addition. That crawl space built up to
a house now only has three sides that can be
(10:08):
vented a lot of times there's a deck on one
of those sides now, so now you have possibly only
two sides of the of the new addition that have
the potential for decent ventilation. Because ventilation works through cross ventilation.
Air is blowing through a crawl space from one vent
to another and it creates circular air motions in the
(10:30):
crawl space, and that's the way ventilation is supposed to work.
So if you have limited air movement, that limits your ventilation.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And I could see how you could have a home,
especially an older home, and if you have some of
these problems getting moisture into the house and things like that,
this is a major issue that you need to potentially
address because it can cause as we mentioned on here,
it could cause structural damage eventually. It could also lead
to different types of molds and stuff like that, entry
waste or rodents and pests and stuff along those lines.
(10:58):
I mean, it's you let one of these problems go
unchecked for a long enough time and it could really
cause some problems to your house.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Very very true. We're currently working on a project here
in Charleston that it is one of the more severe situations,
and it is a situation. It's a four unit townhouse
where essentially we're replacing the entire floor system and the
wood was damaged the floor joist two y ten floor
joists or damage to the point where you could you
bump your back on them and materials falling off onto
(11:26):
the ground. So and this was the result this property.
Townhouses are unfortunately very susceptible to this because especially interior
town interior units, not end units, because those you only
have front and back that can be vented. And again
that's that just creates a very poor situation for ventilation.
But yeah, you can end up with a very severe
(11:49):
deterioration in this property. We're replacing the entire main beam,
it's probably sixty feet long, seventy five percent of the
floor joists, and the entire sial plate and rim board
across the rear of the building. So it's it's a
very and this is all a result of both liquid
water and water vapor. This building was suffering. So we
(12:10):
actually started this project back in the in the winter
and when we were we were there, there was water
drop its actually there was ice around the perimeter the
outside where water had condensed, uh and then frozen because
it was during the cold season. And then we had
a big delay in this project because there there was
a change order and other things that the project expanded.
(12:34):
But so that's actually what we're working one of the
projects we're working on now.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
And a domino effect can really make some of these
things pretty complicated sometimes because you're you're dealing with systems
like inside of a house and things like that a
lot of these things don't exist in isolation. You change
one thing and it has an effect when other things
are out the home.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, it does. Insulation around the perimeters a very
important thing for for for one of these crawl spaces.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And we had a question that came in on the
text line for the three zero four nine four one.
My basement does smell musty, but only after heavy storms.
Is at a waterproofing issue?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
I mean it sounds like you're probably getting some water
infiltration during storms. I mean that's there's a lot of
things that would contribute to that, but yes, it sounds
like there is some water infiltration. It be interested to,
of course see the situation and know whether you're getting
water that flows across the ground, and there's a lot
of different things that contribute to it. But yeah, if
(13:28):
you're getting a musty odor, there is something that is
causing that musty odor.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
If you need to have these things looked at, or
you need a contact Foster Construction. If you don't want
to call the show this morning, you send in a
tax but you want to talk to Brton his staff afterwards,
you can give them a call at three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three is the phone
number you can call, and you can get through on
that you want to make sure that you take care
of these types of situations if you're called in to
(13:53):
help with with a cross space other to dry it
out there there's is encapsulation the gold standard now is
at the only thing you do or there are other
options when it comes to cross spaces that where if
encapsulation is are situations where maybe that's not the best idea.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
So an encapsulation is very good at handling the water vapor. Oftentimes,
when you have a liquid water issue, the standing water
on the floor, you have to address that as that's
that's step number one you can encapsulate, because what encapsulation
includes is putting insulation on the walls, which I can
go into more detail later, but you have to start
(14:30):
with the liquid water, which is oftentimes gutters, down spouts,
surface drainage. That's normally we have a lot of poor
drainage issues in Charleston were living the hilly climbing and
that's that just is what it is. But oftentimes the
original construction of a cross space did not include any
(14:52):
type of damp proofing, waterproofing, or foundation drainage system, which
are critical components to a dry environment. The the way
contractors basically because it's not finished living space. The assumption
is you don't have to have these systems. But not
(15:15):
only are they critical for the indoor cross space environment,
that they're critical for long term serviceability of the foundation from
a foundation movement standpoint. So it's pretty it's pretty rare
that one of these systems. A proper foundation drainage system
is installed from day one, and if if a drain
is installed, they're not They're typically not done very well,
(15:36):
and they have a fairly short life expectancy.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
And these are all things that might take a little
bit as a homeowner, maybe the problem is obvious, then
you can make a phone call and say, hey, I
have this issue.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I need to have it take have it looked at.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
But a lot of these issues, you notice the symptoms
from them, you know what the result is, but you
don't know exactly how it's happening, or what's happening, or
where the ultimate cause of it's And that's where you
can really come in and offer a lot of assistance,
not only with the solving of the problem, but with
your background and engineering and everything else. It helps you
take a look at the problem and find each of
the steps in turn, that leads to the ultimate issue
(16:12):
that the homeowners having problems with.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Yes, and kind of back to your previous question about
the crawl space encapsul encapsulation being the gold standard. Yes,
it absolutely is, but you've got to address that water,
that liquid water first, and then the encapsulation system is
designed to seal all the earth and outside air to
(16:36):
the extent possible off and that limits the amount of
water humidity or water vapor that is migrating into the
crawl space. And then it is controlled with a dehumidifier
in most cases on a retroflect fit application.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I'll just use myself as an example for this, because
as we've talked about the crawl space encapsulation, I'm convinced
that I would benefit from it. My older home, we
have a moisture barrier problem with some kind I have
issues with humidity throughout my house. The problem that I
have with where my cross space is is there's not
any real access to it. The only way to really
get to it is tear up my kitchen floor. There's
a tiny window that used to be the basement to
(17:14):
the window that leads to the cross space that if
you absolutely had to get in there for something you could,
but there's no way to do work. You know, you
have to take out the floor enable to be able
to do that. Have you ran into situations like that before?
Is that something that's relatively common.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yes, Yes, there's many times that the only fixes is
from above. Unfortunately. I mean we can you can do
sometimes you can get some plastics on a tight area
like that that will help. But yes, there are there
have been times where the floor comes up. One of
one of the first projects that we performed after purchasing
(17:47):
Foster was to remove a floor and replace the old
log cabin and we replace the all the rotten lumber
below and encapsulated the crass space.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
So I know that's something that I got to get
on my list. I don't have any rotting anything. I
don't think there have any issue with that, but I
know that I need to get that issue taken care of.
That's in my cross space and that's probably the best
way that I could get about it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Unfortunately, if you've got a kitchen above it, I mean
your two options are to wait until the kitchen needs
to be remodeled and handle it then, or create a
larger access point. And if it's shallow, then excavate soil
to create enough room to work. If it's a shallow
cross space.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, it's a pain.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
That's the reason I've really been kind of up against
it when it comes to that, because I know if
it was an easy, easier access, I would have already
have done it. It's just I know that we can
talk about the air. I'm sure the cost multiplier might
be something with when it comes to that type of thing. Sure, yeah, unfortunately,
but that most situations are a lot easier to address
and things that we can talk about this morning. We're
getting a few texts coming in now. We'll get to
those when we come back here in just a few moments.
(18:45):
You can get in on the conversation as well. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
zero four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight is
our number that you can give us a call one.
You can also text over any questions you have to
three zero four none, three five five zero zero eight.
Let me make sure that I get the contact information
out to you. Bret Hauschen is the owner of Foster
Foundation Repair. More information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot
com located here in Charleston their phone over three zero
(19:06):
four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can
call us this morning at three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight for the next twenty minutes,
or so three zero four, three four five fifty eight
fifty We'll take a break and be back after this.
You're listening to ask the excerpt with Foster Foundation Repair.
I'm del Coopro on WCHS, the Voice of Charleston.
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Speaker 4 (20:33):
Sixteen minutes, seventeen minutes till the top of the hour.
You're listening to Ask the Expert. Wchs the voice of
Charleston coming in with more happy music from our new
Ask the Expert music theme. I'm the one that put
it in, so I want to brag one. I kind
of like it.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I like it.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
We've had the same one for about ten years, so
it's nice to get a little bit different audio sonic
soundscaping here.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I'm not so mad about that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Breshawgson as our guest this morning. He's the owner of
Foster Foundation roof heare you can give us a call.
Threes are a fourth three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
Threes are a fourth three four five fifty eight is
a number you can call if you have any questions
for Brett this morning. You can also text over some questions.
Threes are a four none through five five zero zero eighth.
Threes are a four none three five five zero zero
eighth one question that we had during the break from
the three zero four non zero one. Are any types
(21:16):
of foundation or cross spased repairs covered by homeowners insurance?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I would say probably less it is covered than more.
I would maybe if you have flood insurance and it
was a flood damage, but more more often than I've
never been paid to fix a foundation by insurance company.
I'm sure there are situations where they are covered. Obviously,
(21:43):
a car runs into a foundation, it's going to be covered.
But typically a insurance policy does not cover maintenance construction,
which like a foundation drain. If you install a foundation drain,
it's proper installed, but it's sixty years old, that's a
maintenance item. Unfortunately, it's it's lived its life, so a
(22:07):
lot of the other you know, I've seen plenty of
engineer reports that go out and evaluate for an insurance claim,
and it's typically boils down to maintenance, improper construction, or
a lot of those policies are in a current or
on a current space, whether it was like a it
(22:28):
occurred rapidly or over a twenty year period. So more
often than not, a foundation repair is not covered under insurance.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yeah, with insurance like that, it's very often. If then
then this type situation like a tree falls and does something,
then you know that's something that you're interested in cover
something that erodes over time, sort of like the difference
between car insurance between service, between service and body work.
You know, like if if your starter goes bad after
twenty years, that's just that's just maintenance. You're not going
to be able to make an insurance claim on that.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
I wish it was.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
That would be a lot easier help the industry.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
And certainly when I was a kid, I thought all
that stuff was covered. Is like, what do you mean
my my my engineer's real built, rebuilt and it's not
covered by insurance.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Not not not the insurance's responsibility as far as that
stuff goes, that's for sure. We did have What was
the other question that we had on here? I thought
or did I already get to it? Unless the very
I got to that was the that was the insurance question.
I suppose Yeah, so when oh, I know, I wanted
to get to the second part of your the information
(23:28):
you gave me, because there's a there's many things that
could lead to the degradation of a cross space. Plumbing
leaks could be one of the problems that you have.
So that's something oftentimes in this case, would you have
to work in concert if it was a difficult enough situation,
work with a plumber in those situations.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Yeah, we're not a plumbing contractor. I mean, there are
little things that we have done over the years, but generally,
if it's a sewer leak, we're not touching it. We're
going to get a plumber in there to fix that.
Another very common one is a dry event, disconnected dryer event,
or just a dry event that discharges into a crawl space.
A unique situation that that was that that I've occurred
(24:09):
at the residence I own, and this was I purchased
an existing building, but and we actually encapsulated my crawl space.
But an interesting one that we had to address there
is there's a small section of the floor of my
dining room that extends into the garage but is above
the garage floor. So there's there's an air gap between there,
and the previous owners left the garage door open a lot,
(24:34):
and so there was constantly hot, humid air from outside
entering the crawl space through that air gap. And we
had some whole growth in the crawl space that we
had to deal with, But the heaviest, most dense growth
was in that area which is up against a garage
where there's heat and humidity entering near a porch there.
It was kind of back in this corner where there's
(24:56):
very very little ventilation. So there's a lot of different
things that can contribute to the to the water vapor.
But that that's a unique situation that we had to address.
It was just it was simple. I just sealed off
the sealed off that area from the side of the
garage with a piece of trim and some call to
air seal it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So it just takes a lot of times on these things.
It just takes an appraising odd to take a look at.
I mean, you can find walk through what the solutions
are going to be, but as far as all the
different types of things that can can happen in things
you need to make sure that you treat and stuff
like that. I mean, there's a lot of things that
can happen and and things that you may not always
think about a lot, like when the exterior of the
house when it comes to ventilation and stuff like that.
(25:36):
If you have improper like shrubbery or whatever that's growing,
if you've let something that grow over something, maybe you
decided to stack a wood pile next to your house
and it's and it's like next to the vent or something.
I mean, there's things that you can do completely without
thinking about it's the exterior of your home that could
that could affect some of this.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Yeah, I mean I've seen decks built where they put
the ledger board right over the vent and they drill
holes through the ledger bold word, thinking that's going to
let air move and it's just not. I mean, it's
it requires a vented crawl space requires a lot of
air movement to keep it dry. And one of the
issues with the evented crawl space is you're you're bringing
(26:14):
an atmospheric air into a crawl space, so there's no
amount of ventilation or dehumidification that's going to be to
day like this. When it's I mean it's foggy at
ground level, that means it's very very humid, right, so
it's very humid in a crawl space, that is in
a evented crawl space. Now that the idea behind that
(26:34):
is it heats up, it dries out, and then we
get some moist air. But you know, with that said,
another another very common thing to look for that that
someone can look for in a crawl space to see
if they have a moisture or a water vapor issue,
which is the probably the biggest concern I have is
is condensation either developing on the duct work during the
(26:56):
summer because you've got cold supply ducts in the cross
space which will allow condensation to occur, or in the
winter I kind of touched on briefly earlier, you might
have water droplets or frost around the perimeter of the
building in the winter. Those are definitely signs of water issues.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
And these are something Again, if it's something that you see,
the problem is there, So it's just a matter if
you should probably get it evaluated and find out what
you need to take. If it's a problem that you
didn't know that you had and suddenly you're noticing, if
that means there could be something going on and you're
proper you're not aware of it, and it might get worse.
It's always better when it comes to water to get
these things early rather than let major issues develop over time.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Yeah, you definitely don't want this to compound because it starts,
you know, if you've got these issues, it starts with
mold growth and then it turns into decay. Decay is
a function of the mold growth, and mold is actually
consuming the cellulose of the wood. So if you have rot,
you have mold. If you have mold, you're going to eventually,
(27:59):
if the conditions stay right for the growth to continue,
you will end up with the k at some point.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
And sometimes the solutions I mean you have to be
aware of all of the different options you can have.
I mean, the solution to liquid water, as you talked about,
is different from water vapor. That's different from other things
that you might run into. But you could get to
the point where you have to I mean, you have
to do all the little details first. You have to
make sure that you have proper drainage, that your gutters
are clean, and you do all the normal maintenance and
(28:27):
stuff like that. You have to make sure that setup
is correct and then start working on the infrastructure for it,
and there could be quite a bit depending on what's
going on with your house. You might have to redo
the draining system altogether or put in a better draining
system something like that. If you're having problems with water,
that's something you need to get evaluated for to see.
But it's not something you should just let go because
(28:47):
that's where real problems can come in.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, and we have different options to address the water,
the actual liquid water. Of course, we want to take
care of all the low hanging fruit outside by like
cleaning the gutters, extending the downspouts, trying to do surface
drainage issues, creating drainage swales, maybe installing French drains. Those
are things that will address that surface water. We then
(29:09):
have to those but those aren't guarantees that the water
won't enter the crawl space. Those are at that point
we have to do one of two things. We either
have to fix it from the outside with a proper
foundation waterproofing and drainage system, which does require excavation, or
going inside the crawl space and installing an engineer an
interior foundation drain which unfortunately in our industry is referred
(29:33):
to as waterproofing and it is not. It's a water
management system. It is not waterproofingu and it is not.
And I fight this battle every day. The industry is
pushing that the interior system is better. The interior system
is not better. Architectural drawings for large commercial buildings do
not put interior drains. Our engineers and architects do not
(29:55):
recommend interior drains on new construction in lieu of an
exterier foundation drain. But in our industry that's being pushed now.
There are benefits to both. An interior drain is cheaper,
so there is that benefit. Uh, it is less invasive,
so there are there are benefits. But to suggest that
it is a better performing system, like I hear oftentimes
(30:19):
being conveyed to me by potential clients who have had
other companies out there, it is not an exterior foundation
waterproofing system is the gold standard for a drainage around
the house. There's the reasons it's being pushed inside as
it can be done without equipment, and they can they
can push higher profit margins. Is to be honest with you,
(30:40):
and we we we do the interior drain system as well,
but we also uh, we give the client the option
of the outside drain and if that's you know, if
we go whatever direction the owner wants based on the situation,
sometimes an exterior drain can actually be cheaper than an
interior drain. If if that, if the excavation is.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Shallow, that's great information. As always been appreciate you tuning
in this morning to the show. Brett Hadsen is the
guest this morning from Foster Foundation Repair answering all your questions.
It has to do with foundations and basements. Waterproofing and
cross spaces are kind of our topic of the day
and we do have a text message from the three
zero four to three eight nine. I have a vented
cross space under my house and I have for some
(31:19):
reason close the vents during the winter months. Should I
be leaving vents open throughout the year?
Speaker 5 (31:24):
I would say it depends. Every situation is different. If
your floor is insulated, you should be able to leave
your crawl space events open. Now if you've got to.
If you have a supply line right next to event,
you do run the risk of that line freezing. But
generally a crawl space is going to stay fairly tempered.
(31:45):
It's not there's not going to be large swings in
the temperature because you have the the earth is kind
of maintaining that condition the temperature. But generally you want
to have ventilation in a crawl space if but you know,
some crawl spaces the environment is so dry it's irrelevant.
Sometimes you you need to keep that vent open. So unfortunately,
(32:09):
it's very dependent and typically somebody like myself can't give
you that answer even on one if I came out
and looked at it, I can't give you that one
day and one day analysis. A good way to do
to answer that question, varying expensively, is to invest in
a device that you can place in the crawl space
and it will It connects to an app on your phone.
(32:31):
It tells you what the the indoor environment is. I
have one in my crawl space. I use what it's
called a temp stick, and it's real time gives me
temperature and humidity readings really well.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
This is just like my meat thermometer that I use.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
It's so right now my crawl space. Over the last month,
in my crawl space, I can tell what the average
temperature in humidity was.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I can.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
I mean, it gives me hourly readings and it can
I don't look at it daily, but it is nice
to look at periodically. So that would be a good
way for you to kind of decide whether what your
if your actions are correct or not. Is to invest
in that. I think it was a maybe one hundred
and two hundred dollars. It was not a big investment.
There's not I don't believe I have a monthly a
(33:14):
reoccurring monthly fee. I think it was a one time fee.
So it's it's a and it's very it's very helpful.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So right now in Charleston at seventy four degrees, humidity
is ninety two percent outside what is a target temperature
for humidity that's in the livable range inside of.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
A house in the fifty fifty five sixty degrees not
degrees relative percent. Yeah, so I think I don't remember.
I think I have my my DEMITTI fire set at
fifty five in my crawl space percent relative humidity. So
that's that's generally the goal. What also the other things
(33:51):
you know, for from a mold growth standpoint, where we've
got to monitor the moisture content of the wood, we
want to keep that under really, we want to keep
it under like fifteen or right at fifteen. But at
twenty percent relative or moisture content in the wood is
when you'll start running the risk of mold growth. And
that's another thing we run against the in the industry
(34:13):
is everybody's runing around with these moisture meters that you
plug in the poke into the wood and it spits
out a number and that's shown to the client. Oh,
you've got fifteen percent relative humidity in your wood. That's
risk you're almost to twenty. Well, you don't want zero.
You can't have zero, so that you know, we've got
to be you got to be very careful. You don't
(34:34):
want your wood. You don't want things to be too
dry either, So there is a healthy balance. But fifteen
to fifty five is a good relative humidity for the
indoor air environment.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
And talking a little bit more about the water vapor
issues and some of the solutions to that. Really there's
all we've talked about the encapsulation and different things like that.
But after the encapsulation or are there hybrids of things
that you can do, like can you do like a
dehumidifiring or cross base with the encapsulation. Is there any
point in that or you just wasting electricity. Are there
any measures you can take if you can't do a
(35:05):
full encapsulation for something.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Like that, I mean definitely, if you can't do a
full encapsulation, a good quality vapor bearer that stretches wall
to wall, tight to the piers, you can overlap the joints.
That is a good start because there is a lot
of moisture that evaporates or comes out of the ground
as evaporation. Outside of that, there I mean a running
(35:29):
a dehuven, a fire and a crawl space just wide open.
I mean you're fighting atmosphere. Yah, that's what my mother
nature is going to win.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
And you mentioned mold a couple of times, and so
that that's something else, much like plumbing. If you have
a mold issue, that's something where you have to if
it needs remediated, that's something that you need to get
another company to help you with.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
In my opinion, yes, there are certifications, there are companies
that specialize this in mold mitigation. We don't do any
type of mold mitigation. We bring in a contractor a subcontractor,
or what we do is we just put the owner
in touch with right, you know, I don't I don't
need to hire a subcontractor and mark that price of it.
It's not I'm trying to help people out more than anything,
(36:07):
but yes, they need to make sure that they're they're
hiring somebody that has proper certifications. Going in there with
a bottle of bleach is not correct, right, Going in
there with hydrogen peroxide is not a permanent solution. So
there are companies that have gone through the process to
learn how to do this properly, know the safety steps
(36:30):
that will protect their employees as well as you as
an owner when when doing that work.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
That's great information as always as we get every time
that Bret's on the airwaves here, which is the second
to Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Of every month, right, No, I think that's right. Yeah, yeah,
today's okay, yeah, second Tuesday every month for the summer. Yeah,
for the summer. Anyway, right back to winds and then
then we'll move back. That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But you can tune into this program, you can see
all of our listen to all of our previous programs.
You can go to WHS network dot com, slash ate
as the Expert and you can find the information there
or slash podcast, so you can found all of our
podcast information there and let me get the information out
to you one more time. Brett Hodgton is the owner
of Foster Foundation Repair. The website is Foster Foundation Repair
dot com. Their phone number three zero four seven seven
(37:11):
six sixty two sixty three three zero four seven seven
six sixty two sixty three and their address is forty
two twenty six Woodrum Lane in Charleston. That's forty two
twenty six Woodroom Lane again, the phone number three zero
a four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Three
zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Brett,
thanks a lot for your time again today, a lot
of hugely useful information.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Yeah, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We'll see you back here in about a month. YEP.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
That'll do it with for us today. Thank you so
much for tuning in. Coming up next, Dave Allen will
be on board for five eighty Live, Dave Wilson and TJ.
After that on Talk On. Dave Allen will be back
with Amanda Baron from midday at noon, and then I'll
be back with Dave weekly this afternoon at three oh
six on Metro News Hotline. Have a great day of
Dave's right here on five Edwchs, the voice of Charleston,
(38:02):
w c h s A.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
N W two four three d r f M Charlestown,
W two and three a Q Cross Lanes, a w
v r C media station. We're proud to live here too,
Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCCHS it's
employees or WVRC media. Ah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, that's our new thing for the Expert Show.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
How I like that?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, it's a little bit more upbeat, a little bit
more positive.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
You're listening to ask the Expert. I'm del Cooper, Thanks
for tuning in on this Tuesday morning. A little bit
cloudy outside right now. Not much rain in the forecast
for today though, so things should clear up a little
bit later on. You're listening to Ask the Expert on WCHS.
The Voice of Charleston asks our new intro to the program.
I'll put it in last week and this is the
first show that we that we've had that didn't have
a dedicated open of its own for us to play
(01:05):
and kind of like that put me in a good
mood right away.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's not too bad.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
It's a nice one.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, that's not bad at all.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You are listening to a programming where Foster Construction is
in studio with us this morning, and give.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Us a call.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Brett Hodgins is our guest here this morning, owner, and
we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things. You
can help control the conversation if you have any questions
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three z are a four three four five fifty eight
fifty eight. You can also text three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight. But you can you
can control the conversation to point it to whatever direction
(01:36):
you need to when it comes to foundations or basements,
anything along those lines that Foster Foundation Repair can.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Help you with.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
However, we're gonna talk a little bit. We're gonna kind
of have a topic of the morning. We're going to
talk about cross spaces in the environment of the cross
space just a little bit. But before we get to
the business at hand, how you doing today? Uh, Brett,
don't all right?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Doing very well. The rain is certainly creating challenges for
us right now. And the reason for this topic is
or that I thought of this topic is we've kind
of pushed our guys into all our crawl space work
right now to kind of get out of the mud
for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
That makes sense, That makes a lot of sense, and
that's an important aspect. Not only it's your business to
what we have, but also to what we have that
goes around here in West Virginia. Let's talk about the
crawl spaces a little bit because there's really a lot
of I guess a lack of better terms, there's a
lot of science that goes into what crass space does
to your home as far as the dynamics of air
flowing things along those lines.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Yes, the building science community is pushing for changes in
the way crawl spaces are set up to act. Over
the last two centuries, al most every crawl space was
always designed to be a vented crawl space, where you
would have crawl space events around the perimeter and you
would allow the atmospheric air to enter and exit the
(02:47):
building as the wind blew. But now the building science
communities trying to push for unvented crawl spaces that are
brought into the indoor air environment indoor and arm in
of the air to where they're actually conditioned, which is
which is great for new construction. That's it. We can
we can certainly retrofit them, and we do retrofit crawl
(03:09):
spaces to turn them into unvented crawl spaces, but typically
we're doing we're not going to bring those into the
indoor air environment as because there's typically been a moisture
related issue is why somebody is making that investment to
make that change. So we don't want to bring any
more growth that may have grown in the crawl space
(03:29):
into the home the heating coint system. So but yeah,
building science is definitely pushing new construction this direction. It's
in the latest ver latest probably three iterations of the
building code. It was included into that as as a
as the preferred method. State of West Virginia has other
options including that in the building code.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
But so for folks that aren't that that's not in there,
that aren't building a new home and they're in a
pre existing home and they're running into some conditions when
it comes to their cross whether it's there's too much
moisture in it, there's some kind of problem along those lines.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And is.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Cross space one of those things from the ground up,
Like say, for example, somebody is looking to do home
improvements to their house, so they're going to do a
little bit of work, maybe add an addition or do
a remodel of the kitchen or something along those lines,
but they have this problem with the cross space. It
gets very moist in the home or humid or whatever
the problem might be with it. Is it a top
up situation where you should probably address those issues that
(04:27):
you have with like the moisture, your cross space and
things like that before you invest money in doing some
of the other items that are more cosmetic.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, I would say for two reasons. One, if you're
doing an addition, as you suggested, you're building another structure
adjacent to what is it currently there, which means you're
probably you're blocking off whatever events might be there. You're
also creating an additional kind of different spaces where air is
(04:56):
not going to move efficiently from one space to the other.
And to your other point, Yes, if you're going to
do any type of remodeling, you definitely want to manage water,
get your water vapor situation addressed before you go put
in new hardwoods or new flooring, because over time, if
you don't address that and then you go and you
(05:16):
install that new material, and then down the road you
reduce the moisture levels in the home, that's going to
cause changes within your new finishes that were just installed.
So ideally those things are addressed. The moisture is addressed first,
and then you let all your new building materials acclimate
to the conditions as it's been corrected.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I know that.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
For example, in my home where it was built, I
did the mess of remodeling on it during the wintertime,
and so I think from November till late December there
was just a ton of work that was done on
my home. And it was fine, everything was all right.
But I noticed that when the summertime came back around,
like pocket doors, different things like that, there were some
things that are a little bit of skew because the
house is slightly different can figuration in the summer than
(06:01):
it is in the winter, and it caused some issues
with that stuff.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Yeah, your home is a leaving breathing thing. It's going
to definitely change seasonally. That is very true.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
And so when we're talking about cross spaces in general,
Then what are some of the things that that a
homeowner out there might identify as symptoms to know that
they might have some problems with their cross space.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
So backing up just a hair, the two primary conditions
that are going to create poor cross space environments are
liquid water and water vapor, and those those have to
be handled very differently than one another. A system that
is designed to handle liquid water does not fix a
(06:43):
water necessarily does not fix a water vapor problem, and
the same is.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
True for water vapor.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
But things to look for to see, if you know,
just poking your head in a cross space hatch to
see if you have you might see evidence of a
moisture condition, whether it be liquid water or water vapor. Obviously,
liquid water is pretty simple. You see staining water on
the floor, you know you got a liquid water problem.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Water vapor issues are a little you know for a
little more difficult to identify. But things to look for
would be stringy insulation, floor insulation, the pink insulation, fiberglass
insulation that's kind of looks like it's becoming stringy and
hanging down. That's evidence of water that there's moisture condensing
in the insulation, and the insulation is becoming heavy. Stains
(07:30):
on the on the on the wood joists, mold or mildew.
Everybody calls the different things, and they're all they are
a little bit different. But mold, mildew, my chrobial growth,
and fungal growth are things to look for. Musty odors
are definitely something that a lot of people notice. And
(07:52):
I'm not nearly as sensitive to odors as others. My
father can't smell. I was with a gentleman last who
said he couldn't smell, so a lot of people that's
they're very sensitive odor. So if they're noticing those and
they have a crawl space, there's a very good chance
that's where it's originating. And the reason for that is
(08:13):
approximately fifty percent, and it varies very greatly from house
to house, but approximately fifty percent of the air in
the home has originated in the crawl space, and that's
the result of what it's called stack effects. So it's
just like a chimney. Hot air is going to rise up,
so as air in the crawl space warms, it rises
(08:33):
to the under side of the floor and then eventually
it finds a gapper or crevice to make it its
way in the house, or more often than not, that
is where the original HVAC system was installed is in
a crawl space, and your return duct system is under
negative pressure, so any leaks in that system will actually
pull air from the crawl space and then introduce that
(08:55):
into the indoor environment.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Is there any special consideration? We talk about the styles
of homes that over in Kannas City because I live
over there all the time, and I'm thinking that I
have like a combination. So the front part of my
house is a full basement, and then the back part
of my house, which was an extension or an addition
well before I built it is on a crawl space
and it's on dirt floor. In the back part of
the house, it's a partially finished basement on the front
(09:17):
part of the house.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Do you just treat those two things separately.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You have a basement and you have a crawl spacing
and you deal with it just like that, or is
there some special consideration when you have that kind of configuration.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Most time they're probably going to be treated separately. I
can think of a situation we have coming up where
we are going to encapsulate a crawl space, and it's
a very small crawl space but currently has a door
between it has interior access to the basement. So we're
going encapsulated and we're just going to leave the door open.
It's small enough to where I feel comfortable there will
(09:48):
be enough airror movement in there to where there won't
be an accumulation of any water vapor, and it will
just the heating and coin system will handle that area.
So yeah, normally I I would say they're going to
be treated separately. But again, on a situation like that,
you've got an addition. That crawl space built up to
a house now only has three sides that can be
(10:08):
vented a lot of times there's a deck on one
of those sides now, so now you have possibly only
two sides of the of the new addition that have
the potential for decent ventilation. Because ventilation works through cross ventilation.
Air is blowing through a crawl space from one vent
to another and it creates circular air motions in the
(10:30):
crawl space, and that's the way ventilation is supposed to work.
So if you have limited air movement, that limits your ventilation.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And I could see how you could have a home,
especially an older home, and if you have some of
these problems getting moisture into the house and things like that,
this is a major issue that you need to potentially
address because it can cause as we mentioned on here,
it could cause structural damage eventually. It could also lead
to different types of molds and stuff like that, entry
waste or rodents and pests and stuff along those lines.
(10:58):
I mean, it's you let one of these problems go
unchecked for a long enough time and it could really
cause some problems to your house.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Very very true. We're currently working on a project here
in Charleston that it is one of the more severe situations,
and it is a situation. It's a four unit townhouse
where essentially we're replacing the entire floor system and the
wood was damaged the floor joist two y ten floor
joists or damage to the point where you could you
bump your back on them and materials falling off onto
(11:26):
the ground. So and this was the result this property.
Townhouses are unfortunately very susceptible to this because especially interior
town interior units, not end units, because those you only
have front and back that can be vented. And again
that's that just creates a very poor situation for ventilation.
But yeah, you can end up with a very severe
(11:49):
deterioration in this property. We're replacing the entire main beam,
it's probably sixty feet long, seventy five percent of the
floor joists, and the entire sial plate and rim board
across the rear of the building. So it's it's a
very and this is all a result of both liquid
water and water vapor. This building was suffering. So we
(12:10):
actually started this project back in the in the winter
and when we were we were there, there was water
drop its actually there was ice around the perimeter the
outside where water had condensed, uh and then frozen because
it was during the cold season. And then we had
a big delay in this project because there there was
a change order and other things that the project expanded.
(12:34):
But so that's actually what we're working one of the
projects we're working on now.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
And a domino effect can really make some of these
things pretty complicated sometimes because you're you're dealing with systems
like inside of a house and things like that a
lot of these things don't exist in isolation. You change
one thing and it has an effect when other things
are out the home.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, it does. Insulation around the perimeters a very
important thing for for for one of these crawl spaces.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And we had a question that came in on the
text line for the three zero four nine four one.
My basement does smell musty, but only after heavy storms.
Is at a waterproofing issue?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
I mean it sounds like you're probably getting some water
infiltration during storms. I mean that's there's a lot of
things that would contribute to that, but yes, it sounds
like there is some water infiltration. It be interested to,
of course see the situation and know whether you're getting
water that flows across the ground, and there's a lot
of different things that contribute to it. But yeah, if
(13:28):
you're getting a musty odor, there is something that is
causing that musty odor.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
If you need to have these things looked at, or
you need a contact Foster Construction. If you don't want
to call the show this morning, you send in a
tax but you want to talk to Brton his staff afterwards,
you can give them a call at three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three is the phone
number you can call, and you can get through on
that you want to make sure that you take care
of these types of situations if you're called in to
(13:53):
help with with a cross space other to dry it
out there there's is encapsulation the gold standard now is
at the only thing you do or there are other
options when it comes to cross spaces that where if
encapsulation is are situations where maybe that's not the best idea.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
So an encapsulation is very good at handling the water vapor. Oftentimes,
when you have a liquid water issue, the standing water
on the floor, you have to address that as that's
that's step number one you can encapsulate, because what encapsulation
includes is putting insulation on the walls, which I can
go into more detail later, but you have to start
(14:30):
with the liquid water, which is oftentimes gutters, down spouts,
surface drainage. That's normally we have a lot of poor
drainage issues in Charleston were living the hilly climbing and
that's that just is what it is. But oftentimes the
original construction of a cross space did not include any
(14:52):
type of damp proofing, waterproofing, or foundation drainage system, which
are critical components to a dry environment. The the way
contractors basically because it's not finished living space. The assumption
is you don't have to have these systems. But not
(15:15):
only are they critical for the indoor cross space environment,
that they're critical for long term serviceability of the foundation from
a foundation movement standpoint. So it's pretty it's pretty rare
that one of these systems. A proper foundation drainage system
is installed from day one, and if if a drain
is installed, they're not They're typically not done very well,
(15:36):
and they have a fairly short life expectancy.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
And these are all things that might take a little
bit as a homeowner, maybe the problem is obvious, then
you can make a phone call and say, hey, I
have this issue.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I need to have it take have it looked at.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
But a lot of these issues, you notice the symptoms
from them, you know what the result is, but you
don't know exactly how it's happening, or what's happening, or
where the ultimate cause of it's And that's where you
can really come in and offer a lot of assistance,
not only with the solving of the problem, but with
your background and engineering and everything else. It helps you
take a look at the problem and find each of
the steps in turn, that leads to the ultimate issue
(16:12):
that the homeowners having problems with.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Yes, and kind of back to your previous question about
the crawl space encapsul encapsulation being the gold standard. Yes,
it absolutely is, but you've got to address that water,
that liquid water first, and then the encapsulation system is
designed to seal all the earth and outside air to
(16:36):
the extent possible off and that limits the amount of
water humidity or water vapor that is migrating into the
crawl space. And then it is controlled with a dehumidifier
in most cases on a retroflect fit application.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I'll just use myself as an example for this, because
as we've talked about the crawl space encapsulation, I'm convinced
that I would benefit from it. My older home, we
have a moisture barrier problem with some kind I have
issues with humidity throughout my house. The problem that I
have with where my cross space is is there's not
any real access to it. The only way to really
get to it is tear up my kitchen floor. There's
a tiny window that used to be the basement to
(17:14):
the window that leads to the cross space that if
you absolutely had to get in there for something you could,
but there's no way to do work. You know, you
have to take out the floor enable to be able
to do that. Have you ran into situations like that before?
Is that something that's relatively common.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yes, Yes, there's many times that the only fixes is
from above. Unfortunately. I mean we can you can do
sometimes you can get some plastics on a tight area
like that that will help. But yes, there are there
have been times where the floor comes up. One of
one of the first projects that we performed after purchasing
(17:47):
Foster was to remove a floor and replace the old
log cabin and we replace the all the rotten lumber
below and encapsulated the crass space.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
So I know that's something that I got to get
on my list. I don't have any rotting anything. I
don't think there have any issue with that, but I
know that I need to get that issue taken care of.
That's in my cross space and that's probably the best
way that I could get about it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Unfortunately, if you've got a kitchen above it, I mean
your two options are to wait until the kitchen needs
to be remodeled and handle it then, or create a
larger access point. And if it's shallow, then excavate soil
to create enough room to work. If it's a shallow
cross space.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, it's a pain.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
That's the reason I've really been kind of up against
it when it comes to that, because I know if
it was an easy, easier access, I would have already
have done it. It's just I know that we can
talk about the air. I'm sure the cost multiplier might
be something with when it comes to that type of thing. Sure, yeah, unfortunately,
but that most situations are a lot easier to address
and things that we can talk about this morning. We're
getting a few texts coming in now. We'll get to
those when we come back here in just a few moments.
(18:45):
You can get in on the conversation as well. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
zero four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight is
our number that you can give us a call one.
You can also text over any questions you have to
three zero four none, three five five zero zero eight.
Let me make sure that I get the contact information
out to you. Bret Hauschen is the owner of Foster
Foundation Repair. More information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot
com located here in Charleston their phone over three zero
(19:06):
four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can
call us this morning at three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight for the next twenty minutes,
or so three zero four, three four five fifty eight
fifty We'll take a break and be back after this.
You're listening to ask the excerpt with Foster Foundation Repair.
I'm del Coopro on WCHS, the Voice of Charleston.
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Speaker 4 (20:33):
Sixteen minutes, seventeen minutes till the top of the hour.
You're listening to Ask the Expert. Wchs the voice of
Charleston coming in with more happy music from our new
Ask the Expert music theme. I'm the one that put
it in, so I want to brag one. I kind
of like it.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I like it.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
We've had the same one for about ten years, so
it's nice to get a little bit different audio sonic
soundscaping here.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I'm not so mad about that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Breshawgson as our guest this morning. He's the owner of
Foster Foundation roof heare you can give us a call.
Threes are a fourth three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
Threes are a fourth three four five fifty eight is
a number you can call if you have any questions
for Brett this morning. You can also text over some questions.
Threes are a four none through five five zero zero eighth.
Threes are a four none three five five zero zero
eighth one question that we had during the break from
the three zero four non zero one. Are any types
(21:16):
of foundation or cross spased repairs covered by homeowners insurance?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I would say probably less it is covered than more.
I would maybe if you have flood insurance and it
was a flood damage, but more more often than I've
never been paid to fix a foundation by insurance company.
I'm sure there are situations where they are covered. Obviously,
(21:43):
a car runs into a foundation, it's going to be covered.
But typically a insurance policy does not cover maintenance construction,
which like a foundation drain. If you install a foundation drain,
it's proper installed, but it's sixty years old, that's a
maintenance item. Unfortunately, it's it's lived its life, so a
(22:07):
lot of the other you know, I've seen plenty of
engineer reports that go out and evaluate for an insurance claim,
and it's typically boils down to maintenance, improper construction, or
a lot of those policies are in a current or
on a current space, whether it was like a it
(22:28):
occurred rapidly or over a twenty year period. So more
often than not, a foundation repair is not covered under insurance.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yeah, with insurance like that, it's very often. If then
then this type situation like a tree falls and does something,
then you know that's something that you're interested in cover
something that erodes over time, sort of like the difference
between car insurance between service, between service and body work.
You know, like if if your starter goes bad after
twenty years, that's just that's just maintenance. You're not going
to be able to make an insurance claim on that.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
I wish it was.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
That would be a lot easier help the industry.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
And certainly when I was a kid, I thought all
that stuff was covered. Is like, what do you mean
my my my engineer's real built, rebuilt and it's not
covered by insurance.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Not not not the insurance's responsibility as far as that
stuff goes, that's for sure. We did have What was
the other question that we had on here? I thought
or did I already get to it? Unless the very
I got to that was the that was the insurance question.
I suppose Yeah, so when oh, I know, I wanted
to get to the second part of your the information
(23:28):
you gave me, because there's a there's many things that
could lead to the degradation of a cross space. Plumbing
leaks could be one of the problems that you have.
So that's something oftentimes in this case, would you have
to work in concert if it was a difficult enough situation,
work with a plumber in those situations.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Yeah, we're not a plumbing contractor. I mean, there are
little things that we have done over the years, but generally,
if it's a sewer leak, we're not touching it. We're
going to get a plumber in there to fix that.
Another very common one is a dry event, disconnected dryer event,
or just a dry event that discharges into a crawl space.
A unique situation that that was that that I've occurred
(24:09):
at the residence I own, and this was I purchased
an existing building, but and we actually encapsulated my crawl space.
But an interesting one that we had to address there
is there's a small section of the floor of my
dining room that extends into the garage but is above
the garage floor. So there's there's an air gap between there,
and the previous owners left the garage door open a lot,
(24:34):
and so there was constantly hot, humid air from outside
entering the crawl space through that air gap. And we
had some whole growth in the crawl space that we
had to deal with, But the heaviest, most dense growth
was in that area which is up against a garage
where there's heat and humidity entering near a porch there.
It was kind of back in this corner where there's
(24:56):
very very little ventilation. So there's a lot of different
things that can contribute to the to the water vapor.
But that that's a unique situation that we had to address.
It was just it was simple. I just sealed off
the sealed off that area from the side of the
garage with a piece of trim and some call to
air seal it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So it just takes a lot of times on these things.
It just takes an appraising odd to take a look at.
I mean, you can find walk through what the solutions
are going to be, but as far as all the
different types of things that can can happen in things
you need to make sure that you treat and stuff
like that. I mean, there's a lot of things that
can happen and and things that you may not always
think about a lot, like when the exterior of the
house when it comes to ventilation and stuff like that.
(25:36):
If you have improper like shrubbery or whatever that's growing,
if you've let something that grow over something, maybe you
decided to stack a wood pile next to your house
and it's and it's like next to the vent or something.
I mean, there's things that you can do completely without
thinking about it's the exterior of your home that could
that could affect some of this.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Yeah, I mean I've seen decks built where they put
the ledger board right over the vent and they drill
holes through the ledger bold word, thinking that's going to
let air move and it's just not. I mean, it's
it requires a vented crawl space requires a lot of
air movement to keep it dry. And one of the
issues with the evented crawl space is you're you're bringing
(26:14):
an atmospheric air into a crawl space, so there's no
amount of ventilation or dehumidification that's going to be to
day like this. When it's I mean it's foggy at
ground level, that means it's very very humid, right, so
it's very humid in a crawl space, that is in
a evented crawl space. Now that the idea behind that
(26:34):
is it heats up, it dries out, and then we
get some moist air. But you know, with that said,
another another very common thing to look for that that
someone can look for in a crawl space to see
if they have a moisture or a water vapor issue,
which is the probably the biggest concern I have is
is condensation either developing on the duct work during the
(26:56):
summer because you've got cold supply ducts in the cross
space which will allow condensation to occur, or in the
winter I kind of touched on briefly earlier, you might
have water droplets or frost around the perimeter of the
building in the winter. Those are definitely signs of water issues.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
And these are something Again, if it's something that you see,
the problem is there, So it's just a matter if
you should probably get it evaluated and find out what
you need to take. If it's a problem that you
didn't know that you had and suddenly you're noticing, if
that means there could be something going on and you're
proper you're not aware of it, and it might get worse.
It's always better when it comes to water to get
these things early rather than let major issues develop over time.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Yeah, you definitely don't want this to compound because it starts,
you know, if you've got these issues, it starts with
mold growth and then it turns into decay. Decay is
a function of the mold growth, and mold is actually
consuming the cellulose of the wood. So if you have rot,
you have mold. If you have mold, you're going to eventually,
(27:59):
if the conditions stay right for the growth to continue,
you will end up with the k at some point.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
And sometimes the solutions I mean you have to be
aware of all of the different options you can have.
I mean, the solution to liquid water, as you talked about,
is different from water vapor. That's different from other things
that you might run into. But you could get to
the point where you have to I mean, you have
to do all the little details first. You have to
make sure that you have proper drainage, that your gutters
are clean, and you do all the normal maintenance and
(28:27):
stuff like that. You have to make sure that setup
is correct and then start working on the infrastructure for it,
and there could be quite a bit depending on what's
going on with your house. You might have to redo
the draining system altogether or put in a better draining
system something like that. If you're having problems with water,
that's something you need to get evaluated for to see.
But it's not something you should just let go because
(28:47):
that's where real problems can come in.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, and we have different options to address the water,
the actual liquid water. Of course, we want to take
care of all the low hanging fruit outside by like
cleaning the gutters, extending the downspouts, trying to do surface
drainage issues, creating drainage swales, maybe installing French drains. Those
are things that will address that surface water. We then
(29:09):
have to those but those aren't guarantees that the water
won't enter the crawl space. Those are at that point
we have to do one of two things. We either
have to fix it from the outside with a proper
foundation waterproofing and drainage system, which does require excavation, or
going inside the crawl space and installing an engineer an
interior foundation drain which unfortunately in our industry is referred
(29:33):
to as waterproofing and it is not. It's a water
management system. It is not waterproofingu and it is not.
And I fight this battle every day. The industry is
pushing that the interior system is better. The interior system
is not better. Architectural drawings for large commercial buildings do
not put interior drains. Our engineers and architects do not
(29:55):
recommend interior drains on new construction in lieu of an
exterier foundation drain. But in our industry that's being pushed now.
There are benefits to both. An interior drain is cheaper,
so there is that benefit. Uh, it is less invasive,
so there are there are benefits. But to suggest that
it is a better performing system, like I hear oftentimes
(30:19):
being conveyed to me by potential clients who have had
other companies out there, it is not an exterior foundation
waterproofing system is the gold standard for a drainage around
the house. There's the reasons it's being pushed inside as
it can be done without equipment, and they can they
can push higher profit margins. Is to be honest with you,
(30:40):
and we we we do the interior drain system as well,
but we also uh, we give the client the option
of the outside drain and if that's you know, if
we go whatever direction the owner wants based on the situation,
sometimes an exterior drain can actually be cheaper than an
interior drain. If if that, if the excavation is.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Shallow, that's great information. As always been appreciate you tuning
in this morning to the show. Brett Hadsen is the
guest this morning from Foster Foundation Repair answering all your questions.
It has to do with foundations and basements. Waterproofing and
cross spaces are kind of our topic of the day
and we do have a text message from the three
zero four to three eight nine. I have a vented
cross space under my house and I have for some
(31:19):
reason close the vents during the winter months. Should I
be leaving vents open throughout the year?
Speaker 5 (31:24):
I would say it depends. Every situation is different. If
your floor is insulated, you should be able to leave
your crawl space events open. Now if you've got to.
If you have a supply line right next to event,
you do run the risk of that line freezing. But
generally a crawl space is going to stay fairly tempered.
(31:45):
It's not there's not going to be large swings in
the temperature because you have the the earth is kind
of maintaining that condition the temperature. But generally you want
to have ventilation in a crawl space if but you know,
some crawl spaces the environment is so dry it's irrelevant.
Sometimes you you need to keep that vent open. So unfortunately,
(32:09):
it's very dependent and typically somebody like myself can't give
you that answer even on one if I came out
and looked at it, I can't give you that one
day and one day analysis. A good way to do
to answer that question, varying expensively, is to invest in
a device that you can place in the crawl space
and it will It connects to an app on your phone.
(32:31):
It tells you what the the indoor environment is. I
have one in my crawl space. I use what it's
called a temp stick, and it's real time gives me
temperature and humidity readings really well.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
This is just like my meat thermometer that I use.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
It's so right now my crawl space. Over the last month,
in my crawl space, I can tell what the average
temperature in humidity was.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I can.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
I mean, it gives me hourly readings and it can
I don't look at it daily, but it is nice
to look at periodically. So that would be a good
way for you to kind of decide whether what your
if your actions are correct or not. Is to invest
in that. I think it was a maybe one hundred
and two hundred dollars. It was not a big investment.
There's not I don't believe I have a monthly a
(33:14):
reoccurring monthly fee. I think it was a one time fee.
So it's it's a and it's very it's very helpful.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So right now in Charleston at seventy four degrees, humidity
is ninety two percent outside what is a target temperature
for humidity that's in the livable range inside of.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
A house in the fifty fifty five sixty degrees not
degrees relative percent. Yeah, so I think I don't remember.
I think I have my my DEMITTI fire set at
fifty five in my crawl space percent relative humidity. So
that's that's generally the goal. What also the other things
(33:51):
you know, for from a mold growth standpoint, where we've
got to monitor the moisture content of the wood, we
want to keep that under really, we want to keep
it under like fifteen or right at fifteen. But at
twenty percent relative or moisture content in the wood is
when you'll start running the risk of mold growth. And
that's another thing we run against the in the industry
(34:13):
is everybody's runing around with these moisture meters that you
plug in the poke into the wood and it spits
out a number and that's shown to the client. Oh,
you've got fifteen percent relative humidity in your wood. That's
risk you're almost to twenty. Well, you don't want zero.
You can't have zero, so that you know, we've got
to be you got to be very careful. You don't
(34:34):
want your wood. You don't want things to be too
dry either, So there is a healthy balance. But fifteen
to fifty five is a good relative humidity for the
indoor air environment.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
And talking a little bit more about the water vapor
issues and some of the solutions to that. Really there's
all we've talked about the encapsulation and different things like that.
But after the encapsulation or are there hybrids of things
that you can do, like can you do like a
dehumidifiring or cross base with the encapsulation. Is there any
point in that or you just wasting electricity. Are there
any measures you can take if you can't do a
(35:05):
full encapsulation for something.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Like that, I mean definitely, if you can't do a
full encapsulation, a good quality vapor bearer that stretches wall
to wall, tight to the piers, you can overlap the joints.
That is a good start because there is a lot
of moisture that evaporates or comes out of the ground
as evaporation. Outside of that, there I mean a running
(35:29):
a dehuven, a fire and a crawl space just wide open.
I mean you're fighting atmosphere. Yah, that's what my mother
nature is going to win.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
And you mentioned mold a couple of times, and so
that that's something else, much like plumbing. If you have
a mold issue, that's something where you have to if
it needs remediated, that's something that you need to get
another company to help you with.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
In my opinion, yes, there are certifications, there are companies
that specialize this in mold mitigation. We don't do any
type of mold mitigation. We bring in a contractor a subcontractor,
or what we do is we just put the owner
in touch with right, you know, I don't I don't
need to hire a subcontractor and mark that price of it.
It's not I'm trying to help people out more than anything,
(36:07):
but yes, they need to make sure that they're they're
hiring somebody that has proper certifications. Going in there with
a bottle of bleach is not correct, right, Going in
there with hydrogen peroxide is not a permanent solution. So
there are companies that have gone through the process to
learn how to do this properly, know the safety steps
(36:30):
that will protect their employees as well as you as
an owner when when doing that work.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
That's great information as always as we get every time
that Bret's on the airwaves here, which is the second
to Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Of every month, right, No, I think that's right. Yeah, yeah,
today's okay, yeah, second Tuesday every month for the summer. Yeah,
for the summer. Anyway, right back to winds and then
then we'll move back. That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But you can tune into this program, you can see
all of our listen to all of our previous programs.
You can go to WHS network dot com, slash ate
as the Expert and you can find the information there
or slash podcast, so you can found all of our
podcast information there and let me get the information out
to you one more time. Brett Hodgton is the owner
of Foster Foundation Repair. The website is Foster Foundation Repair
dot com. Their phone number three zero four seven seven
(37:11):
six sixty two sixty three three zero four seven seven
six sixty two sixty three and their address is forty
two twenty six Woodrum Lane in Charleston. That's forty two
twenty six Woodroom Lane again, the phone number three zero
a four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Three
zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Brett,
thanks a lot for your time again today, a lot
of hugely useful information.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Yeah, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We'll see you back here in about a month. YEP.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
That'll do it with for us today. Thank you so
much for tuning in. Coming up next, Dave Allen will
be on board for five eighty Live, Dave Wilson and TJ.
After that on Talk On. Dave Allen will be back
with Amanda Baron from midday at noon, and then I'll
be back with Dave weekly this afternoon at three oh
six on Metro News Hotline. Have a great day of
Dave's right here on five Edwchs, the voice of Charleston,
(38:02):
w c h s A.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
N W two four three d r f M Charlestown,
W two and three a Q Cross Lanes, a w
v r C media station. We're proud to live here too,
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.